Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact has no right to be as beautiful as it is AND free at the same time. Not only is this masterpiece of a game fun to play, it’s a work of art too. 

Intro

Genshin Impact was first released in September 2020. When it came out, it kind of exploded. Sure, the developers pumped millions into the development, but even they could not have been prepared for the overnight success it achieved. The developers, MiHoYo, boasted an absolutely incredible closing revenue of $800 million for 2020. That’s a whopping $200 million per month! One would think this success would slow down as time went on, but recent data has shown a total revenue of $3 billion USD up till 2022. 

The reason we’re focusing on the money numbers as much as we are is because we firmly believe that Genshin Impact is a perfect example of video game monetization done right. Unlike some other recent other titles we’ll not mention.  

Simple description

So what’s the big deal? What is Genshin Impact really? Well, it’s an open-world action RPG. The art style is undeniably anime-esque and if you’re a fan of that kind of thing, you’ll often find yourself getting lost in the ambiance of the world while playing. We don’t want to ruin a second of the story but suffice to say that as you play you’ll find out that the game is not only visually stunning but has a deep and rich story that will keep you coming back 

The gameplay is great for this genre of game, and where the game truly shines is in its combat. It’s easy to understand but can be put toe to toe with any of the best combo-based fighting games. Sure, there will always be best in slot strategies, but the great thing is that you’ll be able to play to your style and still rock the game while doing so. 

It’s also a Gacha game. A term that you either know or don’t. Gacha games allow you to purchase something by using in-game currency. You usually can’t simply buy the thing you want though, and instead get random rewards as outcomes of the purchase. The term originated in Japan where vending machines would dispense capsules containing random toys. 

The good

There’s so much to say here but we’ll start with the most obvious thing first. Genshin Impact is Free to Play. You get to enjoy a massive amount of free content before even thinking about needing to spend a cent. Even so, the game does not feel like it forces you at any point to need to spend money to enjoy it, which is great. 

Being free, you would think that there has to be some kind of catch. This is not the case, as the game boasts some of the most beautiful visuals we’ve ever seen. Sure, the anime-esque style might not be everyone's cup of tea, but there can be no denying the fact that when you load up the game it is strikingly beautiful. 

So they didn’t cut corners on visuals, how does gameplay measure up then, right? This is yet another home-run for Genshin Impact. There is a deep world with a great RPG system built into it. You get to follow a rich storyline and while questing through the world you’ll seldom find yourself getting bored. As previously mentioned the combat is also satisfying and simple to master. Overall it’s quite hard to understand just how they’ve managed to pack as much of a punch with a free game as they have with Genshin Impact. 

The bad

Nothing can be perfect, though. And while Genshin Impact sure is pretty damn close there are, of course, issues we’d like to bring to the light. The game is Free to Play as mentioned before, but what we’ve seen a lot of complaints about is that when you do start spending money in pursuit of something specific, the drop rates can be quite stingy. 

This low drop rate, coupled with some of the game features and progress being gated behind payment walls does get a little annoying from time to time. It’s interesting to note that any game where you are chasing a specific item or drop which makes this drop super rare or close to unobtainable can be both amazing and frustrating at the same time. You work towards the goal, and the longer it goes on, the less likely you feel that you’ll ever be able to achieve it. 

Besides the payment walls and money-related frustrations there are some technical issues as well, namely controller-related problems on PC AND a limitation to what you can do with friends while playing. 

The ugly

The worst thing about the game is that, as of writing this article, the story is not yet complete. Imagine spending hours of your life immersed in this rich world only to discover that you’re left with a cliffhanger. I am sure the developers are trying their best to figure out a way to wrap up the main story while still allowing for new content. It’s a hard problem to solve, sure, but for those of us with completionist brains, we need to know what happens! 

Closing

If you’re looking for a new action RPG to sink your teeth into, we highly suggest giving Genshin Impact a try. Even if you think the art style might not suit you, we’d still suggest trying to bear with it, who knows it might grow on you and even if it doesn’t, the story and combat is amazing enough to keep you playing for hours. 

Outro (Getting people to talk in comments)

As always, if you think we’ve done a good job talking about one of our favourite games, please do let us know. If you think we’ve done a terrible job, we’d also love to hear about it. Share all of your thoughts in the comments section below, and share this with anyone you think should know about it. . 

The beauty of Genshin Impact is in its simplicity. When you load up the game for the first time you are greeted by a character selection screen where you’ll need to pick your starting character. Don’t let this choice frighten you too much, because while you play you’ll be unlocking more characters and filling out your party. This party is kind of a big deal, and is pretty much the core mechanic in the game. You play with a party of up to four characters each with different skills and elements at their disposal. To beat your opponents, you’ll need to rapidly switch between these party members and use their available moveset to outplay or outfight them. 

Every character has a basic attack and a stronger charged attack. Alongside these “physical” attacks they each have an elemental skill and an elemental burst ability. It might come as no surprise that in order to fight, characters also need a weapon to imbue their abilities. We could make an entire website about character builds, so in this article we’ll just try to keep things as surface level as possible. 

There are only a few simple elements you need to wrap your head around to be able to get into the swing of things, and then from there you’ll keep learning and improving as you go. If you take nothing more from this article, the most important thing you need to know is that you should try to master combination battles early on. If you can do this, you’ll be able to go through the game with relative ease and enjoy it while doing so. 

You might not be able to build your ideal team with your ideal items though, which is the difficulty with a Gacha Game like this. The random aspect behind acquiring things can lead to a bit of frustration, but try to do the best with what you’ve got, always, and you will have a great time. 

Mechanics and unique features

We simply don’t have enough space in this article to dive into the deep gameplay mechanics of Genshin Impact. There are layers upon layers of interactions you will need to have in the game to progress and improve. 

We will try our best to give a brief overview of some of these mechanics, and if you want more information you can let us know what you’re looking for in the comments section below. 

One of the main progression systems in the game is your Adventure Rank or AR. Your AR is the overall level of your account and increasing your AR gives you access to more features and helps you get more rewards from completing activities. You increase you AR by gaining Adventure EXP. This experience is gained from simply playing the game, exploring and completing quests. There are a number of ways to gain Adventure EXP and you’ll pick them up quite quickly the more you keep playing the game. 

Your goal early should be to increase your AR as quickly as you can while also trying to increase your World Level. Your World Level increases in different ways as you progress and you’ll sometimes need to complete specific ascension events to progress to the next World Level while progressing through your Adventure Level. 

We would strongly suggest trying to familiarize yourself with the mechanics in the game as they get introduced, this will help you follow along as new things become available. As we mentioned, we can cover specific mechanics in later articles, but for this one we’re keeping it high-level. 

The other very important thing to become aware of is Wishes. Wishes are the gacha mechanic of Genshin Impact and are how you earn things like characters and weapons. You spend currency on these wishes in order to get a chance at receiving a character or weapon you want. 

To purchase anything in the game, however, you will of course need to have currency. There are a number of these available, each with their own unique applications. Mora is the basic in-game currency, like gold in other games. Primogems are a premium currency that you can accumulate or purchase and spend on wishes. There are also fates and a slew of other in-game currencies you’ll need to keep track of. 

Outro (Getting people to talk in comments)

Overall Genshin Impact is a deep game with so much content you’ll struggle to find a time where you’re not able to entertain yourself. Let us know below what you’d like to see us cover next or just leave some love for this article.