Is Honkai: Star Rail open world?

The newest Gacha game has finally hit the market, and Honkai: Star Rail has been a breath of fresh air for most fans thus far. The turn-based role-playing game does leave fans with some questions, though. Specifically, players want to know if Honkai: Star Rail is an open-world game like Genshin Impact.

Genshin Impact took over the video game community when it was released in 2020 and put Gacha games firmly on the map. Honkai: Star Rail takes direct inspiration from the successful title, but is its world completely explorable like Genshin Impact’s is? Read our full explanation in the guide below.

Is Honkai: Star Rail an open-world game?

Unfortunately for fans of Genshin Impact’s massive open world, Honkai: Star Rail does not follow the same formula. The game can be defined as a semi-open world game, but it is not a fully open world. This means that players must stick to certain levels throughout the story and be required to load into other levels. Essentially, players must go through the process of visiting a gate and then a subsequent loading screen if they want to head to a new area.

The levels and maps that players get to explore are substantial, however. Once players have loaded into a specific level, they can explore it fully. The only difference between this experience and the one in Genshin Impact is that players won’t be able to seamlessly venture into new areas from the one they are currently in.

While this might be disappointing for some fans, especially those who grew accustomed to Genshin Impact’s sense of exploration, Honkai: Star Rail still delivers in-depth levels that are enjoyable to explore. These levels are fairly linear, though, so fans shouldn’t expect much in the way of side paths.