Last month, the Chinese developer HoYoverse filed a few new trademarks for an upcoming entry in theHonkaiseries, titledHonkai: Nexus Anima. Although these trademarks didn’t provide any explicit details about what type of project this was, all signs pointed toward it being a game of some sort. At around the same time this news came to light, gamers discovered that HoYoverse had registered a website and a set of Twitter accounts using theHonkai: Nexus Animaname. This, according to some fans, suggested thatHonkai: Nexus Animawas a direct successor to the 2023 gacha game,Honkai: Star Rail.
A few days after these discoveries were made, HoYoverse announced during aHonkai: Star Railconcert in Shanghai that it was making a “brand-newHonkaigame.” The studio didn’t officially confirm what the name of this game was, but it did reveal a 20-second trailer of the title, which showed characters from theHonkaiuniverse fighting against each other using Pokemon-like creatures. The title in question,which is presumablyHonkai: Nexus Anima, seems to be a monster-collecting spin-off of theHonkaifranchise, similar in concept toPokemonorYo-Kai Watch. While it’s great that a game like this is being made, it’s unfortunate that HoYoverse isn’t giving its other IPs, likeGenshin Impact, the same amount of love asHonkai.
HoYoverse Should Make More Genshin Impact Spin-Offs, Just As It Does for Honkai
HoYoverse Has Been Making New Honkai Games Since Its Inception
TheHonkaifranchise has been around for as long as HoYoverse has existed, and it’s played a vital role in the company’s rise to fame. So far, almost all the games that HoYoverse has made areset in theHonkaiuniverse. Each installment in the series, however, is radically different from each other, and they all have confusingly distinct names. The firstHonkaigame (and the first game from HoYoverse in general) was a 2D iOS-exclusive platformer calledFlyMe2TheMoon. This game, interestingly enough, was a traditional single-player-only title with zero gacha elements or microtransactions.
HoYoverse followed upFlyMe2TheMoonwith a game calledHoukai Gakuen, also known asZombiegal Kawaiiin some regions.Houkai Gakuenwas a paid single-player action game that oddly featured zombies, even though they had never been present in the previousHonkaititle. The game’s direct sequel,Houkai Gakuen 2(a.k.a.Guns GirlZ), had a relatively similar,zombie-slaying theme. It, however, was the first HoYoverse game to adopt a live service business model, one which would later be used in titles likeGenshin Impact.
Since the release ofHoukai Gakuen 2in 2014, HoYoverse has launched two other installments in theHonkaifranchise:Honkai Impact 3rdand the aforementionedHonkai: Star Rail. Although the differences between these two games are not as drastic as the ones betweenFlyMe2TheMoonandHoukai Gakuen, they both offer fairly distinct experiences.Honkai Impact 3rdis a sci-fi action RPG with bullet hell and dungeon-crawling elements, whileHonkai: Star RailisaPersona-esque turn-based RPG. These two games have been far more successful worldwide than any of the previousHonkaititles. However, neither of them has been able to matchGenshin Impactin terms of popularity.
Even Though Genshin Impact is a Massive Hit, It Hasn’t Received Any Spin-Offs Yet
Genshin Impactwas originally conceived as the fourth mainline entry in theHonkaiseries, but it eventually evolved into an independent project during its development. This free-to-play action RPG set the world on fire when it was released in late 2020, and itgenerated over $3.8 billion in revenuein just two years. Even thoughGenshin Impactis, by far, HoYoverse’s most successful video game to date, the company hasn’t really made any spin-offs for it. There are a lot of ways that HoYoverse can expand theGenshin ImpactIP to other genres, but until the company starts treating it the same way it does theHonkaiseries, it seems unlikely that this will happen.
