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One of the few things that the HoYoVerse fandom can agree on is that the music in HoYoVerse games is, for the most part, really good. Some tracks even classify as straight-up bangers. The soundtrack of Honkai: Star Rail in particular stands out to me due to the sheer amount of battle themes that can exist in each world when compared to its contemporaries.
Back when I played the closed beta, something that immediately stuck out to me was how much I liked the default battle theme in Herta Space Station. Okay, look, it’s not fancy or epic or anything. It’s just a vibe and I liked it a lot more than the default Mondstadt battle theme in Genshin Impact (which I was playing literally right before going into the closed beta). I liked it enough that after HoYoVerse shut down the beta servers, the first thing I did was go to YouTube to see if someone uploaded it. So from the beginning, I was quite a fan of Honkai: Star Rail’s musical aesthetic.
As the game continued and the updates came out, I felt surprised in a good way at how HoYoVerse tends to add new battle tracks to the game, even when we aren’t going to a new world. Genshin Impact is the only other HoYoVerse game I play where I pay attention to the music. But in Genshin, there are only about two or three tracks per region and they feel random. I know that certain tracks only play in certain areas, like how the Sumeru desert and rainforest have separate themes. Listening to them, though, they sound very similar due to sharing the same instruments and general style. This is unfortunate since the different regions look so distinct from each other! So I wish they could sound more unique as well.
In comparison, worlds in Honkai: Star Rail have individual battle themes for different locales, even if they share a world. Compare the Scalegorge Waterscape with the Shackling Prison, Fyxestroll Garden, Cloudford, and the Alchemy Commission. Those areas all look and feel vastly different, so it’s great that they all have their own battle themes rather than sharing from a limited bank. In the most recent update, story bosses have regained their unique battle themes in modes like Memory of Chaos and Divergent Universe. This is great, as I’m a big fan of certain ones and it’s nice to not listen to the same four or five Echo of War battle themes every week when I want a change of pace.
On paper, it’s not that big of a deal. But music is more important than you might think! Check out this Harry Potter edit that was making rounds on the Internet a while back. That poppy music in the background is doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to imparting that spring flick vibe. I’ve long been of the opinion that the D.Gray-Man anime suffered a little (whether the original or Hallow) from hiring Kaoru Wada as the composer. Wada is great. But his style incorporates a lot of traditional Japanese instruments and sounds that really brought Inuyasha to life, yet feel weird in the gothic European setting of D.Gray-Man. Even if the writing, acting, and cinematography of a scene are perfect, a poor soundtrack can ruin the whole thing.
Would I have noticed anything off with the game if it didn’t change the soundtrack based on individual maps rather than worlds? Probably not. Nonetheless, it’s a nice touch that I appreciate. The sheer amount of variety in music helps to make the world of Honkai: Star Rail feel larger and grander than it may be, which fits perfectly with the space opera genre. Now if only the designs for the female characters’ outfits could take some notes!
Honkai: Star Rail is readily available on the PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices.
