Shuhei Yoshida, the former head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios at PlayStation, thinks it's going to be tough for Japanese studios to keep up with the scale of development in China, which is powering rising hits like Genshin Impact all over the world. In part, that's because of "legal problems" that might prevent Japanese studios from hiring massive numbers of developers to work the same extensive hours they might at a studio like MiHoYo.

"The development speed in China is amazing," Yoshida tells 4Gamer, as translated by Automaton. "They're also quick at changing personnel, and all of the game development work itself unfolds rapidly."

Yoshida cites a conversation with representatives of MiHoYo, where "we discussed how it would be quite difficult for Japanese developers to make games in the same way miHoYo does. Not to mention the legal problems that would come with it." Yoshida is a bit vague on the exact nature of those problems, but it sounds like he's suggesting that more lax worker protections in China are helping studios like MiHoYo outpace studios in countries with stronger workplace protections for employees.

"I wonder if there are some aspects [of the development process] that Japanese game developers just can't replicate," Yoshida continues. "One reason why games in China are so strong is because they are made in an environment which allows for hiring a large number of personnel who can work long hours. Of course, you never know what might happen in the near future, but looking at the current state of things, I think that's the biggest factor."

The issue with trying to pick this sentiment apart is that working conditions in studios like MiHoYo are very poorly documented in the English-speaking world. Certainly, developers at Western studios have pushed back on the overtime demands that characterized the game industry for decades. As a consequence, however, some big publishers are outsourcing grunt work to studios in other countries where pay is lower and overtime is accepted – and occasionally, even more serious allegations of abuse have surfaced.

But an altogether rosier picture of MiHoYo has spread in the years since Genshin Impact became a global hit, with word of free PS5s and high-end graphics cards being distributed to employees as part of celebratory New Year events. How accurately those kinds of stories represent what it's like actually working at a studio like MiHoYo is a lot more difficult to unpack, but at least one thing is certain: this particular studio is outclassing many of its competitors, no matter where in the world they're located.

"Other Chinese developers and even Korean developers are releasing 'miHoYo-like games,'" Yoshida concludes, "but it feels like miHoYo is aiming to be one step ahead of them."

Genshin Impact dev seemingly ditching anime art to take on the MMO money pit with a new game called Genesis packing an open world, PvP, and a whole load of AI.

As part of the big reveal for Genshin Impact's Luna I, the gacha game's next big update landing on September 10, the devs at MiHoYo unveiled a new system that will let players boost their characters from the current level cap of 90 all the way up to 100. The catch is that the item that will let you reach the new cap is effectively exclusive to the game's whale-level spenders.

Currently, getting duplicate versions of Genshin Impact characters from gacha pulls will reward you with constellation level upgrades for them, up to a max of constellation level six – or C6, in the fandom's parlance. For the rarest, 5-star characters, you'll soon start to get an item called a Masterless Stella Fortuna for further duplicates after they've reached C6.

The issue, of course, is that even players who've been with Genshin Impact from the beginning probably don't have a single C6 5-star – unless they've been dumping serious money into the game. You need two Masterless Stella Fortunas to reach the new cap – one for level 95 and one for level 100 – and the odds of pulling a single 5-star character enough times to reach C6, never mind twice more for the relevant items, are downright astronomical. Unless you're willing to spend big, that is.

"It's not just paywalled, IT'S WHALEWALLED!" as one Reddit comment puts it, and that pretty much sums up the tone of the community's response to the new system. While you can use a Masterless Stella Fortuna to increase the cap of any level 90 character, you can only get the item from collecting a ridiculous number of 5-star duplicates.

Genshin Impact has historically shied away from balancing endgame content around heavy paywalls – though, admittedly, any gacha system is inherently at least a little pay-to-win – but there's a lingering fear that some new content might be balanced around the level 100 content, effectively locking all but the biggest whales out of some parts of the endgame. There's not yet any indication that this will happen, but the idea that it might is already causing concern.

Rather bizarrely, the reveal of the Masterless Stella Fortuna system came alongside a rather self-aggrandizing sense of generosity from MiHoYo. During the Special Program revealing Luna I, the devs confirmed that Masterless Stella Fortuna drops would appear for players who've already gotten the requisite number of 5-star duplicates, even if those dupes dropped way back in the game's olden days.

In an apparently scripted chat between devs in the program, head of marketing Michael asks incredulously, "This Masterless Stella Fortuna tracking all the pulls from launch… are you sure these decisions won't cause any problems?"

"Let's put it this way," combat designer Aquaria responds. "I often hear this saying, and I bet you and the Travelers watching have heard it too: 'Genshin Impact doesn't want to make money,' right? Well, it's not entirely true. Players who've been traveling with us this long know, over the years, Genshin Impact's production costs have gone way beyond what you'd expect in a typical game. Genshin Impact's value and what it brings to the table are far more embodied in its IP and gameplay, the characters, the stories, and the fun itself."

Here, Aquaria introduces a new event called To Temper Thyself and Journey Far, which will rotate seasonally and let you get a single free Stella Fortuna for a limited selection of 5-star characters, including many exclusives, if you complete eight weekly training goals.

"L-Let me get this straight," Michael once again asks, with disbelief written right in the program's official subtitles. "This year, not only are we giving away a standard 5-star character, if the player's up for it, they can also claim four exclusive 5-star characters? You might have denied it earlier, but your 'Genshin Impact doesn't wanna make money' rep is going to stick!"

"Well... Genshin Impact isn't exactly a conventional video game," Aquaria responds. "A lot of our decisions honestly carry a splash of idealism. Instead of a product with astronomical revenue, we would rather make something that leaves a mark on our players, on these times, and maybe even in history. And with that goal, there's always going to be a very real and materialistic side to it, but also the idealistic side that's carried us this far. Some people criticize the material parts, and some praise the ideal, but for everyone on the dev team, either or, and all aspects of what we do are what makes Genshin Impact."

The optics of MiHoYo playing up its own "idealism" and generosity don't exactly look great coming immediately after the reveal of a major new feature seemingly built exclusively for whales. I'm not sure any gacha game can claim to equally balance idealism and materialism, but Genshin Impact is doing itself no favors by acting like its monetization is some grand moral victory.

If you're looking for Genshin Impact codes, we've got you covered.

MiHoYo, the mastermind company behind gacha gems like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, is back in the limelight with a brand-new game: a Pokemon-style creature collector.

Honkai: Nexus Anima is the name the developers have given to their new "creature-collector adventure strategy game," as it's described online. Although its reveal feels like it popped up out of the blue with a video post showcasing in-game footage, it's admittedly adorable – a cute entry in the ever-popular genre housing icons like Nintendo's beloved Pokemon series and, more recently, Pocketpair's own survival mashup Palworld.

The devs behind Honkai: Nexus Anima clarify that it's " under development, and subject to change," following up on their clip of in-game footage with a teaser trailer showing some of its creatures off. The visuals are vibrant and colorful, reminiscent of MiHoYo's past gacha titles and more modern Pokemon entries, with various little collectable beasties on display. From feline critters to purple jelly-esque beings, it seems there'll be plenty to catch.

Some of my personal favorites so far include a pudding-like puppy that reminds me of legend Pompompurin – a reference the Sanrio girlies will get – and a sweet bunny with sprinkles on top… who apparently totes around "tainted donuts." Tainted with what, I'm not sure, but that's part of the appeal, I suppose. While I personally can't wait to find out for myself and play the new creature collector, there's sadly no release date or window just yet.

There are, however, play tests underway – and fellow interested fans can now register their interest in participating via the official Honkai: Nexus Anima website. It ultimately comes down to luck, as is the case with all things gacha, with developers' early player selections rolling out when recruitment wraps up on September 12. That doesn't leave much time to sign up and give it a try – please note that only PC and mobile users will be considered for now.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and register my interest stat so that all my boxing egg and cow-themed milk cartoon catching dreams might come true.

While you're here, have a browse through some of the other most exciting new games coming this year and beyond to keep an eye on.

The next time you find yourself struggling to obtain a rare item in a video game, abandoned by lady luck and and dismayed by drop rates, ask yourself this question: has somebody ever made a 60-hour video chronicling your suffering at the hands of RNG? If not, take comfort in the fact that you are at least doing better than Zy0x, a Genshin Impact content creator whose legendarily awful luck has been immortalized in a YouTube video that would take you two and a half days to watch without rest.

First of all, I didn't know you could make 60-hour YouTube videos. As my boss Rollin Bishop reckoned, surely "some physical law has been crossed" here. Secondly, do not watch this video without rest. There are some things for which the human mind just is not equipped.

Zy0x is one of the biggest content creators in the Western Genshin space, and his devotion to Xiao, a character released years ago in update 1.3 (the game is now in 5.5), has become such a widely known meme in the English-speaking community, it's rare for me to see a Xiao-related post or trailer without seeing Zy0x mentioned (or, indeed, posting) in the replies.

Improving his Xiao was the whole point of Zy0x's ill-fated grind, and that grind has ended with a conclusion that no fiction could hope to match.

The 30-feature-film-length video about Zy0x is nothing short of testament. It's testament to the cruel and unflinching RNG of Genshin Impact's main grind, artifact itemization, which uses everything short of bear traps to stall your progress.

It's testament to the dedication of whoever runs the Zy0x Archives channel, who collected dozens of streams going back to October 2022 to assemble this melancholy marathon.

And, undeniably, it's testament to Zy0x's dedication to Xiao.

But the real tragedy of this video isn't so obvious. It's about Zy0x's years-long grind to get good artifacts on Xiao's signature artifact set, Vermillion Hereafter, long regarded as the character's best-in-slot option, which is only found in a domain that drops terribly inflexible artifacts rightly avoided by most players.

But this video has only been released now because Vermillion Hereafter was recently outclassed by a new artifact set, Long Night's Oath, released in update 5.5 as the signature set for new character Varesa.

As Genshin theorycrafter Zajef77 found, this new artifact set is mathematically better for Xiao. The kicker is that it was released mere weeks after Zy0x finally obtained the keystone piece – a good Anemo-type goblet – that his Vermillion Xiao build had been missing.

(I say that, but this video plainly shows he had a good build long ago, just not good enough to satisfy whatever impulse demanded his grind.)

The fact that Varesa, the character this set was actually designed for, is generally stronger than Xiao – who has held up reasonably well for such an old character – just puts the boot in.

To sum all of this up: one Genshin Impact player spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours over the course of several years farming extremely limited-use gear specifically to upgrade one character, only for a better gear set to arrive mere weeks after it finally appeared that his watch had ended, and that interminable grind has now been preserved in a 60-hour video which, in any sane universe, will serve as a lighthouse to warn other players to avoid this.

Also: a pink cowgirl dunked on Xiao in the same update.

Condensing a dramatic Twitter thread that has over a million views according to the app's analytics, Zy0x said it best in the top comment on this video: "What am I doing with my life".

Here are 10 games like Genshin Impact to play next in 2025.

Zenless Zone Zero, the next free-to-play game from the Genshin Impact and Hokai: Star Rail studio, is preparing for a new beta test.

Developer and publisher HoYoverse announced that another public beta test is on the way for its upcoming action RPG. Interested players over age 16 can apply now for a chance to gain access. Inviting friends to pre-register using a personalized link and completing "missions each day" will give you extra tickets for a better chance to enter the test.

To attract as many people as possible, HoYoverse is also giving away bonus goodies on the sign-up website, including the above test qualification tickets, a phone stand, and a PS5 Digital Edition. Giveaways are part of the daily prize draw, and every five friends you invite will boost your chances of a win. 

Back to the game, Zenless Zone Zero also debuted a new clip showing off some sweet-looking combat highlights, other gacha shenanigans, and a horde of robotic friends dressed as rabbits called Bangboos (which I'm sure won't be merchandised to hell and back.)

Zenless Zone Zero's previous beta test ran into some slight controversy as players moaned about the nerfed jiggle-physics on certain animations. Gamesradar's Austin Wood also walked away from the playtest with more sensible complaints in his Zenless Zone Zero preview, calling it an "action roguelike with no action" that leaves the game "dead on arrival."

We won't know for sure until Zenless Zone Zero actually does arrive sometime later this year on mobile, PC, and PS5 as a free-to-play release. 

Check out our full new games of 2024 guide to see every heavy hitter on the way this year.

Genshin Impact and Assassin's Creed developers will begin using Nvidia's brand-new AI-powered technology for NPCs, but Nvidia won't say what the new tech was trained on.

Yesterday during CES 2024, Nvidia unveiled brand new AI tech pledging better NPCs for games and "endless possibilities for developers." The NPCs created with the tech will allegedly have "revolutionary conversational, perceptual, and action generation capabilities."

Now, Digital Trends has reported that both HoYoverse and Ubisoft will begin using Nvidia's new technology in their game development. Both companies are among the first in the world to sign up to use Nvidia's tech, with the speed of those partnerships implying that these agreements were made behind the scenes before yesterday's announcement.  

However, it's unclear how Nvidia's tech is being trained. When Digital Trends asked the company how it was training the tech to write and voice characters, Nvidia said there was "no simple answer." Nvidia reportedly said that different individual tools within the tech are being trained using different data sets.

Whatever these different data sets are, Nvidia isn't revealing them right now. As Digital Trends points out, there'll be concern among voice actors, for example, that the AI tech is being trained using voiceover from actors that haven't given their explicit permission for their voices to be used in such a way.

When Microsoft revealed its own version of AI tech for writing and voicing characters last year, actors loudly spoke out against the new technology. "If you want to start a voice-acting career, don't bother," one actor wrote at the time, while another added, "this will make it even harder for new talent to break into video games."

You can read up on our new games 2024 guide for a look ahead at all the major releases set to come this year. 

Zenless Zone Zero, the upcoming gacha game from Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail developers, has nerfed the gore and suggestive animations in its new beta - a decision that’s stirred some fans in the community. 

Zenless Zone Zero is the kind of gacha game that you’d expect from developer Hoyoverse, this time in an urban fantasy setting, and its second closed beta kicked off earlier today, November 24. The test gives players another early preview on PC and mobile, but the biggest discussion point so far centers on what’s changed since the last beta. 

One shockingly controversial change comes from the game’s slightly less suggestive character animations. On Twitter, one player posted side-by-side clips showing how Nicole’s menu animations had been adjusted between betas. The camera no longer looks up at Nicole and the ‘jiggle’ physics are less pronounced than they once were. 

Characters Soldier 11 and Nekomata also saw some design changes, covering up a spare inch or two with extended shorts/lengthened tights. Again, the changes aren't dramatic, but some players were left irked anyway. 

Those relatively minor changes left some players in shambles, with several Reddit posts criticizing the alleged censorship. ”Whose bright idea was it to change one of the major selling points?” reads one comment. “Why can’t we have nice things?” asks another Redditor. 

The other (more understandable) criticism stems from changes made to the game’s kind-of-violent imagery. “Nicole’s tiddies aren’t the only thing that got censored,” reads one Reddit post that compares a cutscene from the first and second betas. Both screenshots show a character being ripped and twisted by a Black Hole-esque effect. The first beta’s depiction goes into slightly more detail, however, as you can see the character’s jaw come apart, while the second beta leaves out some graphic details.

Nicole’s tiddies aren’t the only thing that got censored from r/ZZZ_Official

Many players focused on Zenless Zone Zero’s 16+ age rating which promised a more mature gacha experience compared to Genshin Impact’s 12+. “The first [screenshot] looked so much cooler and if they were going to censor it, why did they even put the rating?” one player said on the subreddit.

Zenless Zone Zero initially received tons of attention thanks to its faster-paced combat, roguelike progression, unique setting, and, of course, those now-nerfed jiggle physics that were actually significantly dialed up from Genshin Impact’s. We’ll just need to wait until the full release sometime next year before the blood and boobs are set in stone, though. 

Check out the games like Genshin Impact to play when you’re done with Hoyoverse’s multiple universes. 

What's better than one wildly popular free-to-play live service game on PS5 (loaded with the opportunity to microspend your way to goodies)? Two, of course. Enter Honkai: Star Rail, a new space-faring RPG from the studio behind Genshin Impact. 

The Honkai: Star Rail PS5 release ensures that the platform has a gorgeous turn-based RPG with inventive tactical combat readily available. And while some may turn-away from the free-to-play structure, this is an adventure with a vibrant cast of characters and a meaty story that's both dramatic and genuinely funny.  Like Genshin Impact before it, Honkai: Star Rail really is a very good game – just so long as you're okay with the gacha of it all. 

Capsule Corps

Before we get into why Honkai: Star Rail is one of the best free PS5 games, it's worth reiterating how such a large adventure can be accessed without cost. Like Genshin Impact, Honkai is a free-to–play gacha game with microtransactions. Named after the Japanese capsule toys, 'Gacha' is a genre where characters are randomly earned through banner 'pulls' bought with in-game tickets – which you can of course buy with real-world money, alongside other bonuses. It's incredibly popular in mobile gaming (from rival RPGs like Fate/Grand Order to dating adventures, like the also-HoYoverse published Tears Of Themis), with far fewer options available on home consoles like this.

While Honkai: Star Rail game is one of the most generous in the genre I've played (and I have played way too many), and attempts are made to encourage you to spend responsibly (thus abdicating a degree of responsibility on the studio's part), the long and short of it is that many may still feel compelled to spend more than they should. Some of you may simply be unable to risk playing the game because of this, or worse, be unable to resist the temptation – Honkai is a genuinely good game, but if you struggle with gambling addiction you may want to approach with caution. 

Inter-Stella

The story kicks off by putting you in the fashionable footwear of the morally grey antagonists, the Stellaron Hunters. Katana, submachine gun, and brolly enthusiast Kafka takes the lead as she orchestrates (quite literally in fact, miming a violin to a rising crescendo as her plan comes together) an assault on Herta Space Station. There's a Stellaron on board, a kind of aetherial corruption that fragments the universe around it, not just ruining worlds but attracting the monstrous Antimatter Legion, through which Kafka and co. are able to enter undetected – and this is just the tutorial.

Yet, with their hands on the Stellaron, she doesn't abscond with it, instead sealing it within you, the player, and then peacing out. Able to choose from a male or female form, you're The Trailblazer (naturally amnesiac thanks to the seed of destruction housed inside your body). Found alone and confused, you're taken in by the Hunters' rivals, the Trailblazers of the Astral Express, a group of disparate but big-hearted misfits who travel between planets on a space train in order to save the day from Stellaron disasters. The conductor is a bunny named Pom-Pom. He is very cute.

It's an exciting opening that sets all the pieces in motion for a fantastic live-service premise, seeing you join a Star Trek-esque crew on a cosmic locomotive, visiting new planets and cultures, meeting new friends and enjoying strange adventures, all while fighting twisted doomsday creatures and butting heads with a rival crew.

Another Dimension

Each trip is far from a quick foray, though. This PS5 launch enjoys update parity with all other platforms (including instant cross-save, as your data is stored online), which means you've three complete main storylines across three locations to enjoy from the off. Each is a meaty adventure that'll take several hours to play through, alongside plenty of side quests, bonus challenges, and mini-stories for most of the potentially-playable characters you meet along the way.

Again, a little like Star Trek, the cultures you visit vary wildly, with the Stellaron affecting them in different ways. Once you've secured the space station, your first major story arc takes you to Jarilo-VI, where the Stellaron has caused a near-apocalyptic ice age. Here, you have to keep things on the down-low as you navigate conflict between the single remaining city's upper and lower districts, as space travel is currently no more than a fantasy to either strata. Meanwhile, The Xianzhou Luofu is a series of massive spaceships constantly flying through space and home to near-immortal beings who are much more engaged in the politics of the cosmos.

Unlike Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail is not an open world game; instead each area is a labyrinthine criss-cross of corridors. But the environments still look superb, showcasing different styles of sci-fi aesthetics. The Luofu is especially captivating, a kind of futuristic evolution of traditional Chinese styles that the devs call 'silkpunk', with huge laser-powered machines for divining the future and jet-powered skiffs for zipping between the huge spaceships.

There's plenty of reason to look around beyond basking in the surroundings. Non-hostile areas are filled with sharp writing when you talk to NPCs or even inspect seemingly mundane objects. The latter embraces surreal humor, with one instance seeing your character becoming obsessed with bins the more you click on them before being unable to help but go full raccoon (eventually rewarding you with a special trash profile picture).

In combat areas littered with patrolling enemies, there's plenty to be found off the beaten path, including respawning destructibles that house loot, and a variety of short-but-sweet puzzles specific to each area that dish out even better rewards. The Luofu, for instance, has you guiding cargo skiffs into harbor for goodies, while other times just getting to treasure chests is a navigation puzzle in its own right. These are engaging spaces to unravel.

Fight For Your Right

The turn-based battles  are at the heart of Honkai: Star Rail, and you'll be doing a lot of them. Building a strategy begins before even drawing your oversized anime blades, bows, or mahjong pieces as you assemble a four-person party that works well together. Each hero has both an element and a path (which is, essentially, a class), plus their own unique skills, talents, and abilities beyond just their basic attacks. Do you go in all guns blazing, or work in more buffs, debuffs, or healing? The bigger fights require more than just wailing on enemies until their health bars deplete.

Fights are slick, carrying a sense of momentum similar to Shin Megami Tensei or Persona. Each enemy has a shield that can be chipped away when hit by one of the elements they're weak to, eventually staggering them. Using basic attacks builds up skill points up to a five-point max, which can be spent to use a skill instead of a basic attack, meaning you're always building up to something. 

These can vary from large area-of-effect attacks, devastating single-attack strikes, damage mitigating shields, and more. Meanwhile, each party member has an ultimate metre that fills when dishing out or taking damage, which can then be held onto to interrupt the flow of combat at any time. If that's not enough, separate talent points can be spent before even entering combat to give you an edge, like freezing some foes on the first turn if they're weak to ice.

From that solid foundation characters' individual quirks add further layers of tactical complications, always with a view to showing you how you can bend the rules of play just a little to get more out of your party. Starting freebie character March 7th's shields can be really helpful, and these can be buffed, as can the counter-attacks she'll dish out when those shielded characters are attacked. Or later recruit Seele, for instance, can gain an extra attack when downing an enemy, meaning canny targeting can stretch out her consecutive strikes. With a playstyle in mind for a hero, that'll inform the kind of gear you equip or hunt down.

Squad Goals

The fighters you'll get on-side are partially randomized thanks to the gacha 'Warp' system that has you pulling possible characters and weapon-like 'lightcones' often in groups of ten. On a purely mechanical level, it's kind of neat that you'll start off making the best of what you get, giving you a slightly different journey to that of your friends, but it does mean you'll constantly be wondering about what you could pull off if you actually had such-and-such a character. 

Handily, some parts of the game see you taking on challenges locked behind an energy meter (a common mechanic in many mobile games – but never used to gate the main story here), allowing you to call in support characters from other players, meaning you can still use friendly faces you don't already have in a very limited way. The free characters are pretty good too, seeing a straightforward healer join your party from quite early on.

The result is some of the best RPG combat I've played in years. Fights are snappy, and fluid, with a tactical layer that's easy to grasp while also offering more depth than you might expect. Being turn-based does mean things can get a bit tougher than Genshin Impact (where a skilled player can dodge through most attacks even when underleveled), meaning you may hit more points where you need to grind out experience or build up other characters who better suit the weaknesses of a specific area – leaving you yearning for specific characters all the more. It can end up a bit repetitive as a result too, as battling really is where you'll be spending the bulk of your actual playtime.

Into the Sunset

But you'll want to press on with the main story. Honkai: Star Rail takes some big swings, and even this early on with the game (the story has been ongoing for about six months by the time it lands on PS5) it's unafraid to actually have characters grow and change. It helps that (as is the case in most gacha games) the party you use in battle is abstracted from the Astral Express crew having the adventure in cutscenes, meaning you can still keep playing as heroes who might not be quite as they are in the current canon of your adventure. Liked a character more before, say, a dramatic haircut? Don't worry, they're still here as you remember them in your party.

New limited events are constant with impressively detailed storylines of their own and unique mechanics, as well as permanent side-modes being added frequently too. They range from a cozy museum management sim on Jarilo-VI to an in-depth roguelike mode on Herta Space Station that offers continually refreshing, juicy rewards. Called the Simulated Universe, it has you working through randomized slices of dungeon with a limited pool of characters, earning special buffs only available in this mode along the way.

When I say Honkai: Star Rail feels generous, I really mean it. It'd almost be hard to believe this was a free game if the appeal in spending money wasn't so obvious. What's here isn't just high quality for a free-to-play game, but high-quality for any RPG full-stop. But what really cements it as a great live service game is how you can see the space train tracks ready and waiting to neatly slot yet more sparkling lines throughout the stars – new additions to the character pool only make strategies more interesting to play with; and the potential for new adventures over the next horizon on completely new planets with fresh cultures remains tantalizing. We really are boldly going where no anime gacha hero has gone before.

Honkai: Star Rail was reviewed on PS5, with access provided by the publisher.

Genshin Impact has always drawn comparisons with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and now a developer has finally acknowledged said comparisons. 

At Genshin Impact FES 2023 in Shanghai, China last week, miHoYo Studio head Liu Wei gave a small keynote speech about the history of developing Genshin Impact, as first reported by ComicBookResources. It seems miHoYo received some negative feedback towards Genshin Impact while it was in the closed beta stage, with some testers alleging it had copied Breath of the Wild.

Wei never specifically mentions Breath of the Wild in his speech, but this beta test would've been around the same time Genshin Impact was first revealed in 2019. At the time, there were many who noted the similarities in art style and climbing mechanics to Breath of the Wild, which at that point would've released just over two years in 2017. Take a look below for an example of how unhinged things got.

Wei reveals these allegations took a bit of a toll on developers at miHoYo. Many at the studio were left wondering what they had done wrong, and where all the anger from people around the world was coming from. Others, though, saw it as a challenge, to make Genshin Impact as good as it possibly could be to denounce the allegations. 

Genshin Impact would launch little over a year later in 2020, and in the years since has cultivated a huge following around the world with a steady stream of new areas to explore, characters to meet, and stories to unfold. Genshin Impact 4.0 is due to launch later this week on August 16, taking us to the new lands of the heroic Fontaine.

Hoyoverse also acknowledged the Breath of the Wild comparisons after the game's launch. In a 2020 interview, a representative for the studio told GamesRadar+:

"The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the most popular and respected titles in the industry, and one which our staff hold in high regard. In a post that our team circulated to players last year, we mentioned that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was one of our inspirations for creating Genshin Impact as an open-world action RPG. We will be the first to admit that there is a great gap between Genshin Impact and established titles like BOTW – this motivates us to keep improving Genshin Impact and to work towards closing that gap."

Check out our Genshin Impact codes guide for an up-to-date list of all the current codes to redeeming freebies from miHoYo.

Update - July 14: Genshin Impact developer Hoyoverse responded to a request for comment and affirmed that it supports the voice actors seeking proper payment from recording studio Formosa, which the company says it has properly paid for its services.  

Here's the full statement send to GamesRadar+:

“We truly regret to learn about the ongoing situation. Genshin Impact values and respects the work and effort of everyone involved, and we support our voice actors to claim their proper due. We have made payments to our recording studio on time, and we have immediately urged the studio to pay our voice actors. Meanwhile, we are also seeking alternative solutions. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.”

Original story follows... 

Multiple Genshin Impact voice actors, including the voice of Paimon, the face of the game, claim they have not been paid for their work in months. 

Corina Boettger, the voice of Paimon, alleged months of missing payment in a recent tweet which does not name the project in question, though their comments elsewhere leave no room for doubt. "I am owed thousands of dollars," they write. "I am struggling currently to pay rent because of this. This project has made billions. This project should be union."

"This wouldn't happen if the game was union," they added in a reply. "Tell them to make the game SAG," Boettger said, referring to SAG-AFTRA, which represents many people in the entertainment industry across several fields and disciplines. 

Due to these issues, Boettger says they have now missed two days of planned recordings. 

Boettger specified that "we don't know if this is the fault of the studio or the game company," distinguishing between Hoyoverse itself and the studio used for the middleman on VO. Supporting Genshin Impact voice actor Brandon Winckler was more specific in his allegations, which skewer VO studio Formosa in particular. 

"After a fifth email with no response," a thread from Winckler begins, "this is regarding Genshin Impact. Inexcusable for us as actors to be waiting 4+ months for pay when you make $86 million per month. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon problem."

"Many non-union productions have this problem, I've waited anywhere from 4-8 months for payment, and even then, it isn't much to ask," he continues. "1,000 here, 500 there, and it adds up fast."

"With all that said, I personally won't be working on this game anymore unless it goes under a Union contract," Winckler adds, echoing Boettger's call for union representation. 

In a separate post, Winckler said he has "asked and emailed and called and everything else that is in my power as an actor to do with Formosa - and received little/no response." 

Another user pointed out that Formosa is not the only studio that Hoyoverse uses for English VO in its games, citing Honkai Star Rail's usage of studio Rocket Sound. Winckler, who has also voiced in Star Rail, said he "loves" Rocket Sound, again putting Formosa in the hot seat. 

Boettger says they're aware of Winckler's allegations, and clarified that "we are not the only ones." The complaints have been picked up by other voice actors as well. Kyle McCarley, who also weighed in on the discussion over Skyrim mods using deepfakes of voice actors in NSFW projects, noted that Formosa handles both union and non-union projects. Boettger likewise pointed out that Formosa "has several union games it works on." 

"This game has been eroding VO industry standards since it started recording," McCarley says. "The cast had to fight for over a year just to get a [two-hour minimum]. Now this? Whole cast should follow Brandon's lead here." 

The Genshin Impact community has rallied around these voice actors as well. "That’s absolutely crazy to see happen. What on Earth would possess the studio to not pay the person that is in there the most recording so much," writes one user. Another agrees "this is messed up ... Paimon has more dialogue than anybody in the game and to not pay them is wrong." 

I've reached out to the affected actors, Hoyoverse, and Formosa for comment on the situation. 

Genshin Impact recently revealed the Fontaine characters that will make its next billion dollars along with their voice actors.   

In January 2021, I wrote about what 100 days and $60 got me in Genshin Impact, with the gist being: a lot of fun. January 2021 me had no idea what he was getting into. As of June 27, 2023, I've been playing Genshin Impact for 1,000 days and have sunk $500 into it. And after all this time, Genshin Impact is not only my favorite open-world game, it's the comfort game I can't imagine leaving.

At this headline-friendly milestone, I thought it'd be fun to examine why I'm still spending so much time – and a little money each month – on Genshin Impact. I still recommend the game to everyone and their dog, after all, so I suppose I should explain why. Think of this as a not-quite-review ahead of the game's long-awaited 4.0 update, which will add the Fontaine region and no-doubt pull me even deeper judging from its many fashionable characters. 

1,000 days in Teyvat  

When I say I've played Genshin Impact for 1,000 days, I don't mean it's been 1,000 days since I made my account. I could count on my hands how many days I haven't played Genshin Impact since I started, and my play time must be north of 2,000 hours at this point. I play this game every day. More often than not, I only play for 15 minutes or so to knock out daily objectives. But when there's new content, whether that's events or quests or characters, or especially new regions, I'll hungrily play for hours at a time. 

This rhythm is one of the main reasons I've stuck with Genshin. I love getting sucked into big updates, but the breezy daily routine is cathartic for me the way life sims are for many people. It's a little bite of progression every evening after I get off work. Do my dailies, get some resources, get out, and then move onto whatever game currently holds my attention more. After Genshin, I'll currently run through a similar routine in Honkai Star Rail, the new turn-based game from the same developer, Hoyoverse, and then jump back into The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – a quantifiably better open-world game than Genshin, but one that I'm less attached to.  

Genshin is a freewheeling and snacky experience for me, which might sound odd since it's openly built around FOMO. Better log in so I don't waste my time-limited Resin! Better finish this event before it's over! Only got three weeks to pull this character! I can only farm this resource three days a week! And so on. Hoyoverse is constantly throwing perishables at me, but at this point I just kind of do what I want, which is how games should be. Never let arbitrary timelines or artificial scarcity ruin your joy of play. 

You know what? I'll blast through that event on the last day. I already have all the characters I like. I'll explore that new area when I'm in the mood. And I've got so many resources saved up that I can snap my fingers and instantly max out anyone or anything. I've played this game for 1,000 days. I'm a big-ol' dragon on a pile of hoarded treasure; I don't give a shit about FOMO.

Seeing progress accumulate is also a big part of the fun for me. I've compared Genshin to gardening before, and I stand by that. Instead of plants, I'm raising dozens of little anime lovelies. Look how big and strong they've gotten after a few months or indeed years of tender love and care. I look at the stat sheets on my Yae Miko and Raiden Shogun the way my parents would look at the grandkids I'll never give them. My little babies, off to destroy people. 

It's immensely satisfying to take characters who I like for their role in a story and make them stronger as playable units. I'll readily admit that I spend some time in spreadsheets calculating how to optimize them. That, too, is part of the fun. I've enjoyed arithmetic since I was five, and Genshin Impact is a treasure trove of numbers to crunch – only if you want it to be, because the game is easy enough that you can breeze through it with even a passing understanding of how things work. 

Not 'great for a free game,' but just plain great  

My experience with Genshin Impact is different from the average person's because I'm an endgame player. Hell, I'm way past the endgame. I'm a heat death of the universe player. But you don't need to approach Genshin Impact this way. It's a gacha game, but from the get-go, it's also an immense and well-designed open-world experience. And it's free, so without risk, you can have a great time just playing through the story, exploring the enormous world, and calling it quits when you run out of new stuff, as you would any game. Stick around if you like gardening like me, or come back when there's more new stuff. Or be done! 

I envy people who get to play Genshin Impact for the first time today. It has gotten so much better since its release, and it was good to begin with. Its core strengths have been greatly reinforced – gorgeous characters and environments, punchy combat with an inventive elemental system, and some of the finest music in the industry. The world has grown staggeringly large and diverse, to the point that it's probably one of the biggest games to explore, and Fontaine is just around the corner. Genshin can still be a bit obvious in its level design, but the world is nevertheless a treat to wander through. And there are so many other means of play now, from an Animal Crossing-lite housing sim to an honest-to-god card game. 

Genshin has come into its own over the years, especially in its storytelling. The opening fables of Mondstadt and Liyue look positively quaint alongside the drama of Sumeru, a newer region of lush forests and perhaps one too many deserts. The background plot about your main character finding their estranged sibling remains an afterthought – really just an excuse to go on vacation and meet sexy people – but the world's filled with memorable stories about interesting places and the people who live there. Despite its cheery appearance, Genshin is often a tragic game about unenviable figures, and the Deep Lore, should you choose to seek it out, is downright harrowing. 

With 68 playable characters, Genshin has a lot to wrangle, but it manages its enormous cast well. It has turned me into that insufferable person who has a million 'favorites.' Nahida, Collei, Dehya, Shenhe, Beidou, Zhongli, Kaeya, Yae Miko – see what I mean? Oh but just one more: Jeht, a desert girl who didn't need to be playable to steal the show. Every region feels like its own little JRPG cast, and it's a unique delight, owing to the structure of the game, to see old friends turn up in new, far-flung adventures. 

At the same time, the sheer size of the roster and world makes it impossible for me to imagine what it must be like to start Genshin Impact today. I'd wager it's both overwhelming and limiting. Some people rightly gripe about pulling characters they can't level because they haven't unlocked the region home to their required resources, but that's at least a problem solved by Playing The Video Game. The world is big and beautiful; go be in it.

But again, so much of my enjoyment comes from playing and building multiple characters, and with this being a gacha game, there's not really a fast way to get a bunch of characters without spending inadvisable amounts of money. This shows the design limits and weaknesses of gacha. It's made Genshin billions, but undeniably at the detriment of the potential experience. 

There are new-player bonuses that speed things up, but I think Genshin would benefit immensely from some kind of one-time freebie that lets you unlock any five-star character of your choice, or at least anyone who's had a rerun banner. Units like Yelan and Kazuha bring so much to gameplay, and it would be incredibly powerful for new players to have the ability to see a character they like, and then immediately start the game and play that one character. It would be fun! But it wouldn't be profitable, and now we're getting to the $500. 

Gacha sucks, but Genshin does not  

Genshin Impact was my first gacha game, but I knew the genre by its reputation for nickel-and-diming players through exploitative RNG monetization that preys on gambling impulses and fundamentally warps how you view spending. Thank goodness we don't have to deal with that kind of nonsense in any other games. 

After spending $500 on Genshin, I can confidently say that it and all gacha games deserve that reputation. It is an inherently and irrevocably predatory system that should be treated as a physical hazard. I would like nothing more than for Genshin to be a full-price, microtransaction-free game where the gacha uses in-game resources. But like some popular hazardous substances, you can enjoy gacha games, including Genshin, responsibly and healthily in moderation. 

I'm sure a lot of people would balk at the thought of blowing $500 on one game, and I don't blame them. But hear me out: that's $15 a month spread across 1,000 days. That's exactly the spending limit I set for myself, and it's also the average monthly price of an MMO subscription. It's also far, far less than what I've spent on, say, books in the past 1,000 days. 

I have unquestionably spent a lot of money on Genshin, but it is simultaneously a cheap hobby for me. My spending has only decreased since I no longer buy battle passes. They give resources I just don't need anymore, so now I only spend $5 a month on Genshin through the Welkin login pass that gives you more Primogems for pulling new characters. By the way, if you were to buy one thing, buy the Welkin. It's the best value by some distance. That said, I can't say this loud enough: you do not have to spend a dime to have a lot of fun with Genshin Impact. 

I said in January 2021 that I'd just stick to Genshin's Welkin and battle passes because I don't like buying digital currency – in this case, crystals to convert to Primogems to then spend on characters. "Short of a meteor about to strike the Earth, I don't know what it would take to get me to buy crystals," I said at the time. 

Well, reader, I have figured it out. The answer is Raiden Shogun. 

What you have to realize is I've spent more time playing Raiden Shogun in Genshin Impact than I have playing most video games. And I really wanted her signature spear. I was low on Primogems after pulling a bunch of Sumeru characters, I got unlucky at the virtual slot machine, and I broke the unholy seal. It was not worth the $100, but I don't regret it either. I'm a grown-ass adult with expendable income and I'm still within my $15/month average, so I'll waste my money on the hazards of my choice. 

I don't like gacha mechanics, but I still love Genshin Impact. Maybe that's the highest praise I can give it. It is strong enough to hold its own outside the standards and expectations of gacha. It's just a good game. Hoyoverse has already laid out a seven-region roadmap for the game, so we know we'll be getting big expansions in 2024 and 2025 after Fontaine this year. I doubt the company will want to just walk away from its record-breaking cash cow after that – largely thanks to Genshin, Hoyoverse made more money than all of PlayStation last year – so I'd wager we'll see some more updates in 2026 and maybe beyond. I hope we do. This will surely change eventually, but even after 1,000 days, I'm not even close to ready for Genshin Impact to end. 

To celebrate the successful launch of Honkai Star Rail, developer Hoyoverse is giving all players 10 free Star Rail Special Passes and holding a "Departure Festival" on Sunday, April 30.

CEO Da Wei announced the shindig in a new video posted to the official Honkai Star Rail Twitter. "What's going on Trailblazers? It's Da Wei here to say thank you for getting aboard the Astral Express," he begins. "In the past two days, Honkai Star Rail has been getting exceptional reception in all corners of the world. I would like to thank you all for being on this journey with us on behalf of the Honkai Star Rail team, seeing the stars and exploring the galaxy aboard the Astral Express! 

"Naturally, our gratitude cannot just be expressed with words. There should be gifts as well," the CEO continues, perking up the ears of free-to-play players everywhere. "Therefore, we will be holding a Departure Festival on the night of April 30 for all of you, as well as giving out 10 Star Rail Special Passes to everyone as thanks. We hope you will enjoy the experience. It is our wish that everyone can continue to explore the vast expanse, to blaze the trail of your own story. May this journey lead us starward." 

Honkai Star Rail hasn't been an inescapable mega-hit like Genshin Impact, but it is doing pretty well for itself, already topping app stores and earning a solid 83 on review aggregate Metacritic. I guess this comes as no surprise since it had 10 million pre-registered users before it was even out. 

If you're still coming to grips with all these gacha currencies, just know that Honkai Star Rail has two types of passes used for pulls: standard and special. Standard passes are given out pretty frequently in-game and can be used on permanent banners to get standard characters, while Special passes are rare and only used for limited-time rate-up banners like Seele's ongoing debut. And hey, a free 10-pull on the rate-up banner of your choice is always welcome. 

It sounds like these free special passes will be automatically distributed via Honkai Star Rail's in-game mail system. But you also only have this weekend to claim another 10 free pulls which you'll have to play a bit to unlock. 

For more freebies, here are all the Honkai Star Rail codes and how to redeem them. 

When can you play Honkai Star Rail? The new turn-based JRPG from Genshin Impact developer Hoyoverse technically has an April 26 release date, but its exact launch time means many Western players will get to play it today, April 25. 

Honkai Star Rail will launch on April 25 at 7pm PT/10pm ET/3am BT (April 26) on PC and mobile. The game is also coming to PS4 and PS5 but won't be available on console at launch. 

You've still got plenty of time to pre-register for the game and pre-download it so you're ready to log in as soon as the servers go live. Given that Honkai Star Rail has already surpassed 10 million pre-registered users, there's a fair chance the servers may struggle come launch time, so be prepared for a potential login queue.

Thanks to all those pre-registrations, Hoyoverse is giving out some launch goodies to early Honkai Star Rail players. All players – even if you didn't pre-register and start playing after launch – will receive 20 Star Rail Passes which are good for the game's standard banner, 100,000 Credits to spend on upgrades, and a copy of the four-star character Serval (who seemed pretty solid in the beta test). You'll have a full year to claim these rewards via in-game mail. 

Honkai Star Rail is also throwing a login event to celebrate its launch. If you log in for a total of seven days by June 6, you'll receive 10 Star Rail Special Passes which can be used on limited banners for exclusive rate-up characters like Seele, the game's debut rate-up. To claim them, all you have to do is unlock the Travel Log in-game, which can be done very early on. 

The Travel Log will also let you access bonuses for reaching Trailblaze levels 5, 15, 25, and 35. You can increase your level by exploring, completing quests, clearing daily commissions, and spending energy on resource farms. There's no time limit on this, and with regular play, it shouldn't take long to reach level 35. For tips on how to speed up that grind, here's how to increase your Trailblaze level in Honkai Star Rail. 

By rank 35, you'll have earned a total of 40 more Star Rail Passes as well as 1,600 Stellar Jade which can be used to purchase 10 additional Special Passes. Combined with the new-player and launch bonuses, this will give you more than enough passes to guarantee a five-star character from the beginner Departure Warp banner, which gives you a 20% discount on passes spent (a 10-roll actually only costs eight rolls) and guarantees a five-star character after 50 rolls. Just note that this banner is separate from the others, so the pity count will not carry over. 

For additional rewards, here's how to get the latest Honkai Star Rail codes. You can also clear the Honkai Star Rail simulated universe for permanent rewards including a free character. 

Honkai Star Rail isn't even out yet, but it's already clocked up a staggering 10 million users.

"10,000,000 Pre-registrations Reached!" tweeted developer miHoYo earlier today, reminding people to "pre-register now" to unlock rewards such as "Star Rail Pass ×20 and the 4-star character Serval (Erudition: Lightning) ×1".

And to celebrate, one lucky player will win a gift card worth "about $100" – and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to retweet the post below between now and April 25, the day before the game officially releases on April 26. At that point, you'll be able to redeem Honkai Star Rail codes for a selection of reward items.

Honkai Star Rail is an all-new new turn-based RPG from miHoYo, the developer behind the wildly popular Genshin Impact. 

Like Genshin, Honkai Star Rail will be a free-to-play game available on PC and mobile platforms, and it'll have an optional 'gacha' system that will be very familiar to anyone who's spent time with its predecessor. 

While the game itself is free to play, like previous HoYoverse games, Honkai Star Rail's gacha system provides chance-based character and weapon rewards. The Warp system features permanent and time-limited banners, with the time-limited banners rotating every few weeks. There’s also a time-limited banner offering the chance to obtain new characters, and another one focused on Light Cones (weapons).

As Jordan explained at the time the release date was finally confirmed, one key difference between Honkai Star Rail and Genshin Impact – aside from their completely different worlds, stories, and characters, of course – is the combat system. Whereas Genshin Impact's combat is fast-paced and takes place in real-time, Honkai Star Rail will have you duking it out in turn-based battles. 

Honkai also isn't strictly an open-world game, either. Instead, it sends players on a semi-linear journey from planet to planet as they progress through a main story that follows the events of Honkai Impact 3rd, but is also self-contained, so newcomers can jump in without worrying about missing key story beats.

Here's everything we know so far about Honkai Star Rail's release, including details about the story, characters, and more.

Keep up to date with all the best games set to launch later this year with our guide to new games 2023. 

Pile-driving the official Genshin Impact account into Reddit Hell didn't work, so disgruntled Genshin Impact players are now trying to get new character Dehya buffed by showering developer Hoyoverse in "#FixDehya" social media posts and in-game feedback suggestions.

In case you've missed this particular storm, Dehya was released last week as part of Genshin update 3.5. Like Tighnari before her, she'll be added to the standard banner character pool once her debut patch comes to a close. Unlike Tighnari, Dehya is almost unusably bad. Her low damage, weak defensive utility, poor Pyro application, and clunky mechanics make her a strict downgrade in almost every situation, and some of her animations make her difficult to even play. 

As players have pointed out, it's perilously easy to accidentally cancel Dehya's elemental burst – the source of nearly all of her damage – by getting too close to objects, getting frozen by enemies, or simply hitting the jump button. It doesn't help that her burst also locks you into a few seconds of attack animations with wonky auto-targeting that doesn't even register some enemies. 

Dehya is unquestionably among the worst characters in Genshin Impact, and there's a fair argument for putting her in the bottom spot, perhaps even below the likes of four-stars like Dori and Candace. If nothing else, she's easily the worst five-star, and while technically someone has to be, they don't have to be this weak. 

Unsatisfied with the gap between her canon power level and playable kit, fans have drawn up a digital "#FixDehya" poster and plastered it anywhere they can, especially in replies to the official Genshin Twitter. As it happens, Hoyoverse recently shared an illustration of Dehya and Candace to celebrate the English account hitting five million Twitter followers, and you can imagine how that went. 

Several major Genshin fan accounts, some with hundreds of thousands of followers, have joined the cause, asking players to share the word online and use the in-game suggestion box – which has its own Dehya feedback category – to express their disappointment. As the extra-disappointed Dehya Mains Reddit community pointed out, the cause has even spread to Japanese and Chinese Genshin players, so I suppose this is technically a global effort. 

Genshin Impact hasn't directly buffed a character post-release since the Zhongli fiasco around the game's launch, and that was a special exemption for an archon. We've seen bug fixes, wording tweaks, new artifacts and weapons, and additional characters who formed new combos and strategic niches, but characters are generally set in stone once they launch. However, I don't think any character since Zhongli has gotten this kind of blowback. That said, some of the "four easy steps" described in the #FixDehya battlecry are pretty overkill and probably imbalanced, so whatever happens, I certainly wouldn't hold out for those exact changes, and that's charitably assuming any come at all. 

Here's hoping Baizhu and Kaveh, announced for update 3.6, don't have the same issues. 

Want to join the Honkai Star Rail pre-registration? Now that the upcoming HoYoverse game is in its final beta stage, you can register your account prior to the launch of Honkai Star Rail. If you do so, you will obtain certain pre-registration rewards, which you can use after Star Rail’s release. You can earn more rewards with Honkai Star Rail Twitch drops as well. 

Here’s how to pre-register for Honkai Star Rail, plus an overview of all the pre-registration rewards. 

What is the Honkai Star Rail pre-registration event?

The Honkai Star Rail pre-registration event allows players to create a game account in advance of the game’s release. If you sign up, you will receive a heads up when the game arrives and you won’t need to create an account before starting the download. Most importantly though, pre-registration may grant you several rewards, including a free four-star character. You will receive these rewards after the game releases.

The only catch? The pre-registration event is a community effort, and rewards are only given upon reaching certain thresholds. To receive every possible reward, the total number of pre-registrants has to reach 5,000,000. 

Honkai Star Rail pre-registration rewards

Here’s an overview of every reward. At the moment of writing, the Honkai Star Rail pre-registration event has reached the third tier with more than 2,000,000 registrants, so the free four-star character is not guaranteed yet.

• 500,000 pre-registrants: Credits x50,000
• 1,000,000 pre-registrants: Star Rail Pass x3
• 2,000,000 pre-registrants: Trailblazer Avatar ‘Welcome’ x1
• 3,500,000 pre-registrants: four-star character Serval x1
• 5,000,000 pre-registrants: Star Rail Pass x15
• 2,500,000 followers on social media: Credits x50,000, Star Rail Pass x2

Credits are Honkai Star Rail’s in-game currency, while Star Rail Passes can be used to purchase Warps, which are part of the gacha system. In other words, Credits and Star Rail Passes are quite similar to Genshin Impact’s Mora and Primogems. The ‘Welcome’ Avatar is expected to be an in-game profile decoration.

How to pre-register for Honkai Star Rail

To pre-register for Honkai Star Rail with a new account, you need to go to the official website, where you can click the ‘register now’ button. You need to select at least one platform (PC, iOS, or Android) and enter a valid email address. Enter the verification code and your pre-registration is complete!

If you already have a HoYoverse account (which should be the case if you’ve played Genshin Impact or Honkai Impact 3rd before), you probably want to use the same account for Honkai Star Rail. In that case, use the same link as provided above but log in before signing up. All there’s left to do is click the ‘register now’ button to complete the process. 

How to pre-registrate on different platforms

You may notice that besides the big ‘register now’ button, the website shows the option to wishlist, pre-registrate, or pre-order on various platforms separately. We’ll point you to the right locations below, but beware; you still need to pre-registrate on the official Honkai Star Rail website to grab the event rewards!

Mobile players using an Android device can pre-registrate for Honkai Star Rail here, in the Google Play Store, while iPhone and iPad users can pre-order Honkai Star Rail in the App Store here. If you want to download Star Rail on the Epic Games Store, you can wishlist it here. 

See you on the Astral Express, pre-registered Trailblazer!

The Honkai Star Rail release date has seemingly been confirmed for April 26, according to a new listing for the game in the iOS app store.

You have to do a bit of a convoluted search to find Honkai Star Rail in the app store on iPhone or iPad, but if you search for Cognosphere - that's the name of the corporate subsidiary that runs developer Hoyoverse - you should be able to dig it up. The page lists that the game is "coming soon" and is "expected April 26, 2023."

That date only shows in the proper app store, so you won't see it if you look up the store page on the web. Of course, fans quickly took note of the apparent release date confirmation, and we've been able to confirm it on iPhones in the US. Your mileage may vary in other regions.

We've reached out to Hoyoverse for further information and will update this story if we learn more.

Honkai Star Rail is about to have a third (and final) closed beta, starting on February 10. Sign-ups are already over, though an official FAQ suggests that there may be additional ways to get access once the beta gets started.

While Honkai Star Rail is technically a new entry in Hoyoverse's Honkai series, it's being billed as a newcomer-friendly adventure with a whole new gameplay style. This time, you control a party of characters in turn-based RPG combat, setting Star Rail apart from Hoyoverse's Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact, not to mention Zenless Zone Zero.

The devs have now addressed reports of sexual harassment the English voice behind Tghnari in Genshin Impact.

Genshin Impact developer Hoyoverse doesn't want to add more endgame content in the vein of the Spiral Abyss out of fear that it might create "excessive anxiety" for players.

"The Spiral Abyss is one of the most effective ways [for] players [to] test out their party composition and combat strength," Hoyoverse tells GameSpot. "If we design another type of permanent endgame that is similar to the Spiral Abyss, it might end up creating excessive anxiety for our players - not everyone is interested in Musk Reef."

Hoyoverse says that with the "Genius Invokation TCG that we unveiled in the Special Program for Version 3.2, we are also working on designing more interesting gameplay in the future," adding that the variety gameplay types available as part of the game's open world gives the studio confidence in its long-term prospects even without more combat-focused endgame content added in.  

Genshin Impact has been particularly friendly to casual playstyles as online gacha games go, and it seems Hoyoverse doesn't want to lay on the time commitment too heavily for high-level players. Nonetheless, some of those players are getting pretty tired of only having one meaningful endgame challenge. Regular events have helped ease that burden, but those events aren't permanent options for players.

Instead, it seems Hoyoverse is more concerned with easing new players into Genshin Impact, with plans to adjust everything from the game's tutorials to its install size in an effort to make it friendlier to newcomers. "Intelligent management of past content" is also in the works, Hoyoverse told PLAY magazine, hinting that the devs might be working on a way for new players to speed through or otherwise catch up on the game's old content.

If you're playing right now check out our Genshin Impact Fecund Blessings guide to help you earn some level-up materials and Serenitea Pot furniture.

Update: We've got some more up to date Genshin Impact codes to redeem now these have all expired.  

You haven't got long to claim these new Genshin Impact livestream Codes. They appeared as part of the Version 3.0 livestream, and can be claimed for Primogems, Enhancement Ores, Hero's Wit and Mora. Not a bad bonus on top of all the reveals that saw as get a first look at a new game area, some characters and info on the soon to by playable nature focused element, Dendro. While all that is to come, these codes are very much now as they won't last forever so you want to claim all that free stuff fast before it's too late. 

Below we have three Genshin Impact codes revealed in the Version 3.0 livestream, along with how to claim them. So scroll down, grab the codes, head over to the Genshin Impact Hoyoverse site to redeem them and don't hang about.

Genshin Impact livestream codes

Here are the three Genshin Impact livestream Codes from the Version 3.0 stream: 

• 8ANCKTWYVRD5: 100 Primogems and 10 Enhancement Ores
• EA7VKTFHU9VR: 100 Primogems and 5 Hero’s Wit
• KT7DKSFGCRWD: 100 Primogems and 50, 000 Mora

How to redeem Genshin Impact livestream codes

Redeeming your Genshin Impact 3.0 livestream codes is super easy - it's basically a case of heading over to the Hoyoverse site to find the redemption page, where you can plug in the codes to claim them one at a time. Once you've done that your rewards will appear in your in-game mail. If you're looking all this up because it's new to you then just make sure you're at least level 10, as you won't be able to claim them otherwise. Other than that, just claim the codes and enjoy the rewards. 

1. Head to the Genshin Impact Code Redemption page and log in
2. Select the server want to receive the rewards on, type in character nickname and copy over the code you want to redeem, in each of their respective boxes
3. Click the the Redeem button to claim the current code and then repeat for all the other codes. 

And that's all there is too it. If we see any more codes we'll let you know but for now, claim all those rewards and enjoy the game. 

The wait is finally over and Honkai Star Rail has now been released, opening the doors for players to explore HoYoverse's new RPG. Expectations are high for this release from the team that produced Honkai 3rd and Genshin Impact, so we've got all of the latest information about this turn-based space adventure in a world rich in lore. Get ready to meet a cast of quirky characters and engage in a team-based combat system, all presented in the beautiful anime-inspired art style we've come to expect from the series.

Here's everything we know about Honkai Star Rail, from launch bonuses and release formats to the list of confirmed characters. Are you ready to hop aboard the space train? Then let's begin.

Honkai Star Rail is out now

The Honkai Star Rail release date was April 26, 2023 – which means you can play it right now! If you pre-registered in advance then you should have the following rewards awaiting collection:

• 50,000 Credits
• Star Rail Pass x 3
• 'Trailblazer - Welcome' avatar
• 4 Star Character - Serval
• Star Rail Pass x 15

If you missed out on that then don't worry, as there are still rewards you can claim by redeeming Honkai Star Rail codes. Some of those expire at the end of April 2023, so don't delay if you want to collect all of the available items.

Honkai Star Rail platforms and cross-saves

Upon launch, Honkai Star Rail has released on the following platforms: PC, iOS, and Android. In other words, the same platforms as predecessor Honkai Impact 3rd. Since the game’s beta tests featured a cross-save function between PC and mobile devices, we can assume that it will be part of the final game as well. Note that you can’t play on more than one device at the same time.

As was confirmed in the Honkai Star Rail PlayStation trailer, Honkai Star Rail is coming to the PS4 and PS5 as well. The official PlayStation release date has yet to be revealed.

Honkai Star Rail gacha system

Like previous HoYoverse games, Honkai Star Rail uses a ‘gacha system’ with chance-based character and weapon rewards. While the game itself is free to play, you’ll have to use this gacha system, also known as the Warp system, to obtain characters and weapons of the highest rarity (five stars). The Warp system features permanent and time-limited banners, with the time-limited banners rotating every few weeks. There’s a time-limited banner offering the chance to obtain new characters, and another one focused on Light Cones (weapons).

To use a Warp, you’ll have to spend a Star Rail Pass (permanent banner) or Special Star Rail Pass (time-limited banners). One Warp equals one item of four- or five-star rarity. The Star Rail Passes are bought with an in-game currency called Stellar Jade. While it’s possible to buy extra Stellar Jade using real-life money, you can also get it by simply playing the game.

As the Warp system may sound a bit complicated, here’s the main takeaway:

• Stellar Jade is used to buy (Special) Star Rail Passes (similar to Genshin Impact’s Primogems).
• One Star Rail Pass can be exchanged for one pull on a Warp banner.
• There’s a starter Warp, a permanent Warp, a time-limited character Warp, and a time-limited Light Cone Warp.
• Honkai Star Rail has a pity system which guarantees one five-star character or weapon per 80 or 90 pulls (depending on banner).

Honkai Star Rail gameplay and story

According to the developer, Honkai Star Rail is a newcomer-friendly turn-based RPG with an emphasis on strategic combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving. The game has a sci-fi theme and a visual style similar to previous HoYoverse games. Although the story takes place in the same galactic universe as the first Honkai game, Honkai Impact 3rd, Star Rail has its own standalone story. The characters are a mix of familiar and new faces.

As Star Rail’s protagonist, you’ve been implanted with a Stellaron, a seed of ruin. The guy responsible for your predicament is Destruction, an Aeon (godlike creature) who believes that all civilization should be wiped out. Luckily, that won’t stop you from boarding the Astral Express and travelling through Star Rail’s universe. You’re not alone either; a group of passengers claiming to have inherited the “spirit of the Trailblaze” will join you on your adventures. 

Honkai Star Rail combat system 

Teambuilding is at the core of Honkai Star Rail’s combat system. With up to four playable characters per team, you need to consider attacks, support abilities, and Elemental types to form the best combinations. Honkai Star Rail features seven different Elements:  including Physical, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Imaginary, and Quantum.

Once you’ve entered a Honkai Star Rail battle, you can see the attack order in the upper left corner. Be sure to consider your opponent’s weakness; if you see a little icy icon underneath their name, for example, it means they are weak to Ice damage. 

Each character has three types of attack: a basic attack, a Skill, and an Ultimate. A Skill costs Skill points, while basic attacks recover Skill Points. In other words, you need to carefully balance between basic attacks and Skills throughout the fight. Ultimates can be used at any time and don’t cost any Skill points, but it takes a while to charge them.

Honkai Star Rail Paths, Elements, Light Cones, and Relics

While Honkai Star Rail has tons of interesting gameplay features, these four play an essential role in team building, character building, and combat:

• Paths: in Honkai Star Rail’s lore, a character’s Path refers to their alliance, which is rooted in a certain philosophy. The Harmony Path, for example, values cooperation and support. In combat, however, it says something about the character’s combat role: a Harmony character typically buffs their teammate while a Destruction character is better at DPS.
• Elements: each playable character is blessed with one of seven elemental powers. These Elements are used to exploit enemy weaknesses, e.g. a Fire character should target an opponent who is weak to Fire damage.
• Light Cones: characters’ main piece of equipment. It doesn’t change your character’s look (their default weapon will still appear in their hand), but it improves the character’s stats and grants them a passive ability. They’re very similar to normal ‘weapons’ as seen in Genshin Impact. 
• Relics: equipment pieces worn to improve the character’s stats. Again, for the Genshin Impact players: it’s very similar to Genshin’s Artifacts.

We have separate guides covering those Honkai Star Rail Paths and Elements, along with details of how to increase your Honkai Star Rail Trailblaze Level and an explanation of the Honkai Star Rail Simulated Universe.

Honkai Star Rail characters

Curious about the Honkai Star Rail playable characters? Here’s an overview of the confirmed characters so far, divided by Elemental types: 

Physical 

• Natasha: one of the few doctors in Belobog’s Underworld.
• Sushang: An amateur but ambitious member of the Xianzhou Luofu Cloud Knights.
• Clara: a young girl who takes logic and calculations very seriously. She was raised by a robot named Svarog.

Fire 

• Asta: Lead Researcher at the Herta Space Station.
• Hook: leader of The Moles adventure squad, a group of friends located in Belobog’s Underworld.
• Himeko: an adventurous scientist who repaired the Astral Express.

Ice

• Gepard: captain of the Silvermane Guards in Belobog.
• Herta: Herta Space Station’s brilliant leader who often appears as a puppet.
• March 7th: a spirited girl who suffers from amnesia. 
• Pela: Intelligence Officer of the Silvermane Guards.
• Yanqing: brilliant swordsman and lieutenant of the Xianzhou Luofu. 

Lightning 

• Serval: Rebellious daughter from an important family. Following her wish to become a mechanic, she opened a workshop where she also hosts the occasional rock ‘n roll concert. 
• Arlan: head of Herta Space Station’s Security.
• Kafka: a Stellaron Hunter whose name is on the Interastral Peace Corporation’s wanted list.
• Jing Yuan: general of the Xianzhou Alliance and leader of the Cloud Knights.
• Bailu: a talented healer who can’t bear to see people suffering.
• Tingyun: the silver-tongued leader of the Whistling Flames, a merchant guild.

Wind 

• Sampo: a persuasive salesman from the city of Belobog.
• Bronya: heir to the Supreme Guardian of Belobog and Commander of the Silvermane Guards.
• Blade: wielder of an ancient sword, filled with cracks. “Just like his body and mind’, according to the official character description. 
• Dan Heng: a reserved man who acts as the Astral Express’ guard.

Imaginary 

• Welt: the wise and experienced former Anti-Entropy Sovereign.
• Luocha: A foreign tradesman with medical knowledge. For some reason, he carries a coffin on his back.

Quantum 

• Seele: spirited member of Wildfire, an Underworld Faction in Belobog. 
• Silver Wolf: Stellaron Hunter and genius hacker.
• Fu Xuan: the confident and blunt Head of the Xianzhou Luofu Divination Commission.
• Qingque: a very lazy employee of Xianzhou Luofu’s Divination Commission.

Honkai Star Rail locations

The sci-fi universe in Honkai Star Rail is packed with different worlds, each with their own unique landscapes and stories. At launch, we’ll be able to explore the following areas: Herta Space Station, the Astral Express, Jarilo-VI, and Xianzhou Luofu. 

The Herta Space Station is a massive research facility, led by the genius researcher Herta. This is where the story begins, but you’ll soon be exploring the rest of the galaxy aboard the Astral Express space ship.

Jarilo-VI, a very cold, snowy planet, is home to the last remaining city with human civilization, Belobog. Or, as it is also known, the ‘Last Bastion of Mankind Against the Eternal Freeze’. Belobog is divided into the modern Overworld, from where it is governed, and the Underworld, filled with the remains of the Old World. 

As part of the Xianzhou Alliance, the gargantuan Xianzhou Luofu space ship travels from world to world, fighting civilizations aligned with the Abundance faction along the way. Far from an ordinary space ship, Xianzhou Luofu is basically a floating metropolis.

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Games like Genshin Impact are surprisingly difficult to find. While there's no shortage of amazing anime adventures and excellent open-world games out there, finding that unique combo is a bit harder - especially if you also want to throw party-based gameplay and a gacha system into the mix. Luckily, we've discovered a bunch that fit the bill.

Although the ever-expanding world of Teyvat makes it difficult, if not impossible, to ever fully 'complete' Genshin Impact, we understand if you’ve grown a bit tired of trying by now, this list of the best games like Genshin Impact to play in 2025 will give you a nice break or even a permanent retreat from the Hilichurl fights and take you to another gorgeous anime world begging to be explored.

From the best anime games to the best open-world games, there's something for everyone to pick up and play this year.

10. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Developer: Nintendo
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch

A lot of the mechanics in Genshin Impact borrow heavily from the Nintendo Switch smash hit, from the effect of different elemental attacks to the ability to knock together delicious meals from ingredients you find in the world. There's gliding, too, and puzzles littered throughout Teyvat, just like in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Of course, Zelda comes with the added bonus of just having one hero to worry about instead of a team of expanding characters and that old Nintendo magic.

Naturally, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can be a fantastic alternative to Genshin Impact, too, but the vertical maps and building mechanics give it quite a different feel. You'll spend far more time soaring through the sky and far less time climbing slippery rocks here - though we have to admit that an ascend-through-any-ceiling ability would be most welcome in both Genshin Impact and Breath of the Wild.

Check out our The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild review next!

9. Immortals Fenyx Rising

Developer: Ubisoft
Platform(s): PC, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch

If you want a giant, colorful world to explore and puzzles to solve without having to worry about gacha mechanics or managing a team, Ubisoft's adventure inspired by Greek myth and legend will scratch your itch. You play as Fenyx, a young hero who finds themselves in a land where her friends have been turned to stone and monsters like harpies and gorgons and having a grand old time.

You can explore the world by climbing, flying, and racing around on various mounts, and there's crafting, challenges, and a bunch of crazy gods to deal with. 

8. Honkai: Star Rail

Developer: miHoYo
Platforms: PC, iOS, Android, PS5

Honkai: Star Rail is one of the best games like Genshin Impact, and chances are, you've already heard of it. Created by the same studio, Honkai: Star Rail is a JRPG that features similar gacha-style gameplay with all the vivid characters and madcap antics you'd expect from Genshin.

It's the first turn-based game from miHoYo, and paired with some dynamic QOL changes; the refined formula has made Star Rail a breakout success among Genshin fans. It recently launched on PS5 following a very successful mobile and PC release, so if you've been on the fence about trying it out, now is as good a time as any to get stuck in.

Read our Honkai: Star Rail PS5 review for more information.

7. Final Fantasy 14

Developer: Square Enix
Platform(s): PC, PS4

Just looking for a huge online world, you can get lost in for weeks at a time? Final Fantasy 14 is an MMORPG with all the lore and history of the classic series on its side, combined with the ability to fully customize your character and experience.

Right now, the game has around 20 million players and a huge cult following, and there are regular updates - like Shadowbringers in 2019 - to keep expanding the adventure. If you've ever wanted to do your exploring with a Chocobo companion, this is the game for you. 

For the latest on this iconic series, read our Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail review.

6. Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom

Developer: LEVEL5 Inc.
Platform(s): PS4, PC

Do you want cute JRPG adventuring? Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom has it by the adorable bucketload and wouldn't look out of place at Studio Ghibli. (The first game in the series was actually made in collaboration with the legendary animation studio, and the look lives on in the sequel.)

As well as the usual JRPG quests and combat, this game comes with a Pokemon-style system of Higgledies, little creatures you can collect in the world and call to your aide in battle. Ni No Kuni 2 also packs in kingdom management, letting you upgrade key buildings and staff them with NPCs you meet in the world, and a chibi-style battle system.

For more information on one of the best JRPs ever made, read our Ni no Kuni 2 review.

5. Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age

Developer: Square Enix
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One

If rampaging through a magical world with a gang of heroes, visiting towns, and smashing up slimes get your heart racing, Dragon Quest 11 will give you hours and hours of questing and JRPG goodness. The game follows the story of a legendary hero called the Luminary and an evil sorcerer.

There are errands to run, weapons to buy, NPCs to banter endlessly with, and all delivered in the appealing Dragon Quest art style. Recently given a polish for newer consoles, there's a retro 2D visual mode for anyone who wants to pretend they're a time traveler. 

Check out our Dragon Quest 11 S – Definitive Edition review!

4. Tales of Arise

Developer: Bandai Namco
Platform(s): PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

If you're looking to sink your teeth into a massive, stylish RPG, then you need not look much further than Tales of Arise. It has many of the same components as Genshin Impact, albeit presented in an entirely different way – an awesome open world to explore, deep RPG mechanics, great character building, and even a little resource gathering.

Tales of Arise will keep you busy for a couple of weeks, so this is definitely one to play when you have a lot of time to kill.

3. Infinity Nikki

Developer: Papergames
Platform(s): PC, PS5, iOS, Android

The magical world of Infinity Nikki is like Genshin Impact but infinitely cuter. That's not a dig at Genshin, mind you, as it would be impossible to compete with the pastel-colored Miraland and its abundance of ridiculously fluffy animals on that front. It also helps that there's no fighting in Infinity Nikki; just exploring, shopping, dog grooming (yes, you can pet the animals here), and friendship-forging. As a bonus, Infinity Nikki offers something Genshin doesn't have - the ability to dress up your characters.

If you're wondering whether this game is a bit… well, tame, compared to Teyvat, you are totally right, but that's its strength; with Infinity Nikki, you get all the wholesomeness of Genshin Impact, but in a cozy, feel-good format. On top of the anime visuals, you will undoubtedly find the lush forests, picturesque villages, epic mountains, and odd windmills or two reminiscent of Teyvat, especially the Mondstadt region.

2. Wuthering Waves

Developer: Kuro Games
Platform(s): PC, PS5, iOS, Android

Let's give you a game as similar to Genshin Impact as possible without being Genshin Impact: Wuthering Waves. Four years after the world of Teyvat arrived, Kuro Games introduced the post-apocalyptic realm of Solaris-3, where you take on the role of Rover, an overpowered amnesiac trapped in a strange new world - but without losing their sibling. From there on, you can meet quirky characters, explore a vast open world, build the best teams, and beat countless bosses.

If you're willing to make the jump, don't expect WW's animation and character design to be quite as good as Genshin's, or the story to be quite as engaging. On the plus side, many players consider Wuthering Waves' combat superior because it requires more creativity and better timing. If that doesn't convince you yet, then hear this: in Wuthering Waves, you don't have to rely on a tedious climbing mechanic that makes you want to deinstall the whole thing - grappling hooks and wall-running all the way!

1. Zenless Zone Zero

Developer: miHoYo
Platform(s): PC, PS5, iOS, Android

Coming from the studio behind Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero is a rather obvious but unmissable recommendation. There are some differences between this newer miHoYo game and Genshin Impact, most notably the futuristic setting and the dungeon-diving gameplay as opposed to Genshin's open world, but there are plenty of similarities in its visual style, anime characters, character-swapping combat, and lore-rich storytelling. Like Teyvat, entrance to Zenless' world of New Eridu is free, but don't expect to collect all of its residents and their equipment without spending money - ZZZ is also a gacha game, after all.

Before diving into this urban fantasy, be warned that Zenless Zone Zero is more of an acquired taste compared to Genshin, as it doesn't allow as much freedom and exploration opportunities. Its roguelike elements can feel a tad repetitive (a system which, by the way, has received some upgrades since), but you do get top-notch action animation and breathtaking cutscenes in return.

Wondering if Zenless Zone Zero is truly worth gawking at? Our Zenless Zone Zero review will tell you.

Love Genshin Impact because it's free-to-play? Here are the 25 best free games you can play right now