APP STORE AWARDS

iPhone Game of the Year

Honkai: Star Rail

A Space Fantasy RPG

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Incredible visuals, tactically rich combat, mind-blowing worlds. This year’s most enthralling adventure whisked us away on a far-flung space odyssey.

– App Store editors

With their razor-sharp swords and impenetrable armour, the evil robots of Honkai: Star Rail may look imposing – until you open a black hole over their heads.

That’s just one of countless ways to annihilate foes in the 2023 iPhone Game of the Year – a spectacle in every sense of the word.

Honkai: Star Rail’s boss battles – like this one, against Cocolia, Mother of Deception – are as gripping as they are gorgeous.

This breathtaking space opera tells an epic tale of interplanetary intrigue, one where you – the mysterious Trailblazer – hold the power to right wrongs, save lives and discover the origins of the mysterious, godlike Aeon beings. It’s a heady saga rendered with cutting-edge graphics that take full advantage of your iPhone’s processing power.

As you crisscross the galaxy on a faster-than-light space train (among the many breathtaking stops: the massive space city Xianzhou Luofu), you’ll assemble a squad of fighters, each with their own reality-bending superpowers.

March 7th’s sweet-but-deadly Glacial Cascade, for example, lets her leap into the air and loose an arrow that explodes into a hail of adorable snow bunnies. Computer whizz Silver Wolf “hacks” enemies with her User Banned ability, lowering their defences to do massive damage.

Part of the fun in acquiring new heroes is seeing them debut their awe-inspiring Ultimates. Wipe out a legion of Shadewalkers by calling down an earth-shattering orbital laser strike? Why not!

With tactical options as limitless as the stars, no game made us feel as wondrously powerful in 2023.

Quick tip

The floppy-eared Warp Trotters are as valuable as they are adorable. When you spot one, sneak up and attack it to initiate combat, then focus your team’s firepower on the cagey critter. If you eliminate it before it manages to make a run for it, you’ll earn a pile of Stellar Jade – the most sought-after currency in the game.

Fun fact

Eavesdrop at guests’ doors at Jarilo-VI’s Goethe Hotel to hear snippets from the horror movie The Shining. If you dare to keep listening, you’ll eventually encounter the creepy twin sisters, who invite you to come play with them... forever.

Meet the creator

Honkai: Star Rail comes from HoYoverse, developer of our 2020 iPhone Game of the Year, Genshin Impact. The company’s founders – Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei and Luo Yuhao – were computer science students at Shanghai Jiao Tong University when they founded the studio in their campus dorm in 2011.