Honkai: Star Rail devs call out “terrible” leakers for spoiling story twists

Developers of Honkai: Star Rail have called out the “terrible” leakers for spoiling the story in the previous 2.0 update.

Honkai: Star Rail is a free-to-play turn-based strategy role-playing game developed and published in China by miHoYo and published worldwide by HoYoverse. They are also responsible for creating games like Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd.

Players become the Trailblazers, who are set to travel to various planets and help resolve them with the Astral Express Crew. The latest planet where they could travel to is Penacony, which was released in the 2.0 update back on February 6, 2024. Players could experience the new world and its characters, such as Acheron, Aventurine, Black Swan, Sparkle, Firefly, and Sam.

Before releasing these updates, miHoYo and HoYoverse always host a Special Program that introduces the new featured characters and the events and rewards that will be available. The 2.1 live stream on their official YouTube and Twitch featured a question-and-answer portion where the developers addressed the leaks.

In the question-and-answer session, developers were asked: “Why do the team always see future content on the internet before it’s officially released?” Shaoji, the narrative designer for the Honkai series, addressed this issue.

He answered that more attractive content garners more attention, which increases the chances of leaks. They shared that leaks disrupt the game’s storytelling and affect the players’ experiences, whether they sought after these leaks or accidentally stumbled upon them.

“Once something is leaked, its spread becomes even more uncontrollable,” Shaoji commented. “The situation affects both players who want to see it and those who don’t. When the team’re telling a story, what is the most important thing besides the content itself? It’s how the team tell it.”

“Even in the process of storytelling, I have to adjust my way of storytelling based on my audience’s reactions, the respective knowledge bases, and how much the team can understand each other. It’s all about achieving a happy outcome for both sides. That’s the true meaning of communication and connection. It’s unfortunate that leaks can disrupt this process.”