Do I have to play Honkai before Star Rail? The series explained

William Davis Published 28/04/2023

Honkai: Star Rail is the most recent installment in the Honkai series. Does it mean you have to play Honkai Impact 3 before playing Honkai: Star Rail?

The Honkai series, developed by HoYoverse, made its debut in 2011 with FlyMe2theMoon. Originally released on iOS, it was a simple puzzle game. It was followed by Houkai Gakuen 2, also known as Guns Girl Z. This shooter game was developed for both Android and iOS.

Honkai Impact 3rd is considered a “spiritual successor” to Guns Girl Z, meaning that it is inspired by the previous game but doesn’t continue the story in any way. It was released in 2016 and was the first game in the series to be ported to PC.

Do you need to play Honkai Impact 3rd before Star Rail?

While Honkai: Star Rail is considered part of the Honkai series, and it uses alternate versions of existing characters, knowledge from the previous titles is not required.

Technically speaking, Honkai: Star Rail is a spin-off of Honkai Impact 3rd, taking place in an alternate reality. If your main point of interest is the lore behind the series, then playing the previous games would be a nice touch. However, it is not necessary to understand the story in the game or the mechanics since it is a completely different genre from the previous games.

This is a role-playing game with elements of dungeon exploration and an open world. It uses a turn-based combat system, and it is single-player, unlike its predecessor, which had a multiplayer mode. The game also includes gacha mechanics.

Honkai: Star Rail is also the first game in the series to be ported to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The game became available on April 26 for Android, iOS, and PC. The release dates for PlayStation are yet to be announced.

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