So I tried Genshin Impact
Let me just quickly note, that all the pictures posted here are screenshots or photos of the actual Genshin gameplay. I had to say this, because to me, they just look like static anime drawings or something… And that’s exactly the vibe this game gives off. You’re basically in an anime with cute voices, cute characters and cute magical cartoon-ish landscape.
Okay, some background, Genshin Impact is a free-to-play game from China (but don’t worry, it has an English voice-over). It’s an open-world action RPG with gacha mechanics. Surprisingly, as far as I’ve noticed, I haven’t been told by the game to straight up go buy something and as a matter of fact, the game gave me enough of its gacha currency to test out their wishing system. But more about that later.
Let’s Talk About The Looks and Sounds
Bear with me, I’m used to western style games akin to Fallout and Skyrim. I gave this one a shot after hearing some nice things about it… and oh my God. It’s so… cute looking.
Immediately after booting up the game I was greeted with a screen that could turn a vampire into ash. It was a heavenly white. I thought that’s unusual, being accustomed to Bethesda’s black screens spelling doom and gloom. Then again, it just might be the style of games I play… Not to mention the music. It’s so calm, peaceful and sometimes even epic.
…anyways, after recovering from the anti-vampire effects, I proceeded into the game. I fiddled with the settings and found the camera mode, while some random fairy thing (who will be accompanying me) spewed tutorial dialogue at me. And, of course, I ignored her completely and ran off in search of things to shoot (with the camera mode).
So… fast forward a day, I did some story missions and I learned to climb and fly. Yeah. Well, glide, but still. As far as I can tell, every piece of surface, wall and rock is climbable, as long as your stamina doesn’t run out before you reach a point where you can stand. For example a ledge you can hop onto. Combining your mountaineering skills with the glider will allow you to collect certain blue items that you can use to upgrade your stats. Ever tried to climb a tree and then glide off?
If your stamina runs out, you fall to your… unlikely demise. Fall damage hasn’t been that much of an issue for me, as you can open your “wings” whenever you’re falling a great distance. Similarly, if you’re swimming (yes, you can do that too), you can drown if you run out of stamina. The consequences of drowning, as far as I can tell, are minimal - consisting mainly of respawning.
I meantioned the story. I won’t go into detail. You’re looking for your brother or sister. (That’s based on the choice of your gender when you start up the game.) Suffices to say, the characters are cute, the dialogues are funny, and you generally have two responses - a nice one, and a funny one. To illustrate this - I was asked whether the fairy thing was my companion. I suggested that she’s my emergency food ration.
The characters you’ll meet have nice personalities, gestures and are overall fun to play with and listen to. It’s pretty neat that you’re able to confront a knight about their hospitability.
The gacha mechanics may turn some people off, but you can actually get at least a few pulls in for free.
Party
Another thing that Genshin really shines at is the party system. You do not have traditional companions that follow you. Instead, you will be faced with swapping your main character for your followers during combat and exploration.
Each character is made of an elemental affiliation (their “magical” abilities), gender and a weapon. This brings its own cons with it - as in, if you really like to use a spellbook, you’re restricted to using female characters, because there currently isn’t a male “witch”.
If you can get over that, I think Genshin would be pretty awesome for you.