Honkai: Star Rail's Humongous PS5 Update Is Out Now

Penacony is open to all

by Sammy Barker
Tue 6th Feb 2024

Honkai: Star Rail, the superb space fantasy RPG from Chinese developer HoYoverse, has been updated to v2.0 on PS5 today – bringing with it an absolute avalanche of new content. The expansion continues the core plot of the turnbased title, taking the Trailblazer and his/her crew to an all-new planet featuring an art deco hotel named Penacony. New characters, gameplay, events, and more all await in this fresh location.

In addition to the continuation of the campaign, two new characters can be unlocked from time-limited banners: the deadly five-star Nihility memokeeper Black Swan and the fresh-faced four-star Destruction bellboy Misha. As with all of the game’s updates, there’ll be two phases to the banners, with the second featuring fellow newcomer Sparkle.

If you’re yet to start the game, HoYoverse is also giving away a ton of free pulls to mark the occasion, with a total of 20 up for grabs in this update – something which has left Genshin Impact players envious, to say the least. All of this has come alongside an enormous promotional campaign from the developer, which has seen it take over the Los Angeles Sphere and even produce a throwback variety-style show.

[source youtube.com, via youtube.com, youtube.com]

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.

1
themightyant
Tue 6th Feb 2024

Looking forward to this but unfortunately not able to play it much for a while. (other than dailies)

But I really dislike the Genshin v Honkai rewards narrative and pot stirring. They are different games which are tuned differently.

It's true HSR's gives bigger headline-grabbing rewards, that's great. But the in game economy is more tuned to get you to fork out money. If you don't pay for the battle pass you are always out of credits, materials and more as F2P and have to use your daily resources to get that instead first. Which slows levelling anything down to a crawl.

This is made worse as you have to level up FAR more characters to win the end-game. Take the new Pure Fiction stages which requires DoT characters to win like Luka, Sampo or Guinaifen to excel. Or the last one which required AoE and Follow-up characters. I even levelled up Herta, previously seen as one of the worst characters in the game and Serval just to beat it. Never had to waste gated resources levelling up Amber, Noelle, and many others in Genshin.

TLDR: Genshin is more F2P friendly day to day, but HSR gives you the bigger rewards. They are different. Both are good games, but personally i'd take the one that isn't as cynically tuned to get you to pay, over getting a few more wishes and a free 5-star.

2
rawzeku
Tue 6th Feb 2024

@themightyant The whole reward thing you mention is 100% valid. But a lot of the issues is also the lack of QoL for Genshin. HRS get so much QoL stuff so fast, meanwhile Genshin is lacking the basic stuff. That's also what upset people.

That said, only a bit into the new patch, and already loving the story. (Also only took 4 pulls to get Black Swan so yay)

3
themightyant
Tue 6th Feb 2024

@rawzeku That's true. I like all the QoL things in HSR. E.g. I just saw that they added how many times you've rolled into relic substats in HSR 2.0 a small nice QoL edition. The only thing I really want from Genshin is ability to save equipment loadouts.

But I just think people take it too far and don't look at the bigger picture. Fact is Genshin is an incredible game that you don't have to spend a penny on to enjoy, it's one of the most generous F2P games ever made in terms of quality and quantity. Yet people always want even more.

4
get2sammyb
Tue 6th Feb 2024

I vastly prefer levelling up characters in Star Rail. It’s so tedious and time consuming in Genshin.

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