Chinese video game development company miHoYo released the official launch of Genshin Impact on September 28, 2020, and since then, it has taken the world by storm with millions of active players. I’ve only started playing Genshin Impact about a month ago in November when my brother started downloading the game. After a few weeks of playing the game, I found out that pretty much everyone I know was playing Genshin Impact. I was so surprised to find that even my former classmates who don’t touch video games have been out grinding Genshin Impact.
Here are my first thoughts and impressions of Genshin Impact after playing it for about a month.
An Amazing Open World To Explore
I often get obsessed with any game I play. If I start playing a game and I like it, I will look at the news surrounding the game, the company, and whatever else I can find.
One thing I kept noticing when reading reviews and articles on Genshin Impact is its comparison with Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild game, especially when it came down to its game mechanics and open-world design. This article is an example.
Personally, I don’t own a Nintendo Switch, so I have never played Breath of the Wild. But I have played a couple of other games similar to Genshin Impact, including The Witcher 3 and a particular server on Minecraft called Wynncraft.
My favorite part about all games with open worlds is the ability to explore new places, and Genshin Impact is no exception. The Genshin Impact world is absolutely amazing. For the first few weeks, I spent nearly ten hours every day grinding this game out. I even missed one of my final exams on accident playing Genshin Impact.
I was able to play for so long because it felt like I magically transported to another world. And that world was breathtaking. I was getting picturesque views that I have never seen before in real life.
Two of my favorite places in Genshin Impact is the Huaguang Stone Forest and the Qingce Village. Those two areas remind me of the panda village in Kung Fu Panda 3. When I first watched Kung Fu Panda 3 and the scene where Po journeys to the secret panda village, I was thinking, “What if I made a journey to a secret village like that?” And now I have an upgrade where instead of watching a character journey somewhere, I can control a character that journeys in my stead. It would be even cooler if I could travel through these fantasy worlds myself using something like VR.
Anyway, that’s my obsession with exploration and fantasy worlds. The game’s graphics are very nice for a free-to-play game going for an “anime-style” look. So, of course, you won’t be getting the same kind of detail as you might get in something like The Witcher 3.
Play Genshin Impact If You Like Anime
As I mentioned above, Genshin Impact has an anime-style look to it. If you like anime, you’re going to like Genshin Impact.
Instead of just watching anime, you can be playing the game as an anime character. The game focuses on the journey of a traveler searching for his sister (her brother if you’re playing as the girl) in the world, Teyvat. And to supplement the main journey, there are many different side quests and stories that develop the world’s characters into real people.
The stories are all well written for a game, too. Sometimes you can really appreciate the unexpected twists and how the story develops.
I have seen people complain about the English voice acting, where the voicing doesn’t feel very realistic. I experienced the opening scene with the English dub, and I agree with the complaints. The English dub version of the game is somewhat lackluster. It’s like watching amateur actors, and it brings down the quality of the game if you’re interested in the dialogue. I highly recommend switching to a Chinese or Japanese voicing with English subtitles as soon as possible.
And if I were to get nitpicky, I also wish there were more options when you had the choice to choose a response. Sometimes the reactions are unlike any kind of response that I would actually make to various statements and questions, especially with the type of character I’m building.
For example, I am playing as the female Traveler. She looks like the type of character I would develop into a very smart and considerate character. Sometimes the only kind of dialogue I get to choose makes the character come off as dense or arrogant.
Something that would have made Genshin Impact memorable is if the game added more detail to the dialogue scenes. More specifically, whenever a character gives another character an item or something, they should put the thing in their hands instead of just showing a gesture. For example, if one character gives another character an apple, we should see the apple exchange.
Overall, miHoYo was pretty good at adding expressions and reactions during these conversation scenes. Still, if they could add even more detail and make their characters more expressive, it would be an even better experience.
Spending Money Isn’t Worth it
One genre of gamers Genshin Impact appeals to are the gamers who love to “gamble.” They love to open up these packs and see what things they can get.
Rolling in Genshin Impact, at first, was very exciting for me. On my first ten-roll, I got Jean and Razor. But over time, it started getting dull.
The chances of you hitting five-star and four-star characters are relatively low. There’s pretty much a 94% chance that you’re going to hit a 3-star weapon that you won’t use.
That would be okay if rolling wasn’t so expensive. It costs about $30 to do one ten-roll. It takes an average of 60-70 rolls to hit a five-star item, which means I’m spending about $200. Genshin Impact might be the first game I don’t want to spend money in, as the dopamine hit that’s typically associated with buying packs and opening things doesn’t hit.
miHoYo either needs to raise the chances of hitting four-star and five-star items or lower rolling costs. Additionally, making weapons the only option for 3-star pulls does not make sense. As players play the game, they will quickly switch to four-star or five-star weapons, making the 3-star weapons obsolete. You also don’t need them that much for weapon enhancement as you can use the ores instead.
One thing miHoYo could do to make opening packs more enjoyable is by adjusting what three-star items people can pull. For example, instead of all weapons, pulling items related to upgrading and ascending characters and weapons would make opening packs more interesting.
Of course, I am aware of how new Genshin Impact is. Without a fully-flushed out game with tons of weapons and characters, increasing the chances of hitting things would only make the veteran players bored. If people had a higher chance of hitting all the characters, they would quickly hit all of them and have nothing left to do.
But I do hope miHoYo improves their rolling system in the future.
Genshin Impact Needs A Better Multiplayer Experience
My biggest problem with Genshin Impact currently is the multiplayer experience. The game currently has a co-op mode where you can go to other people’s worlds and help them with whatever quest or monster they need to fight.
In Genshin Impact, you can pretty much build whatever you want, and you will be fine. If you ever played any Pokemon game before, you’ll know. All you have to do is get the strongest character you have, put the strongest items you have on that character, and then rapidly mash all your buttons.
After playing for a while, I found out that there are different intricate mechanics in the game that can make me do more damage and take less and different combos I can take advantage of. But it doesn’t matter since I’m permanently fighting against predictable monsters. As long as I’m at a high level, I can take them all down, no matter if I’m good or bad at the game.
I would like to see arena battles where players can 1V1, 2V2, 3V3, or 4V4 in a ranking system where the levels are balanced out. That would make artifact sets, element synergy, counters, and overall skill matter a lot more.
This would create a system where people can show what playing Genshin Impact 12 hours a day has done for them instead of just a random adventure rank.
A New Game With Tons Of Potential
Overall, Genshin Impact is a fantastic game. It’s completely free-to-play with well-developed stories and a wonderful world that is only growing in size.
You can play this game on mobile if that’s your thing too. Personally, I have never tried Genshin Impact on mobile, so I have no idea how it will actually perform. You can download Genshin Impact here.
I’m excited about Genshin Impact’s prospects. New and cool things are added with every update, making the game even more exciting and fun. I really want to see a Genshin Impact where the entire world is unlocked.
Have you been playing Genshin Impact? Feel free to share what thoughts and opinions you have about Genshin Impact.