miHoYo or HoYoverse loves its shared universe, re-using character designs, and sharing motifs. Even before Genshin Impact came out, fans were quick to point out similarities between characters there and in previous games such as Honkai Impact 3rd and Houkai Gakuen 2 or Guns GirlZ.
Honkai: Star Rail is no exception. From the first playable scene, Trailblazers control Kafka and meet Silver Wolf before they encounter the game’s version of Murata Himeko and Welt Yang. Landing in Belobog puts Trailblazers in the path of Bronya and Seele, among others, while Xianzhou Luofu presents returnees Sushang and Luocha, who is the spitting image of villain Otto Apocalypse. Honkai will no doubt have more characters coming back. Fans are already speculating who will make a Star Rail debut, else making wishlists with funny or lore-deep considerations.
7 Raiden Mei
Raiden Mei and Yae Sakura, the next character on this list, are old characters from Honkai with big plot significance. The former is a main character who tirelessly tries to save series protagonist and one-time antagonist Kiana Kaslana as she had saved Mei. Her devotion drove her to the point of breaking Kiana’s heart by taking drastic, near-irreversible measures.
She is the spitting image of Dr. MEI, a pivotal character who mothered the Kaslana bloodline with Kevin Kaslana. Much like Yae’s own Previous Era doppelganger, their looks are the only similarities between the Previous Era and Current Era Mei.
6 Yae Sakura
Yae’s backstory was partly referenced by HoYoverse in creating the backstory of the Raiden in Genshin Impact, in that she had a twin who died in an act to save their homeland.
It should be said that Yae Sakura is an entirely different character from SAKURA, codenamed Setsuna. Despite this, Yae and SAKURA both lost their little sisters and lost their lives in terrible circumstances.
Both Raiden and Yae have made it to other HoYoverse games due to their popularity. Guns GirlZ features a version of Raiden, while she and Yae have prominent roles in Genshin Impact.
5 Durandal
Durandal’s real identity is a massive spoiler that needs a bit of dancing around to get through. What can be said about her without spoilers is she is the leader of the Immortal Blades Valkyrie squad and current wielder of the Abyss Flower, a Divine Key or powerful Previous Era weapon.
Also known by her chosen name, Bianka Ataegina, Durandal is one of the most powerful active Valkyries in Honkai. She’s a beef gate to Kiana at several points of the story and even went toe-to-toe with the most powerful characters in the series. Her power, though later boosted by genetic ability, was all earned as she trained to protect her comrades in Schicksal.
4 Elysia
Elysia is a member of Fire MOTH, an anti-Honkai force in the Previous Era. She was the second of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, a sub-group within MOTH. Though she founded the Flame-Chasers, she gave the first spot to Kevin, the Hero of Humanity.
She is an anomaly within the Honkai universe as she was the Herrscher of Origin and Humanity. As such, she wanted to protect humanity instead of destroying it, as is the driving need of every Herrscher. To that end, she gave up her life, so Herrschers after her could retain their humanity and fight for their survival.
Star Rail fans who played Honkai made a big deal out of Himeko seemingly having a good life aboard the Astral Express, after what she went through in Honkai. Elysia fans are hoping for a similar situation, even if she’s just a resident on another planet.
3 Kevin Kaslana
Kevin Kaslana is a nigh unstoppable warrior who committed monstrous atrocities to prevent the second extinction of humanity. He’s often brought up alongside Otto Apocalypse, the basis of Star Rail character Luocha, whose deeds were also abominable. However, Kevin ultimately had benevolent but misguided motivations, whereas Otto did everything and even became the catalyst for huge parts of the game to revive a single person.
As the last five chapters of Honkai are still within spoiler territory, Kevin’s plans couldn’t be explained in full. But due to his world-spanning and moonfaring nature, finding a character who looks like Kevin in any of Star Rail’’s worlds wouldn’t feel unwelcome.
It should be remarked that Caelus and Stelle, Star Rail’’s main characters, bear some similarity to Kevin. Although this may just be another callback, as in the case of Genshin’s Unknown God looking similar to Kiana Kaslana in her Herrscher of the Void form.
2 Su
Where there’s Kevin, there’s Su. The 7th Flame Chaser is Kevin and Dr. MEI’s confidant and, for the longest time, Dr. MEI’s physician. He was also Kevin’s morality chain and like him took extreme measures to find a way to defeat the Honkai.
Su’s appearance in Star Rail wouldn’t be amiss, as he already has a version in Genshin Impact. The Grand Sage Alhaitham looks like Su with his hair pulled back, is similarly reticent when it comes to combat, and is connected with the region of Sumeru, whereas Su created the bubble universe named Seed of Sumeru.
Pulling Su into Star Rail, and as a playable character under the Paths The Erudition, The Harmony, or The Abundance, isn’t inconceivable.
1 Frederica Nikola Tesla & Lieserl Albert Einstein
Instead of outright portraying Tesla and Einstein as little girls, Honkai decided to run with their fictional descendants. Honkai’s Tesla and Einstein are girls whose physical aging slowed down due to their experiments. Nevertheless, they’re the founders and head scientists of Anti-Entropy, North America’s defense against Honkai.
Tesla and Einstein were the keys to the many advancements Anti-Entropy made in defeating Honkai. They also actively participated in the subjugation of deadly threats, such as the Herrscher of the Void, and served as emotional support to allies like Welt and Mei.
With only 15 of 84 members of the Genius Society revealed, there’s plenty of space for these geniuses to take their place in Star Rail’s universe. Moreover, they were in Welt’s shards in his splash art along with Welt Joyce and Otto Apocalypse.
Honkai: Star Rail is available now for Android, iOS, and PC. A PlayStation 5 version launches in Q4 2023.