Honkai Star Rail meets… L.A. Noire? Everything you need to know about new gacha game Silver Palace

There’s no shortage of high-profile gacha games that seem aesthetically or thematically inspired by Hoyoverse’s Genshin Impact. Silver Palace, meanwhile, feels surprisingly refreshing with its Victorian-era setting and hardboiled detective themes. 

It’s a fast-paced ARPG set in the industrial city of Silvernia that’s bustling with corporate monopolies, underground syndicates, and royal affiliates. Architecturally, it’s very reminiscent of Belobog in Honkai Star Rail with its tall European buildings and elaborate tramways. 

The main character in Silver Palace is a detective, tasked with investigating a series of crimes and unraveling the dark mysteries that plague the city of Silvernia. It’s a far cry from most gacha games’ amnesiac protagonists with self-destructing hidden abilities, although we are not so sure about the last bit yet. 

Instead, they are a hat-wearing, cane-wielding, and Sangria-consuming Detective who's rational, reliable, and efficient. While games like Batman: Arkham Origins and The Witcher 3 let you temporarily play a detective, L.A. Noire is the only modern AAA title we can recall where you play as a full-fledged hardboiled detective...until Silver Palace. The comparisons are inevitable.  

It’s this bizarre mix of anime aesthetics and aforementioned influences that makes Silver Palace, a free-to-play gacha game, worth keeping an eye out for. It's currently in development at Elementa—a Singapore-based studio and a subsidiary of Chinese publisher Happy Elements.

Silver Palace’s recent reveal was followed by an extensive, 10-minute-long gameplay walkthrough that showcases the game’s photorealistic UE 5 visuals, many playable characters, open-world exploration, parry-heavy action combat, QTE-dependent stealth, and its unique investigation mechanic, among other things. 

There’s plenty to dive into, but here’s everything we currently know about Silver Palace.

As of the time of writing, Silver Palace’s release date is an enigma, just like its story and characters. However, Elementa Games has confirmed it will launch on PC, consoles, and mobile devices. 

While this may seem disappointing, thankfully, there are plenty of other gacha games launching in 2025, including the global release of Persona 5: The Phantom X. All things considered, Silver Palace could still be a 2025 title, but we have to wait for an official update from Elementa.

There’s not much to go on about Silver Palace’s story except that you play a hired detective who returns to Silvernia three years after a disaster, possibly the death of a loved one, to investigate various crimes and unravel hidden mysteries in the city.

Here's a bit of an official story description to give you an idea of what to expect:

"In the third year of Queen Feliana’s reign, the detective returns. Silvernia straddles the crossroads of splendor and decay, where reality blurs with fables. Through diplomacy, deduction, instinct, and steel—trace the origin of that fatal shot. Your choice will carve not just your destiny... but the fate of many."

Thankfully, we have plenty of details about Silver Palace’s gameplay. As mentioned above, it features fast and frantic combat with a strong focus on parrying enemy attacks. You can switch between melee and ranged weapons, with options ranging from sidearm pistols to long swords.  

Silver Palace isn’t a party-based game, but like Wuthering Waves, you can switch between four characters in real-time. Naturally, every character has unique abilities and boasts a unique playstyle. The Detective is more of a gunslinger who primarily deals damage with their sword and uses their sidearms to fill up enemies’ stun meters.  Stunned enemies can be finished with a stylish execution attack. 

Stealth is a major focus here, with up to three options for subduing various enemies. You can simply knock them up or interrogate them for valuable intel. There’s also a third rather intriguing option, which allows you to stab enemies with a syringe. We don’t know exactly what it does, but you lose one syringe every time you select this option. 

Silver Palace is a relatively mature gacha game with plenty of gore and violence. You can bash enemy skulls and twist them until they are a pile of mangled corpses. But this isn’t the only thing that makes it a grim adventure. 

Outside combat, you can freely explore Silvernia’s bustling metropolis during the day or night. The Detective has a magical grappling hook, which they can use to zipline across the map and tease stray cats in the open world. You can visit lavish bars and have a glass of red wine, though we don't know if drinking provides any passive buffs or not.

Unlike most gacha games, Silver Palace features mounts, more precisely, a flying celestial horse. You can explore Silvernia on foot or race through its gorgeous locales on your mount.

There is a mount selection screen where you can see their rarity and examine various stats such as speed, health, and cooldown time. Since it’s a free-to-play gacha game, expect a ton of paid cosmetic items for your mount.

The highlight of Silver Palace’s gameplay is undoubtedly its investigation mechanic. You can use it to examine each NPC in the game and see various stats, such as the items they could drop. Does this mean you can kill anyone and everyone? We are not sure, but we hope so.

Some monsters disguise themselves in human form, and you can use this investigation feature to detect friends from foes. Naturally, there has to be more to this than this, but we will have to wait for an official update from Elementa Games to get the full picture of this unique gameplay element.

You can play as the male or female Detective in Silver Palace, both of which are oozing with personality. The game’s official website also provides information on two other characters, who could be the starting units or important NPCs. They are Argos and Alf. 

Argos is a green-haired, young bartender with a sharp tongue. He was part of MISS (a secret organization of sorts), but now keeps a low profile behind the bar. On the other hand, Alf is a clumsy, red-haired MISS Maid 49 (whatever that is) and is one of the Detective’s primary companions. She could be Paimon's equivalent in this game. 

Outside of this, we don’t know much about the characters in Silver Palace, though we have seen some of them in action in the gameplay showcase. There is a blonde, tank-like character who wields a massive sword and deals tons of damage to enemies. There’s also a dark-haired, nurse-like character who wields a short blade and carries a syringe bag on her back.

Elementa has not announced any closed or open beta for Silver Palace. Fortunately, you can pre-register for the game's full release on its official website. You can find the pre-registration option on the corner of the right-hand side of the screen. Choose the platform(s) of your choice and enter your email address to complete the registration.

Silver Palace doesn’t have an official Discord server as of this writing, but you can follow it on Facebook, X, YouTube, and Reddit for official information and updates on the game. Its Subreddit is already brimming with release date speculations and discussions on its many influences. 

That’s everything we know about Silver Palace. For more on the game, stick to esports.gg.