MiHoYo’s next game is Honkai Star Rail, closed beta coming soon

Every fan of miHoYo is going crazy at the recent announcement of Honkai Star Rail, the next game from the makers of Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact 3rd, and the otome game Tears of Themis. The announcement was preceded by some sort of leak where the launcher was accidentally uploaded to the Play Store and quickly datamined by eager fans. Now, the official reveal is here and while we're yet to see the first gameplay, the Honkai Star Rail closed beta is right around the corner.

Honkai Star Rail Closed Beta Date

The Honkai Star Rail closed beta registration is scheduled to start on October 8, 2021, a mere two days after the official announcement. The social media for this game is already up and running, with the Facebook page being one of the places where you can find new information and important details, including the upcoming closed beta info.

For now, there's no information on the length of the closed beta test, nor the target platforms. Judging by last year's experience with Genshin Impact, PC and Android may turn out to be the initial choices, with iOS coming some time later, but this is just speculation.

How to Sign Up for Honkai Star Rail Closed Beta

In a few hours or perhaps tomorrow, miHoYo should reveal the official Honkai Star Rail website. This should be your go-to spot to sign up for the Honkai Rail closed beta test, but it's not surprising if the Play Store and App Store pages for this game go live during these days, allowing you to pre-register through these stores as well.

The registration process should be standard fare, but the spots are most likely very limited, at least in comparison to the hype that the game is already generating. Progress is most likely going to be wiped up at the end of the beta, but it's always worth playing to get a good feel for the game and how it's shaping up to be.

What is Honkai Star Rail

Honkai Star Rail is the first big name being revealed from miHoYo's future plans. The Chinese studio recently trademarked two names, one of them being Honkai 4, and there's also this A Post-Honkai Odyssey Chapter 2 | Apho in development, this one being a new open world expansion for Honkai Impact 3rd, with an early 2022 release date.

As for Honkai Star Rail, there aren't many facts around yet, but the floodgates should open really soon. In this game, players are being called Trailblazers (they were Captains in Honkai Impact 3rd and Travelers in Genshin Impact).

Honkai Star Rail is officially teased, it is now confirmed to be the spin off sequel to Honkai Impact 3rd's APHO.#HonkaiStarRail #HonkaiImpact3rd pic.twitter.com/rE9wO3YPIq

— Zangetsu 🍓 Arms (@ZangBerries) October 5, 2021

Apparently, Honkai Star Rail is an entirely new game, a spin-off from Honkai Impact 3rd. There are rumors saying that it could be a turn-based game with open world elements, featuring some well-known characters from previous miHoYo games. You will form a team of three and take on enemies, with a traditional elemental system as part of the gameplay mechanics.

This may sound like a surprising take on the Honkai formula and even ,but it's not that big of a shock for miHoYo fans. The team's latest game is Tears of Themis, a detective and romance game about a young female lawyer and four potential romance candidates, showcasing the studio's tremendous art quality, ingenious gameplay mechanics and events, and an overall top quality that only the greatest can achieve.

Honkai Star Rail Release Date

Based on miHoYo's previous output and our experience, the Honkai Star Rail release date will be around Q2 2022. Taking Genshin Impact as an example, the move from closed beta to open beta took less than a year. We're betting that it will be the case here as well, bolstered by the fact that miHoYo has been secretly working in this game for a few years now and is now ready for the first closed beta.

Obviously, there could be some hiccups along the way, but considering that Genshin Impact was a big challenge and the team has admitted to having learned a lot from its development, their work is probably more confident and ambitious now.