What the heck is the impact of Genshin?

If you look at the list of the most discussed Twitter games in 2020, you’ll see a bunch of names you’d probably expect: Animal Crossing, Fate / Grand Order, Final Fantasy, Fortnite… And a new title called Genshin impact. By now you’ve probably heard this name more than a few times. Maybe you’ve gotten a glimpse of the game on a website or at the Game Awards, or seen some interesting fanart on Twitter or Tumblr, but the question still burns you: what is it? Genshin impact everything on?

Genshin impact is an exploration-focused, open-world action RPG with online multiplayer and frequent updates to add new quests, features and story. It was released in late September of last year, where it quickly gained a very devoted fan. While the visuals inspired by the anime Genshin impact may lead you to believe it is a product of Japan, it is actually made by a development studio based in China miHoYo and designed to appeal to an international audience. (In fact, you can listen to the game’s spoken dialogue in English, Chinese, Korean, or Japanese, and in each language double has remarkable vocal talents.) It’s currently available for free download on mobile devices, PS4, and PC, with a Switch version coming in the future.

Wait – for free? Yes, Genshin impact is a free game … sort of. We will discuss this in a moment. Although it doesn’t cost you anything up front – save the time it takes to download a client program – Genshin impact offers the kind of mammoth world, high-quality visuals, a fully orchestrated soundtrack, and a character-driven storyline you’d expect from a full-priced product. And with versions on three different platforms, including a hugely playable mobile version, it’s easy to play anywhere, anytime.

You start Genshin impact as witness to a fierce battle, where a brother and a sister fight against a mysterious goddess. The couple are easily defeated and as the Evil Goddess captures one brother, she throws the other across dimensions into the world of Teyvat. Stuck in a strange world with only fairy friend Paimon to guide you, you begin a quest to find your lost brother … and possibly save another world in the process.

Genshin Impact Teyvat is a great and vast land where the seven elements flow and bless its people. Here, seven major kingdoms, each aligned with one of the elements, compete for power and influence. There are a lot of lore behind this world, and as more and more updates, characters, and locations are revealed, players are learning more and more about Teyvat’s very, very long history. Only two of the top seven territories have been made available for exploration so far, so there’s a lot more story and world-building to come in future updates.

With the main arcs in the game’s story still very unfinished, you might be wondering what Genshin Impact playerbase spends so much time on it. But once you set foot in Teyvat’s big open environment, you’ll definitely start to understand: this world was built for a lot of replayability. Your main focus at the start of the game is exploring and completing certain quests to unlock features, locations, and abilities, but once that is done you can start attempting challenges and quests from higher up. level for a high level loot … or you can just mess around and experiment, using your skill repertoire to interact with the environment.

There is a little elephant in the room here, so let’s be frank: it’s pretty obvious that Genshin impact draws many of its design cues from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You’ll notice this in things like movement, climbing, enemy AI … and, of course, the huge glider given to you to help you move around. In fact, many people rejected Genshin impact like a simple Breath of the wild knockoff before its official release after seeing screenshots and gameplay previews. But taking inspiration from NintendoModern classic is not a bad thing. After all, Breath of the wild is one of the most beloved games of recent years – why wouldn’t a developer want to use it for design inspiration?

In addition, there is a lot in Genshin impact this BotW Doesn’t have: different characters with unique abilities, online multiplayer co-op, very in-depth artifact gear system, commission quests that offer new challenges every day, and a complex elemental magic system that affects you , you and the environment, in a variety of ways. Having a large selection of unique characters to choose from – as well as being able to freely swap between a set of party members as you explore – adds significant depth to the game, as you can understand how characters’ abilities can be chained together to create. Potentially devastating elemental combo situations.

Beyond the gameplay, however, there are much bigger differences between the two games: Breath of the wild is exclusive to Nintendo consoles and is a full price version. A good part of why Genshin impact turned out to be such a success that it offers an experience similar to BotW with no upfront cost on multiple platforms, which makes it very accessible to a wide audience. I would say that miHoYo did a great job taking ideas that BotW was the pioneer and gave some of the mechanics their own spin, creating a complex world and engaging characters for players to interact with, and making the game accessible to the widest possible audience.

however, Genshin impact has also seen its fair share of controversy and criticism. For starters, since the game is made by a Chinese company, it is subject to various Chinese government rules and regulations, including censorship of politically sensitive matters in its online communication. While this is something the dev team has no control over, it may still not be right for some people.

The biggest source of contempt, however, is the game’s gacha-based monetization. In order to recruit new characters and earn top-notch gear, you need to perform “wishes” by converting a currency called Primogems. Each wish you make grants a random weapon or character, some of which are considerably rarer (and more useful) than others. Primogems can be earned in-game by completing quests and completing missions, but the fastest way to get them is to purchase them. Genshin Impact checkout.

Getting the coveted five-star rarity characters isn’t easy: you only have a 0.6% chance of getting one in a regular Wish Roll. There are mechanics in place to ensure that you will get a five-star character after a certain number of wishes if you haven’t received one, but activation takes a while (and many wishes). Additionally, all characters come with constellations: star cards that light up and offer various upgrades when you get multiple copies of a character through Wishes. In order to fully unlock a character’s potential, you’ll need to throw them multiple times to build their constellation. It’s easy to see how some gamers might become dependent on spending to get a rare and powerful character, and there are plenty of horror stories on the internet about people spending thousands of dollars to do so. Of course, it’s also possible to play completely for free just with the resources the game gives you, and many players do.

With millions of downloads across all platforms and a staunch fan base hungry for more characters, story snippets, and gameplay additions, it’s unlikely that Genshin impact will soon disappear. And since the game also works quite well in Japan, I certainly wouldn’t rule out the possibility of seeing Genshin impactThe world of is materialized in the form of anime. If this sounds like something you’ll enjoy, why not give it a try? Just be sure to set limits when it comes to gacha – no virtual waifu or hazubando is worth ruining your finances.