Honkai: Star Rail takes up the cherished tradition that Mass Effect and other space-faring games pioneered. As a member of the Trailblazers, players are teased of countless worlds with alien creatures, cultures, and geography. They’re teased of civilizations in various life stages, as seen in the almost desolate Jarilo-VI, and the Xianzhou Alliance’s roaming planets on their flagships.
Players know for a fact that other, more unusual worlds and species exist because of in-game lore. Memory Bubbles are chief sources of these extraterrestrial realities and exposition on known concepts. Each Memory Bubble has a twist to it that makes even the most relatable setting a neat piece of speculative work.
Bizarre Species
Who knows what Pompom is? Is the Immortal in a Vase just a soul or a shapeshifter? In Honkai: Star Rail, strange creatures populate the universe and even the player’s party.
A) Betrayal & Gripped Hands
AI supercomputer Pronto Expert System & Mecha No. 16 are advanced machine lifeforms presented in Memory Bubbles. Both are shown to have very human reactions to uncomfortable scenarios, despite either being completely or partially artificial.
Pronto has advanced senses that made a run-of-the-mill press conference a sensory overload. Because their team is wary and nervous about its capabilities as an advanced AI, it understood that it needed to mask its reaction to appear normal and, above all, loyal.
Mecha No. 16 was also overwhelmed, although in a different manner. It’s deliberately made unclear if the being inhabiting No. 16 is a sapient being or a partner AI, or if they can move their own body or are entirely reliant on Leah. Aside from its Sapphic undertones, No. 16’s story is interesting for its implications on artificial sapience, mind transference, and what stars are in this universe.
B) Cute Pet, Feast On A Buffet, & Total Evaporation
These Bubbles introduce terrifying creatures that can wipe out civilizations and entire worlds. Not only are they incapable of understanding sapient beings and morality, but they are also driven solely by their hunger or biological drive.
Both the world-eating youngest member of the Amoeba Slime Mold tribe and the humanoid fungi that evaporates all life operates on instinct. And yet the humanoid fungi have some form of reason, as they worship an unnamed god likely to be Oroboros, the Aeon of Voracity. The Fluffies share this capacity for base reasoning as they could disguise their bloodlust to lure victims in.
The Aeons
Aeons or God of the Stars are mortal beings elevated into immortality and near omnipotence. They do not adhere to human perceptions of morality. Instead, they act and judge according to their ideals.
C) Aeons, A Sneaky Love, & Beating Of Wings
These ideals are embodied by The Paths or wellspring of Imaginary energy bound by an Aeon’s principles which, in turn, confine Aeons to it. The same beliefs bind an Aeon’s followers as well, oftentimes to a fanatical, destructive fervor.
The researcher who led a rebellion against a society inspired by the Aeon of Beauty, Idrila, was subject to this fanaticism. Idrila or Anne Duray’s principles drove Harlow-VI’s citizens to murderous devotion even after her disappearance. It’s similar to the living legacy left by the dead Aeon of The Propagation, Tayzzyronth.
Except in Tayzzyronth’s case, his Swarm actively carries out their will of self-duplication and propagation at the cost of wanton destruction and consumption. There’s no leeway in The Path of Propagation, unlike The Path of Beauty.
Whereas Harlow-VI’s citizens aim to preserve what they believe of Idrila, the Mirror Holders aim to revive the Aeon of Beauty. They do so by finding her fragments or mirrors, which they hope to reunite. These mirrors reflect what one believes is beautiful, as seen when a being from a primitive civilization beholds one fragment.
D) End of the Feast & Fall of Logic
Honkai logs, books, and characters reference historical events frequently. These Memories are not direct accounts, but they tell of encounters that occurred at the height of these events.
One tells of a royal family sundered by followers of the Aeon of Destruction Nanook and the other Emperor Rubert I, whose actions indirectly caused the ascension of Nanook. The Destruction is the first Path the player character has access to, while the being that led a rebellion against Rubert I, Screwllum, is a lead developer of the Simulated Universe.
E) Family & Pure Faith
Compared to the previous two Bubbles, these are light-hearted. Even the political intrigue and espionage of Family have lower stakes than the others. Pure Faith and Family offer glimpses of how the followers of Aeon of Finality Terminus and Aeon of Harmony Xipe operate. The latter is a little more interesting, as the Astral Express was supposed to dock at a world inhabited by Xipe’s followers before redirecting to the Xianzhou Luofu.
Alien Worlds, Geographies, & Cultures
One of Honkai: Star Rail’s strongest aspects is its world-building. Near-incomprehensible geographies and events play with what’s familiar to make Star Rail’s universe feel more lived in and feel like its scale.
F) Calcification, The Atonement, & Digestion
Calcification and The Atonement show the consequences borne by intergalactic travelers ignoring warnings for their discoveries. In terms of settings, they establish worlds in which ancient horrors remain alive and lethal.
“Alive and lethal” are also apt descriptions for the creature in which Digestion takes place. Having an industrial civilization spring forth inside a giant mammal is an exciting prospect. If the second world players have access to is on a spaceship, then it’s not implausible to have the next world inside a gigantic creature.
G) Leisure Times, The Road Home, & Voyeurism
All three Bubbles depict aliens in alien worlds in everyday scenarios. They do important work in depicting alien worlds and beings as having normal, everyday lives. Not every setting or world needs to be elevated, and moments contribute a lot to world-building.
New Londinium also appears to be a cosmopolitan city with a good mix of alien races with an Interastral Peace Corporation presence. Meanwhile, Voyeurism’s world of synthetics appears to have a vastly different structure than a world for organics. With no definite road map, it’s not inconceivable for Honkai to dip into worlds with non-humanoid aliens like these.
H) Splendid Planet & Unable to Communicate
Splendid Planet takes place after a civilization-wiping disaster, while Unable to Communicate occurs before one. Players are walked through how intelligent life was and would be, destroyed in a darkly comedic manner.
Splendid is more of a bottle episode that carries Honkai’s modern fantasy tone. It’s unsettling, mixes small events with grander concepts, and ends with a twist. Communicate delivers on the small moments that answer unasked questions about the IPC, and how it interacts with astral citizens.
Honkai: Star Rail is available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, iOS, and Android.