I don't usually play gacha games, but Genshin Impact intrigued me. The idea of a free to play open world gacha game was interesting so I decided to try it out. I told myself I would only play for an hour to see what it was like. I ended up playing for two hours because I didn't want to stop playing. The game was that much fun for me and I've been playing ever since. The world of Genshin is set in Teyvat and you are introduced to the twins, a brother and sister who are traveling across many worlds. They are stopped by an unknown god in Teyvat and the god takes one twin and seals away the other. This is where you get a choice to play as either the twin brother or the twin sister. I went with the sister so of course she gets sealed away. This character is just known as Traveler.
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| The traveler starts her adventure. |
Traveler awakens and meets Paimon. Since the main character does not have a voice, Paimon does all the talking and acts as a companion and guide to Traveler. This is how the battle tutorial is done with Paimon explaining how the battle works as well as how the inventory system works. Paimon is very cute and there are a lot of funny jokes with Paimon including referring to Paimon as emergency food which results in a hilarious dialogue between Traveler and Paimon.
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| Paimon is not emergency food. |
Traveler and Paimon decide to check out the city of Mondstadt and try to find Traveler's missing twin. Mondstadt is basically the starter city for Genshin Impact and it's beautiful. The world of Genshin Impact itself is gorgeous and it is very clear that they were inspired by games like Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, but does it in a way that shows off its own style. There's a lot of freedom to explore and I would find myself getting sidetracked from the quests to just climb canyon walls, glide down from a mountaintop, and just take in all the amazing scenic vistas.
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| The wonderful city of Mondstadt. |
The story isn't really anything mind blowing, but it's easy to follow and it's a lot of fun. You get to meet a variety of interesting characters and some have personal quests you can do as part of the story. This is where some of the gacha aspect comes in. Remember, Genshin Impact is a gacha game and it is important to gacha responsibly because there have been many people spending a ton of money just to get a particular character they want. There are characters you do get for free as part of the story and they do have useful skills if you practice with them and figure out what works for you while using them in your party. Here's the thing. You don't have to spend money in the game if you don't want to. Genshin Impact does a great job of allowing you that freedom to explore and earn the in-game currency known as Primogems by doing daily quests via the Adventurer's Guild, completing dungeons, fighting world bosses, or finishing various quests. You can then use these on the Wish system. There are three different banners for the Wish system depending on if you want a specific character or item. These are definitely subject to RNG and you may not always get what you want, but sometimes the game gives you a pity roll after multiple tries and can surprise you with what you were looking for. This was how I got Klee and Sucrose. Thanks, RNG pity roll!
You can have four people in your party and Genshin allows you to play as the character you're actively controlling and switch between each character in your party with the tap of a button depending on what you need to win a fight. Various enemies have weaknesses to certain elements and since each character has a specific set elemental power they can use, it makes you plan out your strategies for your party because you can switch to each character in your party while fighting. For example ice is weak to fire, so having a character like Klee or Amber in your party who have fire abilities is helpful. There are also things to consider like healing abilities. I have a character, Barbara in my party who uses water abilities which can heal a single party member and her ultimate ability heals everyone in the party at the same time. It's things like this that make the combat fun and if your party gets wiped don't worry. You get put back in a safe spot and it just means you have to level grind a bit more. Luckily, it's not tedious to level grind in Genshin because the exploration aspect and rewards make it worth it.
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| Amber brings the heat. |
The two areas that can be explored currently are Mondstadt and Liyue and they're such big areas I never run out of things to do. Throw in multiplayer and there's even more things to do and you can have fun with your friends. Some story chapters are locked behind adventure rank. You need to have the right adventure rank in order to unlock them. This is also true of multiplayer. In order to be able to play the game with your friends, you need to be adventure rank 16. Once you have that, you can play the game with your friends and yes you can play together across multiple platforms. I play on PS4 and have played the game with friends who are on PC and mobile and we've had a blast playing the game together. There is an odd aspect to the multiplayer in Genshin however. The only one who can open the chests in the world is the person who is hosting the multiplayer session. This feels like a really odd choice. Sure, your friends can gather ore and plants in the game and they get rewards from world bosses, but it seems pretty strange that the host opens the chests and is the only one who gets anything. I feel your friends should get something too. Hopefully, they change that sometime in the future.
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| Enjoying mutliplayer with my friends. |
I love the art of Genshin Impact and no two characters look alike. Each character has their own unique style and anime aesthetic with a variety of personalities. It's great to swap each character in just to see what they can do and I love that each character also has their own personal story quests as well as the fact Traveler runs into them during their adventure. My traveler herself has wind abilities because I attuned with the sacred statue in Mondstadt. You can also change it to earth if you attune with a sacred statue in Liyue. I love the wind abilities and they definitely come in handy. The game itself is very anime which I enjoy because there are a lot of great cutscenes and the overall game itself is fun to explore and play.
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| A variety of styles for everyone! |
That isn't to say that Genshin Impact is completely perfect. There are definitely some issues with things such as ascending your characters. When your characters hit levels 20 and 40 you have to make sure you have certain items in order to break the level seal in order for them to be able to ascend to higher levels. This is all fine, but some of the resources are rare and only dropped by fighting certain bosses or completing certain dungeons which require you to spend a regenerating resource known as resin. The issue is you only get so much resin per day and if you run out, you just have to wait for it to regenerate. That doesn't sound so bad, but the part that is frustrating for many players is that you have to wait 16 hours before you have more and with the later levels, everything you need requires it which makes the higher level grinding in Genshin an unbearable chore. The same thing is kind of similar for the constellation tree. In order to unlock those abilities you need to hope you get a duplicate of that character so you can use it for that and considering how fickle the RNG can be at times, that's a bit rough too.
Yes, it's a gacha game, but those last two things are jarring from the rest of the game which is bordering on revolutionary because it gives away so much for free almost changing the exploitive gacha mechanics and makes me wonder why this monetization was implemented so carelessly and thoughtlessly. It needs a rework and the developers can find a better way in order to make that grind better for everyone.
Other than that, I do like Genshin Impact a lot. It's a fun adventure and they got so much right with the cross platform multiplayer and the free to play open world exploration. I'm enjoying playing the game with my friends and just having a great journey on my own. If they can just address that higher level grind with the resources, then they would really shine. Than you for reading, see you at the next adventure! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates and please do your best to be safe this year.
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| Admiring the beautiful view in Liyue. |
*Genshin Impact is available to play on the following platforms: Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS
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