As I wrote earlier, the biggest surprise for me has been Genshin Impact. I didn’t even follow this game through its development like some folks have been, so I went in with low expectations a few weeks after it had officially launched. I really expected it to end up being like my first hour in V4 (where it just screamed lazy mobile port) so when it had that fun and addictive hook, I really thought the spam of virtual currency sales banners would end up popping up after I reached a certain “post-tutorial” level in the game.
And that never happened. Even the UI is non-obnoxious in this regard where I had to dig into the notices icon and actually click the Event’s tab to see some of the banner promos. I expected an in-your-face push of banners to entice you to pull for your gacha characters/weapons (but have since learned this was a conscious decision to keep the interface free of such promos). Since then, I’ve hit Adventure Rank 25 and have unpacked the progression gating in the game.
The game does gate your progression but masks it well so long as you don’t grind your way to reach these breakpoints where you will eventually be content starved (because there are a whole lot of unreleased sections of the map that will be forthcoming in future updates). Rushing in this game is like rushing to get to nowhere fast. Your character level is gated by Adventure Rank (AR) as one breakpoint. Once you hit level 20, you are capped there until you hit AR 15. At that point, you Ascend your character (using materials earned from questing and running through content) where you are then capped to level 40 until you hit AR 25. Rinse and repeat for level 60 and 80 caps. Your AR determines your World Level (at AR 20, your World Level is 1) which affects the power of the enemies you encounter as well as the rewards they drop.
It’s really a simple and straightforward formula where everything ranks up as you play in this staggered progression of power. But you do need to keep up with leveling up your gear and optimize it (drops have degrees of RNG with property rolls and set types). You effectively have a weapon (which your damage scales off of) and artifacts (that sort of represent the standard armor pieces you would normally have). Leveling your weapon has similar gating where you hit a cap, and can only continue leveling it until it is ascended (this too is dependent on your AR). When you look at it from a macro view, it’s staggered so that so long as you are leveling everything up, you should always have some tension as you tackle the higher levels of content.
That is unless you go off the beaten track. The game does have a variety of quests including the obligatory story quests. I unfortunately found the progression in that janky at some spots because you needed to hit specific AR’s to continue. But progression isn’t strictly tied to following the main story quests. You can leave them and go out exploring on your own unlocking waypoints, domains within your level range (aka dungeons), and statues. Leveling via exploring was what really got me hooked into Guild Wars 2 last summer. Being able to do this in Genshin Impact was an immediate hook; that plus the sheer verticality in the game world.
The unlocked map looked small and I originally had no idea that the dark parts (fog of war) were other areas that would only display once you reached and unlocked the statue. Once you could glide, it gave me Guild Wars 2 vibes. The climbing in this game is a much more stickier take on the Springer mount though. But the point is that even small sections on the map, are huge because you have multiple layers of verticality. And as the map expands, the open world that you end up exploring is both spectacularly breathtaking and huge (belying the single player nature). Sometimes, I forget this isn’t an MMO because this game world is massive. And the physics involved makes it feel as realistic as it can be in a video game.
There are some spots high up in this game where my palms are actually sweating because you can actually feel the height that you are at. When you are fresh out of character creation, your stamina level is really low where you cannot dash, climb, swim, or glide for very long. Fall damage is real in this game so if you run out, you will lose your grip on that climb, drop out of the sky during a glide, or drown if you are swimming. And that’s why some players willy-nilly run around the game world to unlock all of the statues and collect the Anemoculus (from the Mondstadt region for statues in this area) and Geoculus (from the Liyue region) to level up these respective statues to increase ones stamina.
I know that in some design circles, that this would be considered “undesirable” or “dysfunctional” gameplay. However, I normally apply that to games that are really structured around leveling via the standard questing system. Genshin Impact allows progression (albeit with all of the previously mentioned gating mechanics) outside of that structure. And there are significant benefits to grinding some of these out because it makes the stamina limiting functions less of an issue and also advances the XP you receive for AR progression. Since one of the early story quests required AR 10 to unlock the next step, I ended up going on this side journey of collecting the majority of the Mondstadt Anemoculus. And I collected everything along the way because all of these materials are important for progression (cooking is essential for boosts or recovery). The game gives you 30,000 inventory slots. I mean they could’ve monetized this in the usual convenience and QoL ways that most other games choose to. And you don’t have to manage any of this; the game takes care of sorting it all for you.
The game gives you a starter party of your own selected character (which is one of the male or female twins you selected at the beginning), Kaeya (Cryo), Amber (Pyro), and Lisa (Electro) that are unlocked after completing the initial quests. Barbara (Hydro) is rewarded after hitting AR20 and you an get a free Noelle (Geo) from the beginners Wish by doing an initial 10 pull. After that, you are limited to your final beginners Wish and must then use any Primogems earned (from playing, questing, achievements, events, etc), to purchase either Acquaint or Intertwined Fates to use for future Wishes. You can also purchase Genesis Crystals from the cash shop; these crystals can be converted 1:1 for Primogems. So yes, there’s a not very obfuscated way to spend thousands of dollars so that you can pull every 5-star character and weapon BUT you still need to play the game to get all of the materials to actually level them up. Basically, there is a whale funding mechanic that allows the game to be free to play for many others (and for a single player game, I really don’t care if they had just made it where you could buy Primogems directly; I guess they did it this way to make it easier to track in-game earned Primogems).
The number of different virtual currencies seems mind bending at first glance but it seems to be standard Gacha mechanics to obfuscate things like poor pull rates of desirable drops (including 5-star characters or Weapons) and to provide a mechanic for dealing with duplicates or providing something that can be used as future currency for future Wishes (basically you spend to pull and get some “cash back” – the premise being an incentive for people who like to pull a lot).
To date, there is nothing compelling me to get any specific non-free character. I suppose with enough time though, the collector side of me will want to acquire some of them which will mean putting money into the game. As it stands, I don’t really have an issue with that because this game hits a really fun spot for me by playing it casually. And you can progress well without spending anything. Couple that with the fact that they aren’t pushing promos and banners in your face, makes it even more compelling to where you want to spend a few bucks to support the company. I guess my point is that it doesn’t feel overtly like this huge cash grab that is standard fare for a lot of these Asia developed titles.
I know this game is a niche themed RPG with a massive open world that won’t be up everyones ally. The game play and adventure aspects are what I expected from Diablo III when it launched back in 2012 (and we know that turned out). 8 years later, Genshin Impact is the title that hit that long missing spot for me
Unlike Guild Wars 2 where I ended up getting into this zone of pushing to find the next POI, Vista, Waypoint, and opening up the map, I’m keeping this type of overload exploring in check (because this game is a different level). Plus there are the other facets including your daily commissions and Battlepass (which are unlocked after you reach a specific AR), domains and bosses (for character and weapon leveling materials) that are part of the daily regiment.
The biggest gating mechanic I do see is the Resin system (since that is what you need to collect the rewards from Ley Line’s and Domains; material drops critical for progressing your character). It regens over time (120 max) or can be refilled using Primogems. And since this is a single player game with some multiplayer co-op, I just don’t see it as an issue for myself like the way a try hard or competitive player that wants to beat the games most difficult content first, sees that entire system.
Overall (and repeating what I mentioned in my first impressions post), this continues to be a pleasant and fun surprise. Considering how sucky 2020 has been, this anime influenced title is just the lighthearted game to offer up a much needed distraction where you can forget about being serious (I still chuckle at one of the early quests where you need to click a response and one them was referring to your companion Paimon, as “emergency food” – and she responds in annoyance to that).
P.S. If miHoYo really wanted to make money, they should offer up some physical merchandising. Licensed resin models of some of these characters including Paimon, would sell like hot cakes especially with us collector types.
P.P.S. – Paimon ABS/PVC model coming this fall. Take my money now!
