My daughter and I are avid HoYoVerse gamers. We’ve both been playing Honkai Star Rail ever since it came out. Meanwhile, my daughter also plays Zenless Zone Zero, Genshin Impact, and Tears of Themis. This isn’t the first HoyoFest we’ve read about online… but it’s the first one we’ve actually gone to. It’s ongoing until tomorrow, July 27, 2025 from 10am to 9pm at the SMX Hall 3. Like all previous HoyoFests, HoyoFest 2025 will be happening in several Southeast Asian countries — Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
We got early access thanks to my media pass. We were personally toured through the event by Hoyoverse Senior PR Manager, Amos Yeo. I purposely got the 10am timeslot on July 24, the first day. Those who had bought Fast Passes got early access as well. Judging from booth size, placement, and crowd, we concluded Genshin Impact is Hoyoverse’s most popular game. I played it for a short while but I very much preferred Honkai Star Rail so I didn’t continue with it.
Each game booth has its own set of events. Complete the missions and score freebies both physical and in-game. There are also standees, figures, and backdrops you can take photos with.
We were surprised that Honkai Star Rail was relegated to a small corner booth located on the side. All the other games except Tears of Themis had wide, sprawling booths. The list of Booth Activites had not yet arrived and so the Hoyo staff just told us what to do to finish the missions and earn the freebies. We each got collectible foil tickets with a code that’s redeemable in-game. We also got exclusive HoyoFest Honkai Star Rail character photocards and postcards.
Lol even their newest game Zenless Zone Zero (which I also played for a bit) had a huge sprawling booth.
There’s an area for performances, games, cosplay showcases, and other activities. Hoyoverse also set-up an Artist Alley where amateur artists could sell fan-made merch. Amos said that artists were given guidelines to follow with regards to portraying the Hoyoverse characters. As long as these were followed, they could make and sell merch which ranged from prints, keychains, pop sockets, charms, and more.
You know what was surprising? Everyone made a beeline for the merch store as soon as the doors opened. There were looong lines for merch. Amos let us in so we could check it out but told us that for purchases, paying Fast Pass customers would get first dibs and we would have to line up just like everyone else if we wanted to purchase anything. I think this is the CORRECT mindset and I appreciated it. I’ve been to events as a paying customer and it’s really shitty when people with a free pass who aren’t even really interested in whatever it is would be given first dibs.
I love the Origami Birds from Honkai Star Rail and how I wish I could’ve purchased an Origami Bird lol. Oh well, maybe next time. I did see some merch stores in Korea selling official merch so maybe I’ll go get some there on my next trip. Amos said that the merch sold at HoyoFest are all exclusive for the event and can’t be bought elsewhere though. The merch quality is superb from what we saw. I would very much like to buy some in the future.
Fast Passes for the duration of HoyoFest 2025 are sold out, but regular tickets are still available at the ticket counter onsite.
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