If you’re on the fence about whether or not you should get into Genshin Impact, here is a guide to help you decide whether or not the game is right for you.
Being at home like most of us, chances are high that you’ve also spent both your work hours and downtime online. While scrolling through your feed, you might have observed that some of your friends are game streamers now—whether be a hobby or as a sideline. If something colorful catches your eye and you find a friend jumping for joy over a digital character or thanking the heavens for getting that dream role, then it’s probably because of the 2020 hit video game, Genshin Impact.
Released by miHoYo back in September 2020, Genshin Impact is an open-world game that took the gaming scene by storm. The game’s protagonists are siblings, who depending on which one you choose, has their sibling taken away by a god. The story is centered on exploration across countries, with looking for your sibling as the primary objective. Obviously, with this being a game, there are a lot of challenges along the way.
The game is undoubtedly popular and was even one of the most tweeted hashtags in the Philippines in the first half of the year. Genshin Impact has also seen a recent slate of major updates that bring with it more content for players old and new. If you’re on the fence about whether or not you should get into Genshin, here are some reasons why you should give it a try (and some why you shouldn’t).
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IT’S ANIME-INSPIRED
Most players of this game were drawn in by the anime-style visuals. Switch up the language settings to Japanese Audio and you’ll be pleased to hear familiar voices from your favorite anime characters across the board. Though the English voices aren’t bad either.
THE WORLD IS IMMERSIVE
Each city feels different and with enough exploring, you can tell which countries they’re based on. When you travel from place to place, it’s not just the visuals that change but the musical score is also region-specific. This audio-visual harmony succeeds in pulling you in Teyvat, which is the closest thing we’ll get to travel for now. There is a polish to the game that signifies the creators’ attention to detail, and it shows.
THE STORY IS DECENT, AND THERE IS A LOT TO DO
Besides the main elements of the story, which are already around 60 hours of playtime, there are still a lot of side quests and missions, bringing this game close to the triple digits, especially if you like exploring the world. Considering that just three of the seven areas are out for the open world, it’s very clear that Genshin Impact will be a game for the long run.
THE COMBAT SYSTEM IS FLASHY, FUN, AND FAST-PACED
Each character is unique and has its own set of skills. Since characters operate in teams of four, it will be up to the player to optimize each one’s skills and find a balance that works for them. Whether one’s goal is to stomp enemies as quickly as possible or to have a fun setup that requires a lot of player involvement, this is an open space.
IT’S FREE TO PLAY
With everything Genshin Impact offers, here is the biggest shocker: you can do everything you need to in the game, free of charge. Honestly, if you have incredulous amounts of self-control to not spend a single real-life penny, this is the biggest steal right now. miHoYo will actually give you what you need to complete the story puzzles. The main form of currency to get new characters, Primogems, can be attained by playing. Artifacts to make your character stronger can be farmed as well. There is no real need to spend.
THERE IS CROSSPLAY BETWEEN PC, PS4/5, AND ANDROID/iOS PLAYERS
Whether you’re on PC, PS4/5, or just on your phone, you can get started with Genshin Impact. The best part is you can play with your account on any of these devices, depending on where you are. If you need to do some time-sensitive quests but you’re heading on a trip with friends, then you can just whip out your phone before bed and get those quests over with. The multiplayer system is unique in its own way where up to three friends can join your world and help you with bosses, domains, and material farming. The only restrictions to this are story quests aren’t available in Co-Op play and you can only join worlds of people with at most the same level as you are.
DEVELOPER AND PLAYER INTERACTIONS
While miHoYo is no stranger to successful games with Honkai Impact 3 in their library, no game of theirs has ever had the acclaim and Western/worldwide acceptance of Genshin Impact. Knowing this, the company has intelligently poured most of its resource capability into the game, and it shows in the quality of new content, server maintenance, and the constant gathering of player feedback for the long-term betterment of the game.
BUT…
Based on everything, it can be fair to call Genshin Impact a F2P triple-A title. Its fame is well-deserved. However, like most things, there are some caveats to it that I’d like to lay down and you need to know before you smash that download button:
GACHA MECHANICS
The game is free-to-play. The catch is: miHoYo beautifully designs new characters and even features them in trailers for hype on their channel before releasing them, giving players the option to try them out for a bit. When you’ve decided that you finally want to get that 5-star (highest-tier) character, you have to roll the dice on the in-game system called “wishes” and pray you get them. This consumes in-game currency and gives you a 0.6% chance of bringing them home.
After 90 tries you’re guaranteed a character of that level, but not necessarily the one you are going for. Since 90 (or more) tries are expensive and you only have three weeks to avail of rarer characters per year, players often buy more in-game currency with real money in order to get who they want. Of course, this applies to higher-tier weapons as well. This might not be the ideal setup for those with a history of gambling.
GRAPHICAL DEMANDS
Given the stunning open-world of Teyvat and the flashy battle animations, the game gobbles graphical resources like a champ. Because of this, phone players often jest about leaving their phones in the freezer after playing to bring temperatures back to earth. Despite optimization for Playstation systems due to the Sony-miHoYo partnership, the game can barely run smoothly on the base Playstation 4. While there is no data to back this up, There have been several accounts of people upgrading to PS5 just to get 60 FPS gameplay.
GRINDING
Once you’ve figured out your favorite team composition, the gameplay can get pretty repetitive unless you want to experiment with other characters. After you’ve completed the story (so far) and quests, your routine will mostly be looking for mobs to obliterate, playing domains to hopefully get good artifacts, and farming resources while waiting for Mihoyo to release new content and characters. Luckily, in the 11 months the game has been out, they have been active in hosting events for players to do and giving ample rewards for participation.
FUTURE PLAYABILITY
miHoYo has made it almost impossible to level up beyond AR 55 and characters as of now top out at Lvl 90. Given the fact that players are grinding every day to make their characters stronger while waiting for new content, it would be interesting to see how the company makes future updates more challenging for players. Based on rumors, they now have a 12-year content plan laid out for the game instead of the original 5-year plan due to the game’s profitability and success.
All things considered, Genshin Impact is a trailblazer for the genre of Free-To-Play Triple-A titles. Most people had never even touched a gacha game in their life before GI, but having actual 3D sprites of unique characters with backstories makes spending the money not feel like gambling to most. Based on the record-breaking revenue GI’s made so far since its release not long ago, there is a compelling reason to finish what they started with this game.
As a player myself, I can’t wait to see how this will translate to new content moving forward. This is a ride that will last years, but as long as GI sticks to its roots of what made it fun while still innovating, this should entertain millions more and find itself among the titans of video games. At the end of the day, deciding whether or not to play Genshin Impact will fall on you, and hopefully, this list helps you make that decision.
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