Genshin Impact Review

If someone told me a few years ago that we’d be seeing a mobile gacha game go multi-platform and end up becoming one of the most popular games in years – even finding their way into game of the year lists – I’d have never believed them. “Mobile games are mobile games,” I’d probably say. “There’s just no way you’re going to convince the console and PC market to adopt what they feel amounts to cheap garbage.” Thankfully, nobody actually told me that. As such, I didn’t get the chance to open my big mouth and look so foolish because wouldn’t you know it here we are, and here is Genshin Impact.

Let’s just get it out of the way off the top, shall we? Genshin Impact is not a Breath of the Wild clone. At least, no more than Breath of the Wild is a clone of Shadow of the Colossus because it features metered stamina for actions like climbing or no more than it resembles one of the dozens of games featuring cell-shaded, anime-inspired visuals. While it is readily apparent that Genshin was heavily inspired by several aspects of Breath of the Wild (and really why wouldn’t it be – Breath of the Wild was a pretty popular game), you’ll find out quickly after having played it for a short time that the comparisons don’t run as deep as it may seem. With that out of the way, let’s get to exploring perhaps why Genshin Impact is just so damn popular, and if it’s worthy of all that praise.

What is Genshin Impact? Why is Genshin Impact? When is Genshin Impact? These are all questions that begged to be answered and I will answer exactly one of them. Genshin Impact is as much of a gamble as the gacha that it holds within. Mihoyo had success with their games in the past and had a foundation to build off of with Honkai Impact 3^rd (yes not THE third, just third). Some absolute mad lad or mad lass decided that the next big move would be to spend $100M to bring to market a gacha game wrapped in a full-blown action-adventure live service game shell on not just mobile, but consoles and PC as well. This isn’t really something anyone has thought to do, or at the very least dared to try and pull off, but Mihoyo was up for a challenge and went ahead with it anyway. Needless to say, regardless of anyone’s opinion on it, it was a 500 IQ move.

You start off being treated to a particularly nice-looking cutscene that sets up the story and has you select one of two siblings to be your main character in the process. As it turns out, these siblings are twins that freely travel amongst the stars and visit different worlds at will – though for what purpose we don’t quite know. Arriving in Teyvat they are unceremoniously separated by a particularly sassy lady who you might assume to be some sort of god. Whichever sibling you choose becomes your character, and the other is sealed away by said sassy lady before banishing you to the realm below. Along the way your character, known as the Traveler, bumps into Paimon – a floating pixie-like character who mostly serves as a guide or emergency food – and the decision is made to make your way to Mondstadt to begin searching for your twin.

The general story of Genshin Impact is one of the more surprisingly competent and enjoyable things the game has to offer. It’s certainly not what you might expect from a gacha game, but that’s not the only thing that might surprise you in that regard. Nevertheless, you’ll spend the first 20-40 hours completing the main questline before you get to stretch your legs a bit in the mid-to-late game, and so having a story full of interesting characters and pleasing plot points goes a long way. Is it a meticulous, thought-provoking, and intricately woven tapestry of themes and personalities? No, not quite, but it is well written and oftentimes endearing in the sort of way you’d perhaps find a B movie script. A lot of your enjoyment, however, will likely come from how much you like the characters and so if anime tropes aren’t generally your thing in the first place, you might find it more difficult to appreciate. Ultimately, the story is merely a vehicle that gets you to the end game grind where most of your time will be spent and most of your money, too, if you feel Mihoyo has earned your dollars and cents.

As you take on your first quests to begin your adventure in searching out your twin, it’ll be time to get acquainted with the combat system. Genshin Impact’s combat is a bit deceptive. On the one hand, the actual combat itself is quite simplistic in that it’s mostly a game of hack and slash rock paper scissors amongst various elements. On the other hand, the itemization and party member composition that’s behind that simple combat can be substantially intricate. A lot is going on here both in terms of combat and character management, so I’ll do my best to make sense of it for you. It’s hard to review Genshin without it sounding almost like a game guide so forgive me if this gets to sounding a bit like one.

You’ll be able to control four characters at any given time, with some exceptions, and will be actively switching between them depending on your combat needs. Genshin Impact has seven elements in total which are Pyro, Geo, Dendro (essentially nature), Cryo, Electro, and Anemo (which is wind). Every character (save the Traveler who can freely switch between a couple) wields one of these elements and uses a certain weapon type. The weapons are currently swords, claymores, bows, polearms, and catalysts. Each element interacts uniquely with each other element and these interactions make up a large portion of what will determine how much damage you’re going to be handing out. Furthermore, depending on the composition of your team you will receive bonuses in combat, like an increased attack percentage for having two Pyro characters in your group. Add to that the fact that many enemies also wield a particular element, and you’ve got an idea of how the “basics” might play out. The next layer in this anime action cake is the characters themselves and what you can do to strengthen them.

Each character is capable of being leveled up, and with each level, you’ll gain an increase in some of your base stats. At certain junctions, you’ll have to ascend your characters before they can be leveled further which also inevitably leads to unlocking other abilities beyond just gaining stats. Certain skills for each character can also be leveled, and for each copy of a character you obtain, you unlock another constellation which boosts your character’s power further in various ways.

As useful as leveling is, however, a significant portion of your combat effectiveness comes from each character’s weapon and artifacts. Artifacts are items in which there are five types that each focus on a specific part of your character’s stats. Flowers boost your HP, and feathers boost your raw attack for example. Beyond that, the artifacts have sub-stats that also boost your character’s strength. The better the artifact and the higher the level, the more opportunity for bigger and better stats the item has. Yes, even the artifacts and weapons are leveled individually. What’s more, for anything other than the flowers and feathers, every artifact’s main stat and sub-stats are random. That doesn’t really matter in the early and even mid-game very much, but we’ll get to why that matters in the end game shortly.

All of this comes together to produce…well it mostly produces a min-max glass cannon machine. As mentioned, the actual combat itself isn’t particularly intricate and certainly isn’t nuanced. There’s no real dodging mechanic in place, shields are more of a suggestion than a utility much of the time, and healing is more of a nuclear option than a staple of any given group. Genshin currently rewards big damage numbers, and so that’s what you’ll be spending most of your time trying to attain. Look no further than the five-alarm fire that was the Zhong Li release to understand just how seriously the player base in China takes their big numbers, if you need an example. You might be wondering then where all these weapons, artifacts, and characters come from. That, my friends, is how they gacha. I’m not sorry.

While artifacts are obtained in game primarily via domain grinding once you’re past the early game chest opening around the world map, weapons, and characters are a bit different. Weapons can be obtained via quests, crafting, or the battle pass which we have yet to discuss. Characters, however, are obtained all but exclusively via the wish system which is a really cutesy name for their gacha mechanic. So then, let’s talk about Genshin Impact’s gacha system, shall we?

This is where Genshin Impact enters the land of mobile games and where it often loses a lot of people. While many console and PC gamers would be begrudgingly acquainted with similar systems like loot boxes, mobile gacha is in its own world of manipulation. Gacha games often are simply engines for driving money into the gacha system itself, and while Genshin Impact is no different in that regard it is at least far more doable as a free-to-play player than most in the category.

The wish system consists of banners that are either available for a limited time or are on a rotation of some sort. Each banner has a boosted set of characters or weapons for that limited time, increasing your odds (however slim) of getting one of them. You’ll be able to use wishes obtained either by completing certain tasks in the game, or by spending primo gems. Primo gems are one of Genshin’s currencies (yes it has more than one) and can also be obtained for free by completing certain in-game tasks. If you want more than that, however, you’ll have to pay up with real money to fund your waifu and/or husbando hunt. You can also buy wishes in the shop’s exchange pages using either Stardust or starglitter, both of which also allow you to purchase other items should you prefer. Just to muddy the waters a bit more, there are two types of wishes: Acquaint Fate and Intertwined Fate. The Acquaint Fate’s are used for the standard banner that’s always available, while Intertwined Fates are used for the event-specific banners.

A free-to-play player can expect to get roughly 200 wishes from really maxing out the story quests and other one-offs like the relatively extensive achievements book. You can also expect about 30 or so wishes per month by doing daily activities, with this number sometimes being a bit higher depending on events, for example. This honestly isn’t completely awful, and unless you’re remarkably unlucky it means you’ll have somewhere between two and four five-star characters by the time you’ve reached the end-game grind. Yes, that’s right, just like weapons and artifacts, characters have star ratings as well that supposedly determine their level of awesome. Characters, however, are only ever four or five stars.

While the odds of getting a five-star character or weapon are slim (some 0.6% chance), there is an aptly named pity system in place to give you a hand if you aren’t prone to winning the lottery. Every 10 wishes in a given banner will net you at least one guaranteed four-star weapon or character. At 90 or so wishes your odds of a five-star are all but guaranteed, but again it could be either a weapon or character. If you roll a five-star character or weapon on an event banner and it isn’t the featured weapon or character, your next five-star will be that featured weapon or character. Keeping up? I know my brain is mush and I’m the one writing this crap.

But what does it all mean?! How much do five-star items and characters really matter? How angry should we be at Mihoyo every time we get a terrible roll on the banners?! Well, in all honesty, it’s all pretty much workable regardless of what you get. If there’s a positive spot in all of this gacha mayhem it’s that at the end of the day, knowledge of how to abuse the elements system, and getting your hands on a few good artifacts is more important than securing a five-star damage-dealing monster. That doesn’t account for those who want a character just based on liking them, of course, but if you’re worried about not being able to do end-game stuff without whaling for every top-end character – fear not. So, what of that end game and all those artifacts, then? I’m glad you possibly asked.

After you’ve experienced all Genshin has to offer in terms of story content, and you’re waiting for the next wave to hit, you’re left with the daily grind of the end game. Currently, that consists of completing your daily requests, completing tasks to further your battle pass, and spending your resin. The battle pass is what you’d expect if you’ve ever interacted with one before. Unlocking levels of the pass provide items for free and if you pony up some real dollars you can get the other more significant portion of the rewards with the ability to acquire a battle pass exclusive weapon at level 30. Resin is the game’s energy system and caps how many of certain tasks you can do in a day. It’s also arguably Genshin’s biggest point of criticism, so we’ll talk about that more in-depth.

Genshin Impact’s end game puts its players between a rock and a hard place. Nearly everything you need to improve your character, whether that be artifacts, ascension materials, experience books for leveling, etc., all require you to use resin but heavily constrain how much you have and can store. Beating a weekly boss will cost you 60 resin. Beating a world boss will cost you 40. Doing some runs for artifacts or ascension materials in domains will cost you 20, as will leylines for experience books and mora – the game’s currency used to level anything. With only 160 resin per roughly 24-hour period, you can see how one would run out of resin quickly. This makes grinding for artifacts and other materials, all of which have randomized drops and randomized stats, an arduous process to say the least. To complicate things further, certain items can only be obtained in domains on certain days of the week. You do receive the occasional fragile resin item which restores 60 resin per, but they’re few and far between. Even if you were crazy enough to spend the real money to buy resin refills, they will cap you daily there, too. You can see how this would get frustrating quickly.

You see, Genshin Impact, like basically every other gacha game, wants you to not necessarily play the game for huge swaths of time, or even on your own time, but more importantly log in and interact with the game on a daily basis. They want you to have a relationship with the game, and it could be described as having another job in that if you don’t show up daily, you are punished for it. Resin? Doesn’t carry over. You can lock away 120 of it in condensed resin you can craft but that’s it as you can only hold three of these at a time. Miss your day to collect materials to ascend that weapon? Tough luck. Can’t log in to do your daily requests to earn your primo gems? Unfortunate. What can be more frustrating is that despite all of this, if there isn’t an event going on at the time to help extend your play, you can literally be done with your Mihoyo approved Genshin time in 45 minutes or less.

Daily requests might take you five minutes to complete, battle pass tasks another 15 to 30 minutes depending on what you need to or can do that day, and spending your resin another five to 10 minutes. If you’re done the battle pass, which is easy to do thanks to how long it runs, your total playtime can be 20 minutes or less. Want to play more than that? Your options are limited. Short of having a secondary account or more, you’re just walking around the map collecting items and killing enemies as they become available. Collect some rocks, collect some flowers, collect some crystal flies, collect some fish, collect some eggs, and kill Timmy’s pigeons for the thousandth time to assert dominance. Done with that? How about killing some whopper flowers, or ruin guards, or maybe crack open the adventure book and go on a killing spree. You get the idea. If you’re used to having this kind of relationship with a game because you come from a mobile background this might not bother you so much. If you’re someone who likes really grind a game or play it for long sessions in a meaningful way, Genshin’s end game might frustrate or even bore you.

Once you find yourself dungeon diving, it can get lonely out there and maybe you want to have some company. The good news is that there is definitely coop available to be had here. The bad news is that the implementation isn’t particularly great. While you can roam around the map together with up to three other people, there isn’t really anything to do other than take out whatever enemies get in your way. Loot is not shared, and while the others can pick up stuff like flowers that’s about it. Beyond that, you’re doing the aforementioned dungeon diving, and all but one of the weekly bosses so far. As loot is based on spending your own resin, everyone is rewarded for completing the events, so no worries in that regard.

You can add friends via your UID number, and from there they can join your world or vice versa so long as the joining player’s world level (the level determined by how deep into the game you are, more or less) is the same or higher. If you’re fresh out of friends, or they’re currently on backorder, you can also join queues to play with random players as well. This is useful, of course, but is way too intrusive as it isn’t only applicable to domains and boss runs. As it stands, a player can simply send you an invite at any time even if they aren’t your friend and even if you’re not queuing for a domain. You can turn this off but it also turns off requests from friends. Hopefully, Mihoyo will enter the future at some point and allow you to set it for friends-only requests but until then you’ll have to live with the occasional person poking at you to let them in.

Coop is where I feel Genshin Impact has the most room for improvement. Domains and bosses mostly consist of walking into a room and clearing it of enemies. There are no puzzles, no evolving layouts, etc. Genshin has one of the most beautifully put-together overworlds of any game I’ve played in years and yet, once you’ve completed the story, it’s all but wasted entirely – especially in coop. As of this writing, you still can’t craft or use shops while in coop, and so it’s a really funneled experience. There are parts of events that are also often coop, but how involved that is varies and it’s rarely more than what you’re getting elsewhere.

Don’t get me wrong, joining in with some friends to wipe a domain out in under 30 seconds can be fun, but it could be so much more substantial. Adjust loot drop quality for time spent, and I don’t think anyone would mind having some more lengthy variety. Even having chests of various qualities spawn around the world map at random and on a refresh timer with enemies protecting them based on coop level would at least give players some reason to explore the world together. That is, of course, if everyone shared in the loot. I’d love to see Genshin take on a similar style to the original Guild Wars. Have towns be instanced where X number of players can see each other and maybe team up if they want to. Have it be a way to show off what I’m sure will be inevitable costumes and emotes for characters. Once you leave the town, have it be instanced to your team only, and away you go. As it stands, coop feels like a haphazardly tacked-on feature that adds value, but not very much of it.

Events have been mentioned several times now, so let’s go over that as well. Events in Genshin vary wildly in size and complexity but all of them serve to aid in giving those in the end game more to do and more to enjoy outside of their daily grind. Some of these events are as simple as delivering food items to NPCs in a certain amount of time, while others are far more involved such as the recent tower defense mini-game in the last event. Events tend to offer your best opportunity to collect extra primo gems, experience books, mora and more, and so it’s nice that they tend to happen so frequently. Beyond the events, Mihoyo has kept an impressive pace in regards to content releases that include not only characters but entire new map areas filled with quests and new things to do. Story-specific quests also get slotted into the release schedule and so for as bothersome as some of the end game can be, it’s usually not too long before you’re given something new to cut your teeth on. In fact, as I’m writing this Genshin is entering into version 1.4 which stands to be the foundation for such updates in the near future.

If you’ve been watching the video review, well by now you probably know but for everyone else out there I’ll say it: Genshin Impact is a better-looking game than it has any right to be. You wouldn’t expect a mobile game built in Unity that’s supposed to run on phones, PCs, and the Playstation to look as good as Genshin does. Characters are remarkably unique and well-designed, albeit with a heavy dose of fan service occasionally. The overworld, however, is the real gem here. As I mentioned previously it is one of if not the most well-designed overworlds I’ve played in a very long time. Often you can tell when large swaths of a map are procedurally generated to some degree but Genshin doesn’t come across that way at all. In fact, it feels like the entire map has been done by hand and a lot of the views that you can find at various points throughout the day or night highlight that. Animations are well done, as are the effects even if they do end up making it hard to know what’s going on sometimes, and there are little details to be appreciated everywhere. Accompanying the great visuals is an equally great soundtrack that, admittedly, is heavily derivative of tracks you’ve probably heard before in other popular games. Characters are all voiced wonderfully, though that doesn’t mean you’ll love all their never-ending monologuing or their personalities. They have a substantial amount of voice-over here, and Mihoyo really puts on spotlight on the actors which is wonderful to see.

Sadly, performance in Genshin Impact isn’t particularly uniform. If you’re on a PC you’re going to experience the best the game has to offer despite the 60fps cap. My Note 9 runs the game at 720p respectively at what would be around 30fps, but unfortunately, the PS4 – even the pro model – suffers terribly. Loading times on the PS4 Pro are abysmal, and my girlfriend often gets left behind by coop teams in dungeons and events because it takes so long for her to join. The frame rate is also horrendous, and for reasons I can’t quite fathom. Most heavy combat will see you experiencing maybe 12-15fps if you’re lucky and honestly, I don’t think there’s any good excuse for it. I can’t personally speak to the PS5 version of the game at this time, but reports are that it mostly hits the 60fps mark at 4k and boots the game upwards of 50 seconds faster than the PS4. The performance variance can dramatically affect your ability to control your team effectively, so if you can I would recommend playing on the PC or PS5. There are probably some animals out there capable of late-game dungeon running with a cell phone, but this old Canadian isn’t one of them.

One other thing to keep in mind about Genshin, should you choose to hop in, is that depending on where you create your account it will limit where else you can take your account to play. For example, PC and mobile are interchangeable, so I can play on my phone or my PC with the same account. My girlfriend, on the other hand, is stuck on the PlayStation because they do not allow it to be moved anywhere else. This is incredibly annoying, and smacks of Playstation, but I don’t know exactly who made that judgment call so I can’t point fingers directly. Also, as of this writing, there’s not much info about release dates for an Xbox version or a Switch version so you’ll have to keep a lookout for that.

It’s obvious that this formula is something that a lot of people can get behind. Having pulled in some $800M since launch, not including PC and PS4 revenue, Genshin Impact is making a major impression that certainly will catch the eye of more than a few publishers and developers. While the incentive is there to spend, spend, spend, it’s not as pushy as most gacha titles and has a very healthy free-to-play community. I personally spend about $20 Canadian a month as of late, and that serves me fine for the amount of play time I put in. Even if you were to only play the main story content, you’re looking at some 40 hours of game to play through and can easily do so without spending a cent. For those who stick around for the end game, while content is thin and the resin system restrictive, events and an aggressive development cycle have kept most of the dedicated players satisfied for now. While coop is limited, and the world itself underutilized, it’s hard to argue Genshin’s value should you be a fan of action adventure. Genshin Impact is an impressive blend of mobile and more standard gaming fair that is sure to please not just those interested in collecting waifus and husbandos – though it might convert you along the way.