Genshin Impact

[Raziel]

Not that new of a game, but one I've been obsessing with since its launch in late September.

 

Metacritic: https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/genshin-impact

 

Registration and download link: https://genshin.mihoyo.com/en

 

Genshin Impact is a mix of Fantasy Adventure RPG and gacha game, coming from Chinese developer Mihoyo. It's available for PC, PS5, PS4, and mobile.

 

What I like about it are its visuals, the music, combat, and exploration. I'm right in their target demographic, since the game has an animesque art style complete with Japanese voice actors who also voiced popular anime characters. Of course the game also has an English, Chinese, and Korean voiceover option, along with various textual language options.

 

The story in itself is interesting but most of the dialogue is rather mediocre to subpar and can be skipped. The voiced lines are amazing, but most side quest don't have any.

 

As for the gameplay, think Breath of The Wild with anime girls and boys. You can be on the way to a quest, get distracted by a chest, find a neat puzzle right behind that and forget why you've come to that region in the first place. The combat system is interesting since it involves a team of up to 4 characters, each bearing one of 5 weapon types (Bow, Sword , Claymore, Polearm, Catalyst (Mage)) and one of currently 6 out of 7 elements (Cryo, Pyro, Hydro, Electro, Anemo (Wind), and Geo; the last not yet playable element is Dendro (wood)). So you basically switch characters to create powerful elemental reactions. It's pretty simple and fun to play.

 

I think you can have a good time with this free to play game for the first 30 hours as long you have regions left to explore. After that, it gets really grindy and challenges are sparse. The game is in continuous development. We get steady small updates roughly every month, with new events for each and one new small region having been added so far. The next update will be Version 1.5, which will add again 2 new characters, new functions, and new enemies, but no big new region. 

I've personally reached the endgame and still do most of it, since I like these kind of grinds to a certain extent. Co-Op can also be fun to clear some mini-dungeons and world bosses together, or just muck around in the world. You can easily drop in and out of it, and it is cross-platform too. I spend most of my time helping lower level players in Co-Op.

 

Since this is a gacha game, you have to play a lottery to get new playable characters aside from the ones you get through the story. The rates are quite bad: 0.6% for the highest rarity (5-star characters or weapons) and guaranteed 10% (every ten pulls) for the "rare"/normal 4-star characters/weapons. The game also requires your attention daily for about 20 minutes to get your things done (daily commissions, using the stamina for various tasks). The stamina system (which you use to clear mini dungeons and collect rewards from bosses) is bad and intentionally restricting your gameplay, as it refills one unit every 8 minutes for a total of 160 units. You can also spend money on the game to either to "wish" (gacha roll) for new characters (to get one guaranteed 5-star, you'd have to spend 200€), or get level-up materials faster (there is a Battle Pass with a buying option to get more stuff).

 

I stream Genshin Impact almost daily on Discord, so feel free to hop in, ask questions, and see how it looks. 

 

Or you can watch this (not entirely serious) review to Genshin Impact which I found to be highly entertaining:
 

 

Edited July 14, 2021 by Raziel

[Raziel]

Big update ahead:  Version 2.0 will be coming in 20th July! Featuring the new region, Japan Inazuma!