HomeFeaturesHonkai: Star Rail

The RPS Advent Calendar 2023, December 9thThis one’s a real Trailblazer

This one’s a real Trailblazer

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun

A close up of Horace the Endless Bear looking at a big pile of presents with his name on, next to a plate of cookies with a glass of milk. It’s the 2023 RPS Advent Calendar!

Congratulations! You’ve opened another door on the RPS Advent Calendar! That deserves a reward. Head to our rewards screen to collect it! No, not that one. Not that one either. Look, just follow the exclamation marks.

It’s got the flashiest combat animations and the loveliest character designs of 2023: it’sHonkai: Star Rail!

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/HoYoverse

March 7th leans in very close to the point-of-view character’s face in her introductory scene in Honkai: Star Rail, while Dan Heng looks bemused in the background of the shot.

Ollie:When I first started playing Honkai: Star Rail, it was more for work than play. As a guides writer, you can’t just ignore the next big HoYo game. You gotta grit your teeth and dive into their unintuitive, jargon-filled worlds, replete with rewards screens, daily challenges, and impossibly gorgeous character costume designs. I fully expected to bounce off Honkai the moment I’d completed the bare minimum amount of work required. Months later, I’m still playing. Honkai: Star Rail has slowly turned into an extremely cosy time-killing safe space for me, filled with satisfying daily routines, lively characters, great combat,greatmusic, and some surprisingly rich storytelling.

Stay perfect, Himeko. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/miHoYo

Himeko, a character in Honkai: Star Rail, sips her tea while calling in a nuclear strike on an enemy in the background.

Honkai: Star Rail brings all that over-the-top Genshin polish to a setting and a genre that grabbed me far more than Genshin’s ever did. Yes, it’s a gacha game, and the number of screens and rewards and bonuses and clickables can be overwhelming to new players. But it’s one of the fairest models I’ve ever seen, and it never feels like it’s truly out to trick you into spending money. I’ve played it since it came out, and I haven’t spent a penny on it. But at this point, I feel like the game has earnt a bit of my money for showing me such a consistently good time this year.