A one year retrospective on Genshin Impact

Can you believe it’s been a year of Genshin Impact? It’s been an incredibly successful venture, consistently ranking high on Sensor Tower’s charts in terms of profit. In that year, we’ve seen a new region in Inazuma, and of course, many new characters along the way.

First through, I want to revisit my “soapbox” 3 weeks into the game, and see how much has changed.

FROM THREE WEEKS TO ONE YEAR

“TIME SINK”

Nothing has really changed about this aspect. Update schedules remain at 6 weeks for a version update, and events with multiple stages gradually unlock over the following days. There are still things time-gated and / or Adventure Rank-gated, or require completions of other quest chains. If you don’t play regularly, you miss out on the daily commission rewards, or miss out on opportunities that refresh after enough real life days pass.

Version 2.1’s bigger events require Adventure Rank 30 with the exception of Moonlight Merriment (AR 28). If you decided to start right at the beginning of 2.1, how fast will you be able to blitz through the content to participate in them? I’m not saying it’d be difficult since there’s far more ways to get AR EXP; it’s the time investment required.

THE GACHA

Anecdotally, it seems that the base Primogem rewards have slightly increased. They also have a daily check-in now, for an additional 60 Primogems among other resources. If I wanted to pick at it, that’s not even enough for a single Wish (160 Primogems). miHoYo’s own Tears of Themis gives out a Tear (equivalent to one draw / 180 S-Chips) monthly, so would it be strange to expect an Acquaint Fate for Genshin?

The rates and systems themselves haven’t changed. For Weapon Event Wishes, you get to select a chosen 5-star if you fail to obtain it twice in a row: unlikely to be feasible for the average free-to-play player. Constellations have yet to receive an alternative method of obtaining, besides saving up Starglitter for the monthly rotation 4-stars. No luck for 5-stars as yet.

THE RNG

This hasn’t changed much either.

For the artifacts themselves, they have introduced new “Strongboxes” for a select few sets, where you can throw in three 5-star artifacts to obtain a random piece of your chosen set. The stat distribution remains random at best, and levelling up the one you want is still a crapshoot. Billets for weapons are still not guaranteed drops, so good luck trying to craft something you want. At the very least, the drops from weekly bosses can be transmuted into another type, though also limited: you can only transmute a drop from the same boss, and it requires Dream Solvent, itself not guaranteed.

RESIN

Things that have changed:

• Cap increase from 120 to 160
• Fragile Resin in Battle Pass rewards. Transient Resin purchasable weekly from Realm Depot
• Half Resin cost for first 3 weekly bosses
• Condensed Resin so that you can bank up for another day

The base regeneration rate hasn’t changed, and the addition of a new weekly boss makes me feel Resin is once again too limited. I’d like to see an increased cap, or maybe more purchasable Transient Resin (since it expires anyway). Perhaps Fragile Resin as event rewards too?

VAGUE SUGGESTIONS

Out of the ones I posited, here’s what I felt were implemented:

• Raising / lowering World Level: Still restricted to first hitting World Level 5, though
• “Open world events”
  • This is the 1/2 I considered, as Fishing is an open world activity, though not especially contributing to exploration once all the chests are gone / puzzles completed
• Daily check-in, through external website

WHAT’S NEW?

SYSTEMS

These are the ones I’d say are the biggest ones:

• A Housing system, the Serenitea Pot
  • You can decorate them and invite your characters over to chill and passively get Companion EXP
  • Gardening, for some of the most troublesome gathering items

The Load system still cramps the style some. If I want to make a mountainous area and populate it with animals, I wouldn’t be able to do that as freely as I’d like. I do understand though, as too much stuff means a high burden for both servers and devices already struggling to run the game. Pathways are supposed to be coming soon, so I’ll look forward to that. The building time is somewhat less of a problem if you’ve already maxed out your Realm’s Adeptal Energy, or you have a lot of friends…

• Fishing

The initial deployment is a bit barebones, but it is at least here. I know many players feel that the 3 day refresh is too slow, presumably to encourage co-op to raid another person’s fish instead. My only complaint is really the fact that Fake Fly Bait feels expensive, due to needing Sakura Blooms…

• Archives

While limited as in cutscenes can’t be viewed again, it is at least an easier method to look up the ones you’ve completed without searching for transcripts or videos for the story. Then there’s the entries for the stuff you’ve collected, or animals you’ve come across. Very nice for the Lore Nerds.

STORY

Besides the Archon Quests or character story quests, we have Hangout Events for select characters. These aren’t regular updates, unfortunately, and the nature of a gacha game means it’s hard to equally distribute screen time, and you don’t want a story to be rushed out, do you?

Speaking of the story, despite having four Acts in total, I’m of the opinion that the Inazuma arc was wrapped up too hastily. Without going into too much detail, there were points where I felt the characters were criminally underutilized, a shame when the vocal performances and general presentation have generally no fault. I’ve seen dissatisfaction over Character Quests too, which you can argue the writers can choose to tell whichever story they want. Of course, feelings are subjective, so if you yourself were satisfied, I’m glad for you.

VAGUE SUGGESTIONS

ACCESSIBILITY

I do have some suggestions:

• Requesting instantly appearing text
  • There are moments where you’re not allowed to skip until the voiceline completes anyway, so might as well include this if possible
• Descriptions for Graphics options
  • Would help to know what a setting affects
  • Colour-blind options?

I’m not alone in having concerns that various Inazuma graphical effects – Balethunder, for example – have been extremely uncomfortable for people, causing motion sickness. That’s not even mentioning the use of Thunder Spheres, the Phase Gates or following Electro Seelie: the speed of travel or the irregular movement patterns can cause issues. Exploration wise, narrow areas combined with heights can play havoc with the camera for more problems. The problem is that a number of these are the core mechanics of Inazuma’s exploration, making for an unpleasant time. There is a health warning at the start of the game, but when the discomfort is limited to very specific circumstances, it sucks that you can’t fully enjoy it.

As I’m not a mobile player, I’m not sure of what settings would be most useful, but here goes:

• Auto lock-on for bows
  • Basing this off FPS titles on consoles that tend to have this assist. Considering you still can’t change targets in regular play, I don’t foresee this being implemented soon or at all
• Change button placements / resizing
  • While mobile does not have keybinds, moving the buttons around sounds beneficial for those who may prefer different positions (a hot device notwithstanding)
  • Honestly would also like this for other platforms, too

I know accessibility often plays second fiddle to many things, so I would ask that developers can become more conscious of players of all abilities.

BATTLE PASS

I’ve seen people wonder if there should be additional rewards beyond Level 50. For those who play regularly, there’s definitely an interest for having more rewards with more playtime. Conversely, there is also consideration to be made for those who don’t; you can purchase levels with Primogems, but if you’re already not keeping up regularly to earn said Primogems, would you have enough for the Battle Pass if you don’t pay for Genesis Crystals?

Perhaps, much like if you’ve hit the Adventure Rank limit of Level 60, you could earn Mora once you’ve completed the track. People could always use more Mora, right?

GADGETS

• Portable Portal?

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a portal gadget that could take you shorter distances, rather than just a waypoint? Coming from Guild Wars 2, players with the Mesmer class would shuttle people to and from puzzle areas for those who found it difficult to traverse. Areas are often locked behind quests anyway, so this is more of a fun addition.

MULTIPLAYER IMPROVEMENTS

Quest NPCs remain un-interactable in co-op, as I had very recently discovered when helping a friend out. The Statue of the Seven also could not be activated in co-op. While Genshin is ostensibly an always-online, single player game, it still does have multiplayer features, and the time-gated nature of things encourages co-op. Removing these restrictions would make the co-op experience smoother. I understand that this might be done to limit real-time processing needed on weaker devices, but also consider the loading times getting out and back in.

THE JOURNEY TO COME

For a game as big as this, the road has not been 100% smooth. To wit:

• Leaks
  • miHoYo’s lawsuit against Bilibili
  • Fans wanting to countersue miHoYo over balance changes
• COVID-19
  • Genshin Fes gets postponed
  • KFC collab gets cancelled
• Events
  • The response to the first anniversary community rewards preview was…

But of course, there’s been so many objectively incredible things that’s happened too. The game continues to make money for the business department, and the players get many characters they come to love. I still have no intention to spend money on this game, be it for in-app purchases or merchandise, and that’s the way I roll.

If you are ever dissatisfied with the direction the game has taken, remember that it’s still a game. You should be enjoying it, and if you aren’t, a break would probably do you good. What happens from here on out, who can say? In any case, cheers to your first anniversary, Genshin Impact.

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Genshin Impact

Publisher: miHoYo

Developer: miHoYo

Release Date: 2020-09-28

Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Step into Teyvat, a vast world teeming with life and flowing with elemental energy. You and your sibling arrived here from another world. Separated by an unknown god, stripped of your powers, and cast into a deep slumber, you now awake to a world very different from when you first arrived.

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