Genshin players dub Honkai: Star Rail ‘downgrade’ as one-star reviews pour in

HoYoverse’s latest installment Honkai: Star Rail features a game experience very different from Genshin Impact, and players are not happy with it.

The game’s review-score on Android’s Play Store has been plummeting until the time of writing, April 28, as disappointed Genshin fans gave it one-star reviews for being a “downgrade” compared to the developer’s flagship title.

Its average score is now 3.7, with a vast majority of both five-star and one-star reviews instead of moderate ones.

The poor reviews mainly pointed at two things: bugs upon launch, which ruined the experience of players who pre-registered due to infinite loading screens and errors, and being a “downgrade” from Genshin.

“The exploration areas are small. I’m spoiled by bigger maps,” wrote a Genshin and Tower of Fantasy enjoyer. “I wish to climb things. Can’t. Fighting is turn base. I wanted to like it. Feels like downgrading so far.”

Related: Tectone claims Honkai falls short of challenging Genshin’s throne—but there’s hope

The turn-based combat system and small map were the two main issues Genshin fans pointed out in the one-star reviews. Although many features are common between both games, notably the gacha and character building system, they are very different and the comparison between both has its limits.

The latter is set in a fantasy and open world that players can freely explore, similarly to Zelda: BotW‘s exploration gameplay with cooking, climbing, and gliding. It’s a major selling point. Honkai, on the other hand, features linear hallway-type of maps, with only a few possible paths and no jumping feature. Players cannot wander wherever they want, although they can still explore and find secrets hidden in the maps.

While many HoYoverse fans didn’t feel at home with its latest title, the game still met tremendous success at launch. Released on April 26, it’s already counting over 20 million downloads throughout its platforms.

It also received a majority of five-star reviews on the Play Store, which praised the game’s tactical gameplay, graphics, and narration. Even the title’s story features sometimes unhinged humor and a plot that has nothing in common with Genshin.