In the beginning, it was easy for critics to write off Genshin Impact as a shameless Breath of the Wild clone from a country known for fakes. Even as it gained a following, to everyone’s surprise, coverage also desperately focused on its gacha mechanics. But contrary to expectations, the free-to-play open-world action role-playing game has gone from strength to strength, grossing over $2 billion in its first year of launch on mobile devices alone and becoming the most talked about game on Twitter in 2021. Its crossover success in Western markets has established developer miHoYo (or HoYoverse as it’s now internationally rebranded) as the vanguard of China’s new wave of big-budget game development.
Gone are the days when people referred to this game by its derogatory nickname, Breath of the Waifu. Now people are looking for Genshin likes instead (and the Diluc and Zhongli leads can attest to the game having its share of mannos, too). But with an estimated 500+ hours already invested, close to a dozen maxed characters, and so much more to do, it’s hard for me to want to play anything else. This is especially true as we approach the 3.0 update, which aims to introduce not only the new tropical and desert region of Sumeru, but also a new element, Dendro, to shake up the fight.
But what about the uninitiated who want to delve into the fantasy world of Teyvat for the first time? At first, Genshin Impact might feel like another victim of feature creep, with updates that have added a town reputation system, your own Animal Crossing-style island getaway, and even a dating sim mini-game featuring some of its delicious casts. Luckily, these features are gradually unlocked as you play, increasing your adventure rank so as not to overwhelm you from the start. For the first 15 to 20 hours, you can treat it like an old-fashioned single-player action RPG as you play a mysterious traveler in search of your missing sibling, before being drawn into a crisis where a dragon goes berserk.
It’s these opening times that quickly dispel associations with Nintendo’s masterpiece, even as you can glide around its vast open world and climb almost anything, albeit with no rain to stop you. However, where it lacks in sandbox physics, it more than makes up for it with its delicious elemental combat system, which takes the tried-and-true rock-paper-scissor RPG formula and then spices it up by stitching multiple elements together. Pyro attacks, for example, are effective against Cryo enemies while also burning wooden shields. Add a gust of Ameno, however, and you intensify and spread those flames, while wet enemies can be frozen with Cryo or zapped by Electric attacks.
Experimenting with these combinations makes combat a constant spectacle. Switching characters to chain into a different elemental combo at lightning speed is particularly appealing, something you don’t have the same control over when you’re dependent on other players online. Of course, that depends on having a party that covers all the bases and elements you want, which you can only acquire by granting wishes through the game’s gacha system.
The chances of unlocking the five-star rare character of your choice aren’t exactly high (0.6 percent, to be precise, although this also fluctuates on successive turns), but you choose to use Primogems (the game’s premium currency ) to save. Granting 10 wishes at once will at least bring the pity system into play, so you’ll have at least a 4-star character or weapon, and you shouldn’t dismiss those either. There are delicacies such as the Hydro-Heil singer Barbara or the wonderfully crazy electric archer Fischl.
Still, it’s the event banners that draw the most attention, as they typically introduce a new five-star character that players will spend weeks (sometimes months, given the community’s ongoing efforts) knowing even a hint of information about reveal) were hyped then only run for three weeks. This leaves you with a comparatively short window to either grind up as many in-game Primogems as possible or crack open your wallet.
Of course, this depends on the mentality of the individual player, and not all microtransactions are necessarily predatory or cynical money grabs. After almost two years, I’m still not tempted to spend real money on Wishes while still amassing a pretty good list of five-star heroes. There are just so many ways to earn the Primogems required for a wish, from short daily commissions to completing story quests, as well as regular events with different types of challenges where Primogems are almost always the first available reward. (This is good for players who don’t have the time to complete every single challenge in a limited-time event.)
However, accumulating materials and resources is vital in Genshin Impact’s overall loop, as after unlocking your dream character you still need to level them up before they become viable. While some of this grind drew backlash – since most rewards can only be harvested by spending resin, which slowly refills each day or automatically refills by spending money – I find it has merit.
For one, unlike the stamina bar in mobile games, Resin doesn’t lock you out of other in-game activities. Instead, the Caps are less about cynically milking money from you and more about preventing the gameplay from turning into a joyless grind. You see the same thought process applies to gathering materials or mining ore in the world as well, with even longer respawn times that cannot be sped up at all with cash. Even the limited-time events are delaying the release of their challenges, all of which further the idea of playing in moderation, something that perhaps other open-world developers could learn from. Instead of being paralyzed by choice every time I log in, I can do a short chunk of mining in about an hour, do the quick daily commissions, maybe do an event challenge, or spend resin on specific challenges to get my newly unlocked one improve your character and still have time left to continue another part of the game’s story.
While each of the 40+ and growing roster has plenty of charm and a strong desire to add them all to your collection, they aren’t always well served by the story, which is often told with a little too much exhibition dialogue, while you’re also quick to notice the lack of it Paying attention to lip syncing. Surely the community will take a serious look at the Archons, Adepti, and the Fatui lore, although mostly they complain about the flawedness of certain five-star characters, which is fair if you’ve actually been paying attention to the chance of getting them.
But even if the priority is less “what will happen next” and more “what can I do next”, there are still some concerns about how quickly streams of limited-time content will be discarded. It’s not nearly as egregious as Bungie removing old Destiny 2 campaign content that people paid for, but considering many of these events have their own unique mechanics – and how regularly the developers use them throughout the year create – to then have it only be there for a few weeks before being unceremoniously thrown away seems like an unbelievable shame. It’s still a loss if they include some interesting character backstories, particularly that of Fischl in the current Golden Apple Archipelago event this summer, which latecomers can’t experience other than watching YouTube guides.
I suspect it’s a problem that miHoYo will eventually solve, but in the meantime the developer is already busy designing either new banner characters or another event. Genshin Impact even beat Elden Ring by expanding its underground open world. The studio, meanwhile, is also gearing up to bring not just one, but two more games to its HoYoverse, the turn-based Honkai: Star Rail and the post-apocalyptic Zenless Zone Zero. Time will tell if these, just like Genshin Impact’s charming and airy open world, will strike lightning or jackpot without risking cannibalizing audiences’ attention. For now, though, I’m quite content to roam Teyvat for another 500 hours. Sumeru can’t come soon enough.
This article is part of our State of the Game series, in which we look at some of the biggest ongoing service games to see how they’re faring. Check out our State of the Game hub for many more pieces like this one.