Currently Playing: Genshin Impact

I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to my thoughts about Genshin Impact, but I’ll just start typing.

Instead of just watching copious amounts of dramas, I wanted to play more video games this year to relieve stress more often. I’ve already finished Kena: Bridge of Spirits and started Ghost of Tsushima. I took a break from the latter because I got reintroduced to Genshin Impact halfway through February. I was familiar with this game as part of the Weaboo starter pack. There were enough kawaii gamer setups with Genshin Impact wallpapers for me to realize there was a niche there. As someone who regularly attends anime conventions, what’s the point in becoming more of a stereotype?

Well, I guess I’m contributing to the stereotype since it’s now May 2022, and I’m too deep into Genshin Impact to stop. My adventure rank is 33, so I’ve unlocked all three worlds in the game: Mondstadt, Liyue, and Inazuma.

The Worlds of Genshin Impact

Despite how much time I’ve spent on this game, I’ve only explored 22% of it, which shows its vastness. Oh, and did I mention that the game isn’t done yet? Yup, the MiHoYo developers in China are adding seven worlds to the game to finish its story, and Sumeru will be the fourth.  

If you still don’t know what this game is about and want to read the synopsis before diving in (which I wish I had done), here’s the synopsis:

Genshin Impact’s central story focuses on a traveler from another world suddenly arriving in the land of Teyvat, in which seven nations actively jostle for power. Each of these territories have a loose real-world equivalent — Mondstat is Germany, Liyue is China, the yet-unseen land of Snezhnaya is pretty clearly Russia. Each of these are governed by an elemental deity, and you’ll often have the chance to fight or recruit these immortals given flesh.

Source

You can see that this game has a very rich storyline, a very big fanbase (I expect to see a ton of Genshin Impact cosplayers at conventions this year), and it’s an open-world game with almost endless exploring possibilities. There’s no limit to what you can do. Climb walls, swim through seas, transport between lands, and fight as a team of characters you cultivate.

That being said, here are some things I love about the game, and a few things I’d improve: 

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What I Love about Genshin Impact

The elemental fighting capabilities

Whenever they release a proper Avatar: The Last Airbender game, they need to let us experience all the elements as Genshin does. After you build your team of characters, each with a single element, you can switch characters in battle and use these elements against enemies that are sensitive to those elements.

You can use Pyro (fire) on Hydro (water) enemies and Cyro (ice) on Pyro enemies. In total, the game has several different elements, and you can play as 40+ different characters.  

Enemies and puzzles

Gameplay is standard video game fun, with puzzles to solve and a variety of enemies to fight. Beaten enemies, from easy to super difficult, give you loot to help you progress.

Fighting these enemies is like farming in this game since they drop hard-to-get items.  

The stunning animation, artwork and landscapes

I’ve stopped playing the game countless times to appreciate the beautiful high-definition landscapes. I can’t believe how crisp the game looks on my UHD LG monitor with HDR display. So far, my favourite places in the game are Liyue Harbour, Inazuma City, Watatsumi Island, Dragonspine, and Narukami Island.

I love that you can swim and climb all over the place in this game. It’s pretty open-ended. Also, I love how you can teleport across the entire map with Teleport Waypoints and the Statues of the Seven.  

Cross-platform and co-op playing abilities

You can play across multiple platforms. Because everything’s in the cloud, you can play on your PS5 at home and your iPad in bed, or your iPhone as you travel.

It’s on every platform, except the Nintendo Switch, although people have modded their Switch to play Genshin.

Then there’s co-op mode, which I just tried, and it’s pretty fun. Defeating enemies and farming while exploring the landscape with multiple people is awesome.  

The mandarin voiceover

I tried playing it in English, but I couldn’t. I appreciate work done in the native language more. When I watch an American drama, I watch it in English. For anime, I watch it in Japanese. And dramas? I watch them in Mandarin or Korean. That way, the intonations and original intent of the work are preserved.

Since this game was developed in China, I wanted to play it in Mandarin. Great voice acting, and it helps me improve my listening skills. Some of these voices sound very familiar to me, too, from the dramas I’ve seen. In any case, I’d recommend it in Japanese or Mandarin instead of English. If you’re anti-subtitles, though, the dub is for you.  

What I don’t like about Genshin Impact

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It’s very addicting

I love games with a beginning and an end. You can binge play and then it’s over and you’re back to your life. Then I can move on to another narrative game. However, open world games still need to be finished, with multiple worlds…well, I could occupy myself with it forever. It’s like Animal Crossing, you can play for as long as you want. This game is kind of like that, except there are unexplored territories that haven’t even been revealed.

You feel like you’re waiting for a new season of a show. It’s that type of feeling. Furthermore, there are just so many things to the game. Unless you’re really ambitious and play all day, and I mean that seriously, it’s really challenging to get most things done. The developers know how to keep people playing, and they’re pretty skilled at it.  

There’s too much dialogue in the quests

Quests are another aspect of Genshin Impact. A quest is a “side-quest” in the game or a narrative quest that ties into the main storyline. It’s the narrative quests that kill you. Liyue and Inazuma (the coolest lands in the game) can’t be unlocked without hitting the “x” button on your Playstation controller aggressively until you’re questioning your existence to progress in the game and get access to those lands.

98% of the quests are dull and slow, and we need a skip feature. I only like the cinematic parts, and the end of Act 1 in particular. That’s the worst part of the game, and it would make the game way more interesting and intriguing if they made them skippable. 

There’s too much lore and it can be super difficult to dive into Genshin Impact

This game has too much lore to be beginner-friendly. You can be like me and dive right in. However, if you’re not careful, the actions you take at the beginning of the game can make it more difficult and less fun later on. You can do simple things like spending your Mora (the currency in the game) on ascending characters who are not capable fighters to make battling the hardest bosses easier.

Another thing, these characters are all tier-ranked. Because there aren’t any equals in terms of quality, you should study the list of the most powerful DPS characters and support characters. You should also study how they work together. That’s what I did halfway through my journey, and I kind of wish I’d done it earlier, as well as wished on more wishes (the gacha element of the game) earlier.  

It’s extremely difficult to get the characters you want

Characters can be acquired by playing the game or by wishing. It’s hard to get most of the top-ranked characters. You can’t get those characters through the game, so you have to use the wishing (gacha) system. It’s how this “free” game makes its money.

The enemies respawn

I love narrative-based games like Ghost of Tsushima, Kena Bridge of Spirits and Ratchet & Clank, where you kill the enemy and they’re dead forever. If you go back to that land, you are going back to the enemy-free territory. Genshin Impact isn’t like that.

Somehow, someway, these enemies just respawn in different places. There are an endless amount of them and you can’t keep track of how many you’ve killed. In other words, if you want satisfaction from that, you won’t get it.  

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That’s all I have to say about Genshin Impact. This is a well-made game. The OST is spectacular and well-timed, as well as very diverse. There are so many tracks that it doesn’t repeat itself. And the visuals are gorgeous. Like, that’s definitely the most impressive part of the game. The storyline has potential, but they have to speed it up to make it more appealing to “lazy” or “distracted” gamers who will dip pretty quick.  

Overall, I give it a solid 9/10 and I look forward to exploring more of Inazuma and checking out Sumeru when it comes out. The thing is, I recommend it but I don't recommend it either, because it's addictive. So, play at your own risk. ;)