HoYoverse is truly the gift that keeps on giving as Honkai: Star Rail has an official release date scheduled for April 2023. With Honkai: Star Rail releasing soon, questions about whether Genshin Impact is dying and its player count possibly going down are arising. After Tower of Fantasy was unsuccessful in dethroning Genshin Impact, could it be that Honkai: Star Rail is the real Genshin killer?
Honkai: Star Rail releases next month and players are worried for the future of Genshin Impact
Gameplay in Genshin Impact has been becoming a bit stale lately. With repeated and “upgraded” versions of previous limited-time events, some Travelers feel that there really isn’t anything new and exciting in the game anymore. Aside from the new permanent TCG mode, Travelers feel more and more burnt out from playing the vast open-world RPG from HoYoverse.
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Now that HoYoverse has unveiled the release date for another one of their RPGs, Honkai: Star Rail, there are talks of the Genshin Impact hype finally dying. Since they come from the same developers, players are expecting quite a lot of similarities between the two titles.
- Before Genshin Impact, the developers have already released Honkai Impact 3rd. This obviously has more similarities with Honkai: Star Rail as they are both turn-based RPGs.
- With more and more players complaining about the lack of excitement and new content in Genshin Impact, will it be replaced by Honkai: Star Rail? Will the upcoming title from HoYoverse steal away some of Genshin Impact’s players?
Genshin Impact vs Honkai: Star Rail
From the get-go, Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail are two very different games. Since its release, Genshin Impact has built itself a rather solid and dedicated community that is still sticking around even as content in the game has become quite stale over the last few updates.
Here are some of the differences we’ve observed between the two games so far:
Star Rail is a turn-based RPG
The main difference between the two games from HoYoverse is the combat and gameplay mechanics. In Genshin Impact, every Traveler can encounter all kinds of enemies in its vast open-world environment and fight them there. As for Honkai: Star Rail, it has the same combat as Final Fantasy and other turn-based RPGs where you need a good strategy more than smashing certain keys or buttons.
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Character ascension and artifacts are different in Star Rail
Anyone who’s played Genshin Impact knows how hard it is to collect the desired artifacts you want to equip on your characters. While there are no artifacts in Honkai: Star Rail, there are Traces which serve as a way for you to make your characters’ skills stronger. They also add on to the base stats of your character like their HP and ATK stats.
Another similar mechanic to artifacts in Genshin Impact is the Relic system in Honkai: Star Rail. This has already been present in Honkai Impact 3rd and it seems that it is being adapted by HoYoverse’s upcoming release.
Honkai: Star Rail has an open-world map divided into chunks
Genshin Impact boasts a pretty impressive open-world map. The latest region released was the Sumeru region and although we initially thought it would only be a rainforest, the desert expansion was released a few updates ago. Honkai: Star Rail also has an open-world map, but it isn’t continuous.
- If in Genshin, you can just run to the other side of the map to reach another region, that isn’t the case for Star Rail. You will have to teleport or walk through passageways in order to access a new area in Star Rail.
Simulated Universe vs Spiral Abyss
Both games have endgame content called the Spiral Abyss (Genshin) and Simulated Universe (Star Rail). These are both similar features that involve buffs after clearing a certain stage or defeating a number of enemies. What makes Simulated Universe different from Spiral Abyss is that it resets every week.
- Genshin Impact’s Spiral Abyss resets twice a month, on the first and sixteenth of the month. When that happens, a new Blessing of the Abyssal Moon begins. Players can obtain different rewards like level up materials and even Primogems for clearing floors.
- As for Honkai: Star Rail’s Simulated Universe, it resets every week and has a score cap to keep players following a pace. Planar Ornaments can also be farmed through clearing the Simulated Universe, so it will definitely keep players on their toes if ever they have already cleared the main campaign of the game.
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Genshin Impact player count this March 2023
Despite how stagnant Genshin Impact is getting with its recent updates, the live player count as of writing is at 660,465 players. In the past days, there have been over 65,039,242 players who logged in the game.
It’s a mystery how HoYoverse does it, honestly. A lot of veteran Genshin Impact players bring up issues about how monotonous playing has gotten, but the community just seems to grow each day. It’s like for each time someone claims that Genshin Impact is dying, it comes back stronger and better than before.
- Another reason that Genshin Impact is seeing a spike in its player count now is the upcoming banners. With Shenhe finally getting her rerun, a lot of Travelers now have the chance to pull for her. She is one of the most requested reruns as her first appearance was during last year’s Lantern Rite celebration.
- In the 3.6 update, there are rumors that Baizhu and Kaveh are getting their own banners as well. This marks another significant banner for old and new players since Baizhu is quite the interesting character.
We believe that HoYoverse has plenty of tricks up their sleeves this 2023. Later this year, we may get another region that expands Teyvat’s already vast map. Who knows, we might meet the next Archon after Nahida, too!
Right now, it seems unlikely that Genshin Impact is dying. Its player count may have went down in the past months, but the game knows how to get back up on its feet. It may have died in the past month when it had no new content to offer.
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For those of you worried that Genshin Impact is dying ahead of Honkai: Star Rail’s release, there is no need to panic. If you have the chance to play both games, it’s easy to see that they offer different experiences for their players. This means that although they have similarities, they cater different audiences.
It’s highly unlikely for Honkai: Star Rail to steal the Genshin Impact community. Let us know what you think in the comments below! Until then, stay with us here at Spiel Times for more content.