For this week’s Critical Play, I chose to revisit an old friend, Honkai Star Rail.
Honkai: Star Rail, developed by HoYoverse and available on PC, mobile, and PS5, is a richly imagined sci-fi RPG, primarily played through turn-based combat, cinematic storytelling, and hosts a wide cast of characters. And of course, it wouldn’t be HoYoverse without a gacha system. Like many free-to-play games, Honkai: Star Rail uses chance-based monetization to drive player engagement and revenue. It does this in a way that undoubtedly makes players particularly susceptible to compulsive behaviors and addictive patterns (yes I am a victim), especially through the way randomness is presented and then emotionally reinforced in the narrative.
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Gacha system, but just to reiterate, a Gacha system is randomized character or in game speciality item pulling mechanic, where players spend in-game currency, often purchased with real money but also won through quests, for a chance to obtain rare items and characters, many of which are presented as limited items, but are likely to reappear later in the form of the ability to purchase them directly. Each “pull” is essentially a spin of the wheel, left to chance whether you can have the characters you want. While the game does offer a “pity” system (guaranteeing a high-tier character after 90 or so pulls), the odds of getting a specific desired character, such as a limited-time 5-star unit, can be ridiculously low. Yet players keep pulling, not because the odds are favorable, but because the game makes each pull feel like an event: flashy animations, triumphant music, and a character reveal that feels more like a reunion than a win. This psychological loop taps into what behavioral psychologists call variable ratio reinforcement, the same mechanism that makes slot machines so addictive. You never know when the jackpot is coming, but the next pull might be the one, and besides, it looks so fun!
What makes Honkai: Star Rail and other HoYoverse games (cough cough Genshin) particularly insidious in my opinion is that there is this emotional and narrative entanglement that it encourages. Players aren’t just rolling for a powerful tool, they’re rolling for a character with fascinating story, voice lines, relationships, and even their own quest arcs which are deeply integrated into the new narrative update, not to mention, you are seeing this character everywhere across the game when they’re being promoted (see above). It’s not just a prize; it’s a person, one you feel connected to before you’ve even met them in-game. This turns each pull into less of a gamble and more of a kind of emotional transaction. And when you don’t get them, it doesn’t feel like bad luck. It feels like being left out, it feels like missing something that you may never get the chance to have again, because pulling a character while everyone else is trying with you is way more fun than just buying it later
In contrast, randomness or chance in other games like Hades for example can enhance replayability, moment-to-moment strategy, and overall enjoyment of the game without affecting access to the its core content. While those games feature unpredictable elements like card draws or randomized enemy layouts, these mechanics are tightly integrated into the gameplay experience itself, rather than being monetized. The player knows the boundaries of chance, and their failures and successes feel more rooted in choice and adaptation. By comparison, Honkai: Star Rail instead disguises a gambling mechanic as character progression, narrative progression, and social status.
This raises some unsurprising ethical concerns. It becomes especially problematic when the system targets younger players (and they do, it’s rated T for teenage audiences), those with low impulse control, or players from economically vulnerable backgrounds. While HoYoverse does disclose pull rates, they are buried in menus and presented in ways that most players don’t fully understand. What’s more, the game leverages time-limited banners and daily login bonuses to create a constant sense of urgency, you must visit every day and be met with the same banner telling you about this character that you just need to have. These features, far from being are quite blatant manipulations nudging you towards spending.
It’s here that I believe the ethical permissibility of the Gacha system really begins to break down. While randomness in game mechanics can serve positive ends, they create novelty, encourage adaptability, and foster exploration in a way that maintains player interest in the long term; it would be ridiculous to say they are morally permissible when it is monetized in a way that obscures true cost, encourages compulsive spending, and links identity and community status to financial investment. A gacha system that operates without transparency, without limits, and without meaningful non-monetary alternatives is not simply a design choice, it’s blatant exploitation.
One path forward I would recommend for Honkai: Star Rail and games like it would be to build in more friction around spending. This could include more visible cost breakdowns (e.g., “you have a 99.4% chance of not receiving this character”) and spending caps for young players. While there is plenty of chance to gain a variety of characters through gameplay alone, wanting one particular character can get you into a messy situation very very quickly as the game is now. Another alternative is to decouple narrative content from monetized characters however in many ways I do think the story of these games is what makes it truly remarkable, and I feel to decrease story would be a disservice. I hate the Gacha system, not the game.
