Genshin Spiral

 

It's been a good few years since I last played Genshin and was last brutally humbled by a game that was so much better than I had assumed it would be when I first saw that trailer all that time ago. Although I suppose that experience did unveil my unconscious bias against what I presumed to be a 'rip off game' and the bizarre protectiveness I assumed over a game that I had literally no hand in making. It's a strange and totally illogical obsession that I soon shirked off, which is probably why I lacked the general public's kneejerk rejection of Palworld when it launched earlier this year and why even though I think the concept is tired, I don't spit out the game's name like an unholy curse word. But over time Genshin became more and more filled with content to the point I realised that with the amount of time I was spending playing just Genshin, other fantastic games were passing me by. So I retired my time with the game and MiHoYo in general- not because their games are bad: I just want to experience more different types of games from other developers- pretty please!

But just because I left Genshin behind in my rearview mirror that doesn't mean I don't check in every once and a while to see how the old girl is doing. Reminiscence on the good old days, think about what currently is and what could have been- sappy, stupid stuff like that. And that means I do hear about it every now and then when something happens that shakes the Genshin world in such a significant way that some people are out there waving their death flags announcing this to be the beginning of the end. Which I find utterly insane personally- Genshin has that 'too big to fail' energy going on/ but then so did CrunchyRoll and we saw what happened to them. Admittedly I wasn't quite as in-tune with the anime market when that news dropped so maybe there was more writing on the wall than it seemed, but the name CrunchyRoll seemed so ubiquitous before it's announced merger- could Genshin find itself sliding down the same path?

Most surprising of all- this backlash does not come from the Western gamers freaking out over a single translation error in an offhand conversation with a background character like usual. (Seriously, American's online act like their entire self worth is based off the presumed moral values displayed in their fiction, it's honestly impressively delusional.) This actually pops out of MiHoYo's backyard all the way with Chinese players who are upset about the way they're being treated, which is news to me because I thought China was ground zero for all the most insane microtransaction nonsense. Although after seeing the EU specific release of DMC Peak of Combat, which ruined all the great content the Chinese Release had at launch, now I'm starting to wonder if Chinese Developers just actually hate the rest of the world and want to spread that perception to spite us.

The controversy is actually a little bit of a repeat job- drawing not on some new spark of injustice that has shaken the fandom to it's core, but rather an old sore spot that has been repeatedly hit over the course of several years. The Chinese New Year event, a significant celebration moment for Chinese players, just isn't hitting with the same rewards that many of it's players think such an event demands. Year after year we've heard the same grumblings about how the minuscule free Gatcha spins are such an offhand reward that the team might as well have not bothered, and when compared to other Gatcha games that at least spoiled their audience with an abundance of five stars characters and materials drops. Genshin seems to have become complacent with it's position at the top of the pile.

So start the review bombings and the boycotts and the pulling of millions of fans on social media as players of Genshin slowly open up to the fact that the game is no longer feeding them like it should. Even as the game accepts more than enough new content to be less than stingy every now and then, the allure of the profitable 5 star grind shuts up the purses of the development team and sets off the irk factor on the beleaguered. The West seems less vitriolic, around here the acceptance that Gatcha games are usually geared towards being unfavourable to the player is accepted gospel, so this sort of news is no great shock- but Genshin is typically better at making it's fans feel less than squeezed dry. You can call them 'all the same' if you want, but to compare 'Diablo Immortal' to 'Genshin' in terms of monetisation is like comparing Oranges you bite into that are sometimes a little too sour to Oranges you get forcibly smashed into your unprotected eyes searing your receptors irreparably. There are tiers to consider!

Of course, one might ask whether or not such a backlash even shows as a blip on the radar of a ship as large as MiHoYo's. They are internationally one of the biggest Gatcha developers on the planet and the amount of revenue they score yearly would be enough to drag some third world nations out of debt. When you get to that stage the only real thing that can you bring you down is yourself, and though there are been some mild grumblings about lacklustre content reveals in recent months- sentiments are nowhere near universal enough to popularise any theories that Genshin is 'falling off'. We're nowhere near Modern Warfare 3 levels of desperation where the team spit our recycled multiplayer assets and then hide behind their bully-boy voice cast to defend them. (Seriously, pathetic.)

But let's throw ourselves into an alternate reality wherein fans are respected, and when they feel disrespected- their suggestions are put into action: then what exactly would be the recourse to solving this? Because if I were MiHoYo and this boycott was enough to land at my door, I would simply chuck a give-away character in a free email to current players and wait for this whole controversy to boil over again three years down the line- because the public's memory never lasts that long. That's how these big franchises can get away making the same mistakes over and over- there just isn't anywhere near enough of a sustained backlash to force anyone's hand into systemic change. Why shift the direction of Assassin's Creed when you'll buy the next one anyway? It's a losers game so it's best not to play.

Besides, even if push does come to topple and we see the house of Genshin destroyed completely, (Not going to happen but again- we're in an alternate world) then won't the team just turn around to Honkai Star Rail and make that their next big thing? I'm pretty sure that right now Honkai is nowhere near as big as Genshin, but it has the framework to adopt that same sort of playerbase if it really needs to. MiHoYo already have their get-out-of-jail franchise ready to drop at a moments notice- there's just no winning against corporations this overpowered! But by all means, if you feel disrespected let your voice be known and largely ignored because afterall, what else are you going to do as the player? Suck it up and keep playing? (The joke is because that's what they're going to do in a month anyway- get it?)

Keeping up with the Genshin-ians

 Just when I thought I was out-

It has been a hot minute since I've covered anything to do with Anime Zeld- well, I guess that would be, more Anime Zelda; Genshin Impact. But that hasn't been because of a lack of stuff going on altogether. I've just been terrified of falling into the hypnotic trance state where I cannot bring myself to pick up any other game because I'm stuck inside the cycle of doing dailies and spending resin and chipping away at sidequests and basically just living my life in Genshin. It's a very easy pattern to fall into for games such as this one, and it can really suck up your free time if you're not careful. But I've had some time, taken some breaks, and realised that Genshin literally jumped 5 versions whilst I had my back turned. How the heck did that happen? I mean, wow; for a game that's free-to-play MiHoYo are cranking out content like their lives are on the line; it's a wonder how such a blatant financial success of a game can get so excitable with it's updates, such that I'm starting to seriously wonder whether or not the staff over there are actually made up of sentient Androids. (Surely only beings requiring neither sleep nor sustenance can keep things running like this.)

But the whole '5 versions' thing is actually a bit of misnomer- actually it's more like a straight lie. The Genshin team got bored around Update 1.6 and decided to skip ahead to 2.0 because, hey, this is their game and they make the rules. Certainly a strange way to handle content numbers there team, but still more comprehensive than the Minecraft system of doing things so I guess you're still on a good track, huh. (I think Mojang are confused about how decimals work) But that isn't to say that those other updates, 1.5 and 1.6, were slackers in any way either. 1.5, which I missed, contained an entire housing system built in. Yeah, you know those things that most other games of this type wait until year 3 to start implementing? Genshin did that already. And it's already pretty developed, although it does suffer from simply egregious time gating. (13 real-time hours to build a bookshelf? We're working with the power of demi-god Adeptus here, can't you use that power to hop down to IKEA for an easy assembly kit?) And 1.6 introduced the concept of player outfits (which is yet to be properly developed) and a brand new boat mechanic which was introduced in a limited time playspace and has since been ported to the larger Genshin world.

"So if that's just what the 0.1 increments were holding, then what exactly warrants a full jump to the next total integer?" you might wonder. Or more likely you do not, because it's hard to avoid all the excitement over the first new region that got added to the world of Teyvat, the Japanese inspired archipelago of Inazuma. 2.0 has introduced a land of Samurai, lightning storms and scary Shogun Waifus, and you can bet I wasn't going to take the time to miss a single second of it. Heck, the very day this update launched I logged on and cleared every single main character side quest I had left so that I could enter this update clean. (Which included me meeting Eula for the first time, to which I can say thus: I understand the discrimination she endured for a family name she happens to share, but my god is she annoying. I fully understand why Amber is her only friend) So how was my time in the land of Eternity?

I think that more than any other Teyvat-ian region before it, I'm totally fascinated by the story of Inazuma's land, because it contains much more presence and personal drive than the Genshin storytellers have pulled off before. Mondstadt is more just your prototypical fantastical vaguely European fantasy setting lacking any genuine character to it, and Liyue was at the exact opposite end of the spectrum; dripping with lore about Adepti, the land of Contracts, and Ningguang: The Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing. Yeah, needless to say I tuned out at almost every paragraph of text I was force fed during the Liyue campaign, unless it was being delivered by Zhongli. (I've always got time for my main man.) Immediately Inazuma is presented as this land of contention and challenge; heck, getting there in itself is a headache because the border is closed and visitors are frowned upon, and the way they chose to expand on this has proven to be very intriguing and easy to follow; a great recipe for making the audience want to care more.

As The Land of Eternity, Inazuma is gripped by this determination to keep everything that way that is was without any remote change for a long as possible, 'so that the land can pass to the end of time undisturbed' or something like that. It reminds me of a shade upon the wild desperation of Gwyn Lord of Cinder from Dark Souls, the man who defied the flow of nature to feed his selfish greed to preserve the world he had made, unwilling to accept that all things must die. I will say that Inazuma's Archon, Baal, is certainly easier on the eyes than old desiccated Gwyn was. Her desires to keep the land static is made very real by her decree to hunt the visions, (the magical orbs that everyone who can manipulate elements needs to party except for our protagonist) a tyrannical measure that has spread fear across the islands.

See, this is the sort of plot that I can get aboard with! A enigmatic and mysterious godly dictator hellbent on defying personal freedoms in order to enforce her idea of what makes for a perfect world, a resistance both inside and outside her spheres of influence lending to clandestine actions for the player, and a natural way to really delve into the lore about what exactly a vision is, and why being deprived of one is something you really don't want happening. Some might say it's a bit of a slow note to pick up on considering the end of Chapter 1 had us confronting our Sibling for the first time, only for them to disappear and the protagonist to sulk about, acting like they don't even remember that. (It's still "I'm looking for my brother" rather than "I'm trying to understand why my Brother's a total dick now") I, however, think there's plenty of time to drip feed the overarching narrative; in the meantime this intimate, contained struggle of warring ideologies for life is much more entertaining for me.

But the story is just a part, Inazuma itself is a whole new face for the Genshin franchise and her bounties are somewhat different from the rest of the game up until now. Or 'most' the rest of the game, because you can tell very clearly that much of Inazuma's design decisions took direct inspiration from Dragonspine mountain; from the region-exclusive elemental effect that has multiple utility and combat applications, to the 'upgrade tree' providing another progression path for the curious and even the general philosophy of a smaller landscape that's more densely packed with things to find and do. The basic breadth of the land disappointed me at first glance, but since then I've been picking through surprise caves, tucked in outcrops and dangerous wild lightning zones, all of which has really bought me to grips with the more nuanced approach to world design this time around. Building up instead of around, it's a different look to be sure.

I've only just finished the story content of 2.0, as such I'm still coming to grips with what the update really has to offer in terms of exploration. (There's two whole off-islands that I've only grazed so far.) The boss fight against Baal was refreshingly tough as nails though, I'm slightly dreading how badly she's going to string me out in the inevitable follow-up for upcoming months. And so once more, I've been knocked for a loop by Genshin Impact and it's ability to flood us with things to do that are actually fun to engage with. I almost feel guilty enjoying myself, like this sort of content isn't right for a Free-to-play game, but as long as no one tells MiHoYO how none of their contemporaries tries even a fraction this hard to make their mobile games, I think we're in the tentative clear. For sheer atmosphere, however, I still personally think that Dragonspine is my favourite location, but the season of Inazuma has but only begun and who knows what crazy surprises the team might have cooking up for us in the months to come. (Like Fishing. That's been confirmed to be coming already. So yay for fishing.) Ah Teyvat, it's good to be back... 

'The Abyss' Trope

Alternate title: It's okay to steal and why you should.

When it comes to crafting a narrative, even one that is made to be unique and explore untested waters, there are bound to be some basic themes and concepts that are borrowed from or inspired by other pieces of work; or maybe entirely separate concepts that line-up together from complete coincidence. These 'tropes' as we dub them may have a name commonly synonymous with a negative connotation, but they don't necessarily have to represent the mark of an unimaginative storyteller incapable of innovation and creation by themselves. Oftentimes, the fact that these concepts even become tropes in the first place is because they are so rich of ideas, with such range to them, that they can be used again in completely unique narratives, perhaps even to achieve a different purpose, and still be interesting. The very act of an idea becoming a 'trope' marks it as one of some value, worthy of revisiting or reconstructing time and time again. (I mean, as the adage goes: "Good artists take, great artists steal". Or something to that avail.) To celebrate and familiarise myself with that, I want to explore once such trope as it exists within a few prominent fantasy worlds; the 'Abyss' trope.

When it comes to creating various factions and world forces in a fantasy setting, purpose and function can really stretch the limits of the imagination as the storyteller can get to describing factions as mundane as trade blocks to forces as wild as governing bodies for the very laws of nature. 'The Abyss', as it most commonly exists in the examples I've noticed, generally leans towards that latter extreme; telling of a force, often somewhat conscious, made up of, or representative of, complete and total nothingness. An 'Abyss' between the material of reality whereupon nothing should exist, and yet does. Of course, it's not always called 'Abyss', that's just one of my more colourful names I've noticed for it, sometimes it has a more descriptive name in 'The Void'. A somewhat philosophical concept when you think about it: live substance representing the lack thereof, so you can already sort of see the legs of such an idea and how it gets around. Still, I've picked out four fantasy worlds who I believe all have examples of such a concept, to various extremes, to see the different ways one might approach it, and thus the variety with which any storyteller can approach any trope in general. (Savvy? Good.) 

First up, Genshin Impact. That's right, the game often accused of stealing it's very soul from Breath of the Wild, and the idea of various newer updates from other properties or games since. (I can definitely see the Windwaker comparisons for the Summer Island update) This game has it's own take on the 'Abyss' trope, and it comes in the form of the oft-ignored major enemy faction: The Abyssal Order. Rather than being anything as esoteric as a faction borne entirely from the lack of everything, there's an actual comprehensive, if still-in-process, explanation behind them that I think holds an interesting parallel to the Abyss trope. The order, as it is told, hail from the land of Khaenri'ah, the location of the upcoming penultimate chapter of the main Genshin story and the one land that doesn't actually exist in Teyvat.

That is because this land, unlike every other in the game, isn't ruled over by a god, or Archon, making it totally unique against everything else we've seen in the game so far and linking to the concepts of false god hood that keep being bought up in the story. This society ends up coming to ruin, and the Abyssal Order are it's remnants striking out at the god-ruled lands with some unknowable end in mind. For this instance, the concept of 'the Abyss' is synonymous with destruction, or even just the absence of Divinity. As though being without the guiding hand of some sort of god is to be lost, creating some interesting interpretations for the message; is freedom itself 'the abyss'? That questions like this can be even be derived by something as ostensibly straightforward as Genshin Impact speaks wonder for the effect of the trope on the narrative, although until the story of Khaenri'ah is expanded we're working purely with speculation at this point. 

Next I've bought up the Divinity franchise, classic Role Playing games that I've often lambasted for their callously noncommittal approach to worldbuilidng that leads to large swathes of the universe and the forces that govern it being rewritten on a dime. Point-in-case, it wasn't until the Original Sin series that the games suddenly decided that the big-bad entity you should be struggling against is 'The Void'. Here we're talking about a much more literal interpretation of the concept, with 'The Void' representing the absence of matter entirely, a place of nothingness between space and time wherein nothing can exist. 

Yet from that void comes agents intent on dragging all that does exist back towards nothingness, and thus the ultimate goal of this 'Void' always seem to lay down a blanket of nonexistence over everything. In this sense, the trope presents it's 'Abyss' as a force of primordial nature intrinsically opposed to all that is, almost in spite of common sense and reasoning. An approach that feels like it excludes deeper introspection but I'm sure we could wax lyrical about the meaning behind meaningless if we were really desperate to search for meaning. We're not, however, and I'd call Divinity's interpretation of 'The void' as the prototypical approach from which to compare all others.

And now onto my favourite; the world of Dark Souls. In this universe ruled by primordial flames, wisps of souls and the dark essence known as Humanity, it only makes sense that the approach towards 'The Abyss' and it's role in the overall narrative is atypical. This is one of those games that also, famously, has a highly interpretive foundation for the lore, thus nailing specific concepts such as this one are difficult without coming to one's own conclusions on the matter. 'Abyss' seems intrinsically linked the concept of 'Humanity', (otherwise known as 'shards of the Dark Soul') and seems to represent the other end of the spectrum to the 'hollowing' we see throughout the majority of the franchise. Hollowing represents someone who has lost all their souls and humanity and thus lost themselves in the process, whilst becoming consumed by the Abyss appears to be (again, up to interpretation) given oneself over to the chaos of Humanity and being overwhelmed by it's influence.

Some significant moments throughout the franchise present pockets of Abyss as this chaotic consuming force that constantly threatens to corrupt and/or swallow all around it. (Although, crucially, still distinct from the wild nature-tied force known as 'Chaos') 'The Abyss' is still represented as overwhelming darkness, but it seems to stand for something more than just total annihilation, more like pure selfish consuming greed, perhaps even the hungry tyranny of Humanity itself. There's a lot to be said for allegory and the way it works within Dark Souls, but the take away I want for this blog is the plain fact that even a trope ostensibly presented like normal can still underlie deeper and interwoven concepts and thus evolve the original trope.

Last but by no means least is the version of this trope that I understand least, as it comes from that font of lore just a little too deep for me to get a complete handle over it all; D&D. This Abyss, or 'The Infinite Layers of the Abyss, is actually a plane of existence, rather than just the space between planes, placing it line with other realms such as The Prime Material plane (main setting for most of DnD) and the various other 'building blocks of reality'-esque planes. This Abyss is actually full with a great deal of substance to it, being as how it's home to The Nine Hells and several other antagonist realms besides. It's not perhaps the singular source of everything bad within the worlds of D&D, but it certainly houses it's demons, and demons make for pretty tempting scapegoats in any story

Interestingly, D&D's interpretation of 'The Abyss' is a lot less matter-of-fact and passive than other contemporaries. Whereas the Abyss might still be threatening in other stories, it's usually out of unconscious compelling of nature rather than concerted malice. This Abyss, though not exactly a sentient force of it's own, still stands to represent some form of pure evil; giving us an actual tag of the antagonistic on this version of the trope.  

There we have different shades of the same concept in merely a handful examples that still manage to drastically change the form, role and even purpose of the trope in question; making the idea seem wholly distinct in many interpretations. Although the Void/Abyss always does seem to be something to fight against, perhaps indicative of that natural human desire to stave off oblivion and the call of the void, everyone had a different idea of what form that takes and even how active of a foe this Abyss/Void is. (I even suspect Genshin Impact might try to make us feel sympathetic of the Abyss for it's final chapter, whenever that eventually launches) Perhaps from that you've seen the utter deluge of complexity and choice still available to a storyteller from a single borrowed idea. In conclusion; don't be afraid to steal an idea, because the way you choose to bring it to life can rewrite it's entire identity.

What's the deal with the Chinese and Genshin?

And when's the punchline?

I'd say that at this point it's no secret that I'm something of a fan of Genshin Impact. I know, it should be everything that I despise, being a mobile game based on Gacha elements, but everytime I give her a chance I'm never disappointed. The Gacha systems have always treated me surprisingly fair, the game runs so well on PC I often completely forget it doubles on phones too, and at the end of the day the game is just fun to play. Whatsmore, I feel like MiHoYo is made up of developers who seem to genuinely listen to and work upon feedback, as I rarely see an issue that isn't neatly cleaned up in a decent amount of time. Now of course the game isn't at all perfect. The combat can be a little repetitive due to there being only a couple new enemies added since launch, the world is presented just past the threshold of denseness to be slightly unapproachable and the mainstory seems predominately directionless for 90% of the playtime. But somehow the charm outweighs the negatives for me.

And it would seem that I'm not alone given how the game has become something of an International sensation, to the point where they even got themselves nominated for a GOTY award. They didn't win it, unfortunately, (And not because Last of Us Part 2 was up for one in the same category. 'Cause then they'd have no chance.) but it's still indicative of a game that that forced it's way into the big leagues. Think on this; this game was up for a multiplayer award but Avengers, a Square Enix title with the biggest brand in the world attached to it, was completely absent. It has a decent playerbase of dedicated fans, pop culture has already integrated surface level knowledge of the game into popular memes and the free-to-play game made a veritable fortune in it's opening months alone. So if all that's the case, why is this game so hated in China?

I ask because, lest we all forget, MiHoYo is actually a Shanghai-based video game company despite all the ways in which they try to make us forget that. You know, like how the game is advertised with a translation of it's Japanese name rather than it's Chinese one, which leads to the rather nonsense title of 'Genshin Impact' rather than 'Yuan shen'. (Which refers to the Primordial spirit or 'true god' which forms the underlying narrative of the game.) So this here is a Chinese game that does it's utmost to hide that fact and is, anyway, vastly disliked in all of China? We can see this from the general public disinterest shown during events, to the grand display of one Chinese fan who rather embarrassingly broke their PS4 at an expo for the game. There's even outright hostility towards the game on Social Media, and at this point you might be wondering what exactly is the cause of all this. 

Well to be entirely frank there could be any number of inciting factors with anything from random cultural differences to wide spread dogpiling, although I think this may actually date back to the first reception this game ever received. Weirdly, I actually stumbled upon this game months before launch when it existed as only trailers, and as you can see from my blog at the time, I was less than impressed. I thought that it was blatantly obvious how this game was a cheap rip on Breath of the Wild, and that was apparent for anyone to see. The art style looked the same, the movement systems were identical, visual indicators were nicked, the evidence was damning. But then the game came out... and it was actually pretty good. Suddenly the narrative changed, this was no longer a copycat, by an 'inspired by' story. These guys had just seen what Nintendo had done so well and learnt from them, disregarding all the systems which literally ripped their functionality from the Zelda masterpiece. (Heck, they're still doing it. Don't think I didn't notice that recent cold system!) But that image never left in China.

Yep, while the rest of the world turned around and pulled out the 'we forgive you' card, China merely dug in their heels and rallied ever harder against the MiHoYo developers, and it doesn't look like they'll be coming around to everyone else's way of thinking anytime soon. And if you're wondering why this may be, I heard one rather sensible theory relate this to the perception of copy cats within the general Chinese psyche, because quite simply... the Chinese hate them. Yeah, the lax copyright laws in China may allow the place to be the land of infringement, but with that comes an unshakeable and disfavourable reputation that no one wants to foster. Around the world we tend to instinctively think 'China' whenever the idea of foreign knockoffs is discussed, and that's embarrassing, the people don't want to have that label. Whatsmore, it tends to rub off onto the actual quality products actually made in China, making China an easy target for ridicule.

Though we may look at Genshin with the eyes of "we'll make an exception this time" and "Lets look at how you're different rather than how you're the same", to the Chinese gaming audience it's merely another display of blatant creative bankruptcy that reflects badly on China. What makes it worse, now the game is global sensation, so their shame is being broadcast to the world! MiHoYo even knew this was likely, hence them trying to actively hide their original name as I mentioned earlier. Although this may not be a disaster on the level of those cheap movie rip-offs or foreign remakes you see all over the place, the quality of the product does not matter. This is a question of originality, and when you approach it from that angle, Genshin does look pretty guilty.

I find it oh-so fascinating to think about, because I'm on two minds for the issue myself. On one hand it's hard to deny; without Breath of the Wild Genshin would have never existed. Sometimes it feels like you could trip over the set in Teyvat and stumble into Hyrule, they're that similar to one another. But on the otherhand I fiercely defend the right for inspiration and reiteration as long as enough work is put in to sufficiently differentiate the final product. In my opinion MiHoYo put in more than enough effort to cross the freshold into originality again, but I don't have years of insult and disgrace wearing down my patience to the point where I'm fed-up like the Chinese people do. 

It's a shame, for this could have been the sort of game to really bring together the world of gamers that feel so very separate at times. (Due to excessive regulation which often means China is playing completely different versions of our games) And yet an inexplicable clash of cultures has wedged itself between that plan seemingly out of nowhere, it's almost comical in it's irony. Perhaps given time to get used to it, the Chinese gamers will gradually come around on Genshin and maybe join in on the fun the rest of us are having, but somehow I doubt it. (Heck, MiHoYo probably aren't even advertising in their homeland anymore at this point. It's that much of a lost cause.) Seems a strange fate for a game who's very world is designed to celebrate various world wide cultures. But thems the breaks, I suppose.

The Chalk Prince and the Dragon

 There's Agate in them hills!

This holiday season has marked the very first significant content update for the new Gatcha darling of 2020, Genshin Impact, where instead of getting a new character, new quest or an update event, fans were treated to a whole new chunk of land to explore, and I wanted to take a look at just how significant this actually wound up being to the Genshin experience. Now I wouldn't exactly call myself an addict to this game so much, but it had turned out to be one of my most played games of this last part of the year so there's certainly some attraction beyond the normal. I'm just constantly tickled by the idea that this game made it into the same ecosystem as trash like RAID: Shadow Legends and it's kin. I genuinely have fun logging into Genshin and that's just the sort of thing I'd never though I'd be saying for a F2P title, therefore judging the way that content is distributed might be an accurate way of judging how long this game will keep my favor before the next fad grabs my attention. So with that in mind let's talk about Genshin's Christmas chapter; The Chalk Prince and the Dragon.

Now first of all this update is completely free to all players, as it very much should be considering how much money this title made for it's owners in the first few weeks. That's a precedent I hope we're all expecting the team to maintain as it establishes the value of the package before even a step is taken into Teyvat. And Dragonspine, for those who haven't dipped their toes into the lore, is essentially the giant snowy mountain which can been seen practically anywhere in Mondstadt or Liyue. Whereas I originally believed this to be a part of Snezhnaya, (The realm of the big-bad Russian-inspired Fauti) and thus was confused why a presumably endgame area was coming as part of the first big content update, I was wrong, this is a standalone area featuring just the mountain with the cold weather being the natural consequence of high altitudes. Also, I do believe this to be currently, and perhaps enduringly, the highest point of the world right now, making this Genshin's version of The Throat of the World from Skyrim.

And as this new content is set in the snowy reaches of an ice mountain, tasking players with scaling such a perilous beast, it makes sense for the creators to 'borrow' another system from Breath of the Wild. That's right, just like with the visual style and basic gameplay, MiHoYo has adapted Breath of the Wild's temperature mechanic and bought it into Genshin, albeit in a much more rudimentary way. Basically, as you explore Dragonspine you'll find yourself accumulating a dynamic bar just above your health which is said to keep track of 'sheer cold'. Once that bar reaches fullness the player will start to take damage until their icy death. The cold can be kept back by lighting braziers with fire attacks, following warmth Seelies or activating these geo-looking lanterns that are scattered across the mountain. Rather disappointingly you cannot use generated fire from your attacks to whether the cold, as I tested extensively with Diluc, but I suppose that would take away the challenge, would it not?

So there we have a barrier to exploration, logic would dictate this is because there isn't that much to see and the developers wanted to gate players from seeing it all too fast. Or at least that's how my pessimistic mind would work. But after spending some extensive time in this world I can pretty much say that no, I was certainly off-base for this one. Dragonspine is actually surprisingly full to the brim of stuff to see and do, to the point where this almost feels like all the content you'd find over one of the game's reigons shrunk down and put in this one relatively tiny mountain. There's caves, puzzles, ruins, heights and enemies falling on top of each other, to the point where you can actually really start to appreciate the way the minimap actually takes height into account  and accommodates for that. (Otherwise this map would get overly cluttered fast)

Whatsmore, this place seems to have been built with an emphasis on freeform exploration first, which is where I feel that Genshin is at it's best. Most sidequests for this game pretty much devolve into fetching stuff or slaying small groups of the same enemies, and thus actually solving puzzles and seeing new things is where the magic moments are held and Dragonspire has been full of those. Just figuring out how to get to the summit alone was rewarding and required mastering this new mechanic where you'll come across enchanted Ice that can only be broken by accruing an effect that activates when you collect a crimson ore littered across the land. This alone has you paying a lot more attention to places in the environment where you see that ore and making notes or routes in your head, and I just love when Genshin leads into this sort of play; this is the golden heights of this game!

In terms of story, that's where I'm a little more hands-off on the content right now and that's because not all of it has actually dropped yet. Following the footsteps of the Fischl and Mona inspired Fallen Stars event, The Chalk Prince and The Dragon is actually releasing in parts across the month in order to segment content and progression in a way that keeps players coming back on multiple days. For my part I will say this helps establish a sense of scale to events, but only if you follow the routine, otherwise it's just an annoying gate to progress that you are forced to wait out. Thus I think it appropriate that the developers put in systems, during this event, to make coming back a worthwhile endeavour. In this instance it's actually a free 4-star sword called Festering Desire, which players can actually improve by going around and collecting materials that drop off of enemies slain in this new region, encouraging coming back on several days during this event. Although by that very nature it does put a time restraint on how long you can keep improving on this new sword, and not everyone likes that sort of pressure. (I sure don't.)

However I think the real disappointment in regards to Dragonspine was something I was really picking up all the way back in the reveal trailer; the distinct lack of new enemies. Don't get me wrong, there are a few new ice-types wondering about the place and 2 new boss enemies to contend with, but for the most part the mobs are identical and I think that's a shame. One of my issues with the regions already in the game, Mondstadt and Liyue, is the way that their enemy ecosystem is almost identical in a way that means general combat gameplay doesn't feel unique comparative to where you travel and Dragonspine has continued that tradition. Now this might be because Dragonspine is supposed to sit as this meeting point between the two nations, and that once we enter a new region they'll actually be new creatures, but all I have are my own hopes to believe that, now assurances have come from the team thus far.

But even with all that said, as far as additional content to a free game goes, Dragonspine is shockingly high value to it's players. Carrying unique rewards, (in it's domain) challenges (in it's 'Sheer Cold' system) and experiences, (in it's puzzles) there really is no reason not to give it a shot. I do wonder, however, for the new story content somewhat, which (like in the falling stars event) seems to be hinting at some larger reveal which the narrative is sharing. (And which the community unravelled eons ago. The story is about Gnosticism, we get it!) But all in all I can say rather heartedly that if this mountain is any indication of the sort of support that MiHoYo intend to maintain for Genshin then I'm down for the journey, even if it gets released in small chunks like this rather than whole nations at a time. This was really cool, team, I liked it.

The Genshin progression dilemma

Relapse time!

In the wake of new content coming to the vibrant world of Teyvat, and the ongoing delay of the one game which would break this curse, I've been sucked back into Genshin once more. (I try to get free but they keep pulling me back in!) Thus I am again enshrined in the anime world of husbandos, gacha mechanics and elemental cocktails, and I've actually having quite a time of it, I must admit. Much of the newest update has touched upon just about every single point of contention that the general public agreed on and if this is the sort of feedback that MiHoYo tends to run this entire game's lifespan by, then I might want to be here for the whole journey. However, as I slowly get wrapped back up in the cycle, I have found myself slowly coming to terms with something of an intrinsic problem that wrapped me up and broke me down the first time, and I'm wondering if it's going to lead to another prolonged absence from the game in the future. It's also something destined to become ever worse as the game expands throughout the months and years, and it's progression. There's a dilemma here.

So first let me take you over what Genshin progression looks like. Right now it's a juggling between currencies, and oh there are just so many currencies to deal with. So the primary thing to remember is Mora, that's essentially gold, but it's so universal and handed out in the thousands so that you'll forget it's event there, until you run out and then realise that there's actually no dedicated way to grind for Mora. (Excluding the bounties which were added in the latest patch.) You need Mora for validating every upgrade you make in this game, but the upgrades themselves do require materials which need to be sourced from literally everywhere in the gameworld. You have material dungeons that only open on certain days, bosses that roam around the place who drop items, mineral deposits littered across the land, chests with experience boosts and fauna in various regions. All of these contain the sort of items that you, as a player, need in order to keep your characters levelling, and keeping them levelling is important because of the ever present pressure inferred by the World Level system

The World Level system which Genshin's adventure revolves around is both is biggest blessing and it's biggest curse, and I'm about to explain why. Almost every achievement you perform in the game nets  some amount of adventurer EXP which congregates in the overall profile and adds towards the Adventure rank. The higher your rank, the more missions become available to you and thus the more story content you can access. However there are little stops at every 10 ranks, starting from rank 15, in which the World Level is increased. (Either automatically or provided that the player can complete a dungeon which is required in order to earn any more adventure EXP or to level your characters to higher thresholds) This makes every single challenge in the game harder so that you'll never be too overpowered to enjoy yourself, but it also implements this buff in concentrated blocks so that you don't get that feeling of never improving. (Good job team, even Ubisoft couldn't manage that balance) Enemies will hit harder, live longer and spawn as tougher incarnations; making the gameplay ever fresh. Increased World Level also means that every activity reward is improved in quality too, so overall there's no downsides to hitting the upgrade button. Or rather, almost no downsides. 

You see, the problem with this system is that is takes up so much effort in order to level up just one character to keep competitive in the difficulty level, that when it comes to managing a team of four that's almost overwhelming. But Genshin isn't about maintaining a team of four, indeed the very concept encourages players to collect every Hero that they can, totalling more than they could ever comfortably manage. This means that inevitably, some heroes are going to be left behind in the mad rush to keep up with the World Level, and whilst you might say "Well then, just stop ranking up whilst everyone catches up" remember that everything contributes to the adventure Rank, meaning that if you are to hold on, that means pausing all missions and significant side activities too, because overwise you'll literally be wasting precious adventure rank XP. So there's the basic thesis for why the progression can be problematic, but let me put that information into a practical example for you.

Currently in Genshin I'm managing an Alpha team of a DPS, two supports and a healer, which was good enough to keep me competitive up until a point. Eventually I realised that my healer was falling behind in her duties, and it was because she was level 40 whilst everyone else was level 50. Easy enough to fix, except for the fact that at 40 she had hit her 'ascension wall' (The point at which EXP boosts become useless and you need to gather specific 'ascension' materials in order to make her susceptible to more.) The further problem being that her particular ascension asked for a boss material, which was common enough, except that this boss was one I'd never fought before called the Oceanid. Now because I've being raising an Alpha team it would probably make sense that I should be able to take out any boss in my world level, except for the fact that my DPS is Diluc, a fire dealer, and this boss is a water boss. Essentially all of my DPS was useless and my team would crumble easily. 'Fair enough' you might think, 'forcing diversity and shifting tactics  is what makes for long lasting gaming experiences', and I would agree with you, but there's a Catch-22 in there that I wonder if you caught.

In order to keep up to date with the latest world level I had to forgo keeping my 13 or so heroes balanced and razor focus on my team of four, so whilst these guys could juke it out with the roughest on in the world right now, all my bench warmers were useless. And by World Level 3, there's really no chance in heck that fresh-faced unpowered heroes can take on a boss without refocusing and dedicating ludicrous amounts of time to building them up (whilst putting the greater progression on hold) to overcome a really arbitrary road-bump. I managed it, but it foreshadowed a worrying precedent for this game as it expands. I recently just received the pictured banner leader for November, Childe; which is a great pull for sure. But I can't use him without dedicating a sheer week of materials and resources that I just can't really spare because I need them to keep my main team going. As the rooster expands this problem is only going to mount and soon it won't matter how many cool new characters that they add, players will be staunchly sticking to the only one's that did they any good to begin with.

And you want to know the bizarre thing? This isn't even a problem that only Genshin impact has; because you see, the recent Avengers game also suffered from an almost identical issue that stunts it's endgame potential. In Avengers, each hero is granted an expansive RPG progression system with standard trees and masteries, all of which pile on top of each for the endgame experiences. But each new character starts from the bottom and Marvel's Avengers is at it's least fun when character's haven't reached their mastery levels yet, so the desire to keep playing becomes diminished because the promised new content of 2 Hawkeyes, Antman and a Spiderman losses it's lustre. In both cases it's the concept that is most encouraging which slips up the flow of the game, and I wonder if this is intentional on their part or just an unfortunate consequence of the model; because if this literally an intentionally mapped out way of time-gating progression, even I have to admit that it's pretty ingenious. (If unendingly infuriating.)

So what's the solution? How do we fix this almost unassailable divide without invalidating grind but still making new characters as exciting as they should be? Well I think it's actually quite simple, there could be some sort of rubberbanding system in place where World Level decides an EXP multiplier for lower level characters, something which will taper off until you hit the recommended levels and then it's grinding like usual. I think that would really fix a lot of the issues and allow us all to have the huge roosters of diverse fun heroes to choose from like I think MiHoYo are going for. But maybe I'm being unrealistic and missing out something fundamental, please let me know if that is the case down in the comments. But until I see otherwise, I'll assume that this is a decent solve all. (Which I'll probably send their way some time after this, they tend to listen to feedback.)

Genshin: I've reached the endgame

"Ehe te Nandayo!"

Having literally just finished up my tasks for the day, I.E. using up all my Resin, doing my dalies and then stopping my Monstadt Katheryne in order to pick up my rewards before inevitably accidentally hitting the B button and swinging my ruddy huge greatsword at her face, (thank god for no friendly fire) I'm ready to talk about my time with Genshin. Because by the time you've reached the point where you're logging in for less than 30 minutes a day in order to maximize your effective time usage; you know you've pretty much hit the endgame. Story events stop becoming prevalent around the late 20's of your Adventure Rank, and by rank 36 you reach the end of such content until the next region is released. (Which as far as I'm aware is probably going to be this December at the earliest.) In the meantime all there is to do is to sit and grind the content that is here, and that's when you start coming across what everyone on the Internet is identifying as 'the Resin problem.'

Resin is a resource that you'll have since the beginning of your adventure, but like many of the early game currencies you'll likely completely forget about it. Just tuck it away to the back of your mind and focus on exploring this world of magic and waifus that has opened up before you, only for it to creep up on you as being the single most important resource in the game right now. Mora? Got plenty of it, have literally never come close to running out. (Good thing too, as I have literally no idea how someone is supposed to farm that in a dedicated fashion) Primogens? I'm waiting for the update next month with all the new characters before wasting that. Starglitter? I'm honestly too frugal to spend it. No, Resin is the currency that you'll be forever running out of and thus will forever need to get more of, and that's because of both it's utility and capacity limitations.

Resin is the resource that acts as energy would for any mobile game, basically it's the thing that stops you from perpetually grinding away at the tasks of the game until you've maxed out everyone and have no need to come back tomorrow. Call it the great habitualiser, because its main purpose is to instil a habit in the player until this game becomes part of their daily routine. Though just to be clear, unlike in other mobile games (I'm still shocked to think that this is a mobile game as well; how far things have come) Resin doesn't technically stop you from playing any of these endgame events. However Resin is required in order to collect the reward from these events, which is arguably the entire point of embarking on them to begin with, but at least you can still jump into those boss fights if you're simply just itching for the action. (It's also nice that you aren't being charged for the attempt, as is the case with some games.) So all in all I'm disgruntled, but okay with the Resin system, acknowledging that this is a free-to-play and thus we must dance at least a little to it's tune. My issue is with the limits.

So you have 120 Resin. That's a hard cap, you cannot stockpile anymore. There isn't even an option to expand that pool with premium currency, (not that such an option would be preferable, but it's the sort of thing you'd expect) so you'll be eyeing that number everytime you hit the map screen. But what does 120 mean exactly? Well, in order to get your rewards from beating a normal, run-of-the-mill world boss it's going to cost you 20 Resin. In order to get the reward from running crafting material dungeons, which already rotate their inventory on a week-long schedule, it's 40 resin. And in order to take on the impressive and fun weekly bosses, who are already limited to once a week, you need a eye-watering 60 Resin. So how do you get Resin back? Well you can spend the refill token, which only refills 60 and are rare to begin with; spend 50 Primogens, which it the same currency you use to buy Gacha spins, so that's not happening; or wait. You regen 1 Resin every 8 minutes. That means you'll get your full 120 in about... 16 hours. Yeah.

So my daily Genshin playtime would already be getting cut short if it wasn't for the fact that currently the very first Genshin event is running, Elemental Crucible, and guess what; it's requires 40 Resin in order to get your reward for each run! (And I do like the reward on offer; 25 'Adventurer's experience' certainly does look tasty) So I'm literally logging on to run the Elemental Crucible 3 times a day, with each run lasting anywhere from 3-5 minutes, before quickly scooping up my dalies and going back to Persona 4 or whatever else I have lined up. That's less than 30 minutes a day. I know I'm talking a lot about time investment in this blog, but it is a big deal. The more time I spend in the game a day, the more engaged that means I am and the longer I'm going to want to keep coming back. Now diminishing returns are obviously to be expected in this regard but you want that to be because I've become satisfied with the progression I've made and the exploration I've done, not because the game's mechanics are squeezing me out of the game.

In their utmost defence, miHoYo have actually acknowledged this issue and seem to be working on something to calm it down a little, which is so much more than they need to do. Genshin made back it's development investment in less than 2 weeks and I'm sure they could easily double that without listening to fan feedback and responding, but they clearly want this game to stick around and, you know what, so do I. Of course, what it is that they intend to do about it is anyone's guess, but the very fact it's being addressed at all marks the curious way in which this mobile game is challenging some of the norms of it's contemporaries. I've grown more and more attached to Genshin as I've played it over these past couple of weeks, to the point where I'm even starting to like some of the characters who at first came across as paper thin. (I still think Diluc's whole deal is a lot more obvious than the game thinks it is, but I'm enjoying him nonetheless) I genuinely want to see this game grow and develop with the times.

Will fixing the Resin alone pave the way for that? No, but it's a start. Having spent a lot of time in the Elemental Crucible I've also honed in on another, if lesser, problem that needs fixing; the co-op. Ignoring the bugs which sometimes lock me out of depositing elemental clots during the event, the actual makeup of Co-op itself seems oddly antithetical to the design of the game. Genshin seems to be about designing teams of colourful heroes with powers that can be laid down and switched between for the best combos and synergies, yet for some reason you can't make use of this in co-op. Or rather, it becomes a lot more difficult to. You see, for each player that joins your game, you'll be dedicating one of your party slots to their character, meaning if you have 3 players in your game you'll only have one hero to play as. This means no showing off your cool party and having to rely heavily on your teammates for synergy, which sort of becomes a problem when no one wants to play a healer.

But as I've stressed before these are early days for Genshin, and after no-lifing my way to the endgame within the first two weeks I was destined to bump into the title's teething problems. The game is still polished and fun enough to rival pretty much every other live service of the past two years, so I'm willing to let some questionable policy decisions slide so long as the team are prepared to address them. Honestly, this is the sort of game I can imagine sticking around in the public consciousness for a decent while if its growth is handled right, and that's a proposition which gets me excited to be on board. So good luck to miHoYo in the weeks to come; hope your success keeps up.

I play too much Genshin Impact

Dame da ne 

This is always the way it goes for me, you know. I find something trendy that I can't put down and then I ride it until I physically can't stand to look at it anymore. I will play until I hit the utmost grindwall and even then I will push forward, to the point where I'm not even sure I like the game itself anymore. Thus was the case for 'RAID: Shadow Legends', the only thing which stopped me was literally the game itself screwing up a pack I purchased (which was entirely in-game currency, of course) making me realise that I had so many better things that I could be doing with my time. Genshin has a slight foot over those other games, however, due to the plain fact that it is actually fun to play (Unlike RAID, which was sometimes fun to watch) and it appeals to my sensibilities every now and then. Therefore I'm going to dedicate at least a single more blog talking about the things I like about it.

I think what has resonated with me mostly throughout my time is the way that the game itself is, largely, a single-player experience. I've shared this before but I am the sort of person who very much prefers to play the sorts of games where their progression is limited only by the extent of their own dedication to it. Which is why I tend to play every game on the hardest difficulty. Yes, that means every single time I hit a hard section of the game I need to grind my fingers raw buffing my characters, or memorising attack patterns or simply learning how good Crystal Magic is against the Lord of Storms in Dark Souls 3, (I swear I read somewhere about how that damn dragon was resistant; someone lied bigtime) but the reward is that I feel accomplished on the other side. Genshin Impact operates it's difficulty by pure character and equipment level, different enemy archetypes are existent, but not exactly rich and complex enough to spell the difference between a low-level grunt and elite units. (That's mostly decided by back-end stats) Yet even then I still feel that rewarding atmosphere from slaying a troublesome group, thus my box gets ticked in this category.

Too many times I've had my potential for fun in these sorts of games crushed by the plain fact that I can't keep up with the PVP scene, which is almost always tied into the core progression arc. Maybe I'm just not lucky enough in the roles, am not willing to whale or plain just can't be asked to min-max; whatever the ultimate issue is, it puts me off the game and leans me more towards titles where my own fate is more in the control of my hands. The same goes for non-gacha multiplayer games as well; the second things turn too competitive I just get turned off. Now I'm sure someone out there could take that and turn it into some revelation about me but I'll just save you the hassle and do it for you: I don't like confrontation. There I said it. I'm a coward who prefers not to have to go through the stress of facing up against others and butting heads, that's just who I am. (Can't shame a man with absolutely no shame)

All in all, this is why I like the ways in which Genshin tries to keep it's world engaging with scaling difficulties, a modest smattering of activities and even a little bit of endgame thrown in there. I hear that the co-op play is notably lackluster, which is something that the team should probably work on in the near future for those that want to partake, but as long as I can have fun entirely by myself without having to shell out, I'm happy. For the time being that is exactly what Genshin proposes, although I do find myself wondering about the longevity of that. I've noticed the amount of resources it takes, for instance, in order to level a character up from 1-20. The sort of XP that you get from killing monsters is infinitesimal in comparison, pretty much forcing you to rely on these 'booster' items that can only be find in drops for wild chests. (Or as rewards from missions, Domains and the like) So there's potential to hit a pretty solid resources wall if things don't respawn at a decent rate. (Which is something else I think about.)

If there is one aspect that I think sets Genshin head and shoulders above it's competition, in a sort of "Won't be beaten for a good while" sort of way, it is the combat. I've touched on it before, but this is one of the few ways in which I think this game slightly surpasses the Zelda game it was 'heavily inspired' by. Functionally, you have slightly fewer actions at your disposal, it's true, such as literally having no block to speak of. (I'm not sure why not) But the versatility offered by elemental bonuses and character switching more than makes up for that fact. In some of the more chaotic fights, I'm always impressed by the amount of ways in which elements can play off each other in order do heavy amounts of damage, more so than you see in typical RPGs. Freezing an enemy and then setting them on fire, rather than doing nothing, hits them with a 'melt' bonus, wetting them and electrocuting them activates overcharge, ice and water will freeze them solid; there's so much interplay between elements that you rarely feel cornered into a certain methodology to win; as long as you have different elements to work with, you're set!

I especially like the ways in which these elements come into play for some of the tankier enemies in the world. (Although, disappointingly, not for the two bosses we've seen so far) Seeing the bigger Hillchurls with their shields that can be burnt away in order to make them more vulnerable feels a lot more dynamic and natural than the simple elemental slimes which every RPG and their mother has. I wish there was a bit more of that sort of clever weakness-play in the game right now, but I suppose given that not even half the map has been revealed yet there is more than enough time to implement more of that with future foes. If we could have flaming weapons which can be doused or electric-powered robots which could get grounded it could make for some really unique fighting strategies in my opinion.

As of right now my latest challenge, the thing that's bugging me so much that literally the second I finish this blog I'm going to attack it again, is the Spiral Abyss. That's essentially a battle arena full of enemies and various buffs which can be swapped out regularly by the developers in order to keep a rotating challenge going. Admittedly, what drew me first to the place was the potential to unlock Xiangling, but then I realised that this is actually a brutally tough challenge due to the way that most of the floors don't care if you can beat the enemy, but rather how fast in which you can do it. (I was told this wasn't going to be on the test) As someone who typically puts stock into survivability, (And has a buffed health Barbara on the team for that very purpose) this is pretty much out my wheelhouse and presents a hefty challenge to me. (And my track record of picking game difficulties should let you know what I make of a challenge.) Admittedly, it's not the most inspired end-game activity of all time, but it's the bare minimum which so many other titles don't even bother with, so I'm contented thusfar.

So at the end of the day: Yes, I spend wholly too much time playing this game and: No, I don't regret any of it just yet. I've even reached the point where the Stockholm syndrome is starting to set in and I'm actually engaging with the story and characters just that little bit. (Although that's only really because this game is actually living up to the twist that I always wanted 'Mass Effect: Andromeda' to play to.) So far the only thing that's given me substantial pause is the battlepass which unlocks around level 20 and has literally no way of accessing it's big tiers without a real-money subscription fund that's honestly pretty hefty. But again, seeing as how the game is free and the content in the pass doesn't appear to withhold any of the most coveted rewards, (characters) I can't really complain all that much. (At least now I don't need to worry about miHoYo making money off of this game.) Just give me one more week of excess and I'm sure I'll have successfully burnt this game entirely out of my- what do you mean they've just added two more characters? Oh no, I'm going to get addicted, aren't I?

Let's talk about Genshin Impact 'cause why not?

Is 'Breath of the Waifu' actually any good?

We haven't exactly gotten off on the greatest foot, now have we; Genshin Impact? When first I heard of this game I just concluded that it was just a transparent BOTW clone with anime character stand-ins; but now that it's out and has swept over 10 million players with it's frenzy... yeah, it still kinda is that. (But I retract a lot of the negative connotation that I attributed to that.) Yes, Genshin fever has hit and people are jumping into this light action-RPG experience with brimming excitement, such to the point where even I have dipped my toes in a bit. About 15 hours of dipping toes in fact. (It'd be more but I had my Persona 4 Golden to catch-up on in-between) So now with some actual time in the title I can offer a lot more knowledgeable feedback on what exactly this game is; time for a do over!

So have you ever been minding your own business when all of a sudden you get an advert for one of those bowser based money-sinks that somehow count as games? They're always full of obviously fake mock-up gameplay (that is often in no way representative of the game itself) and a truly terrible hired actor imposed ontop of it pretending that they are playing it. Every now and then you come across one of those adverts with an actual budget behind it and a couple of brain cells actually being shared in the animation department, and you'll see a mock-up that actually looks like a bit of fun. I mean sure, the actual game isn't anything like that, but at least they made it look pretend cool for a bit. Genshin Impact is basically that game. It's the lie that these cash-grab trashpiles try to hook people with. The personification of the collective fever dream that all these hack 'developers' (I loathe to even use that name for such people) wish they had the talent to create. And you know what? It's just as fun as it always looked!

Genshin Impact is a free-to-play action adventure RPG with heavy mobile themes in the way it handles weapons and characters. That means a lot of Gacha pulls and rarity tiers and upgrade materials and dailies and all that entails for a growing mobile game. Now whilst naturally that would all sound repulsive, something about the way Genshin is conceived makes me cut it a lot more slack than I normally would. First let me be clear, I am not immune to everyday Gacha games. Don't get me wrong, I typically don't throw a dime their way, (or ever, for that matter) but I enjoy the grind of completing regular tasks in a row and then rolling to see what kind of reward I can get. Maybe that love of dallies and grind was born back in my MMO days, but the Gacha spinning and rarity tiers is all mobile-influence. In fact, one such game was actually part of my daily routine for a good while now, several months actually, and I'm sure you've heard of it considering it was RAID: Shadow Legends. (I'll have a blog on that when I can face to objectively look at myself in the mirror again after all those wasted hours.)

But what makes Genshin different from all those 'games'? Gameplay. Nice and simple. Genshin actually has honest to goodness gameplay and it's literally like night and day compared to every other mobile dumpster fire out there. Whereas in games like RAID you spend hours grinding to unlock characters who you can then watch auto-battle; in Genshin you actually get to add those new characters to your party roster wherein you can play them yourself. They are all voiced, have their own stories to them, (I think) have unique elemental attacks, and are almost all fun to play. (Still coming to terms with mage gameplay, maybe I'll warm up to it.) As someone who just touched the mobile world I'm honestly quite chuffed at how much more interesting and fun this is whist mechanically being the same sort of set-up that RAID has, I can only imagine the actual religious moment that those who have only ever played mobile games are having.

Although before I lose myself to praise, let me make myself absolutely clear that the thing which makes Genshin such a welcome surprise is that it is free-to-play. The amount of value you get in this game without putting any money in is, as far as I can tell, practically uncapped in almost every fashion (with a few obvious exceptions) to the point where I'm already starting to subconsciously route for the miHoYo developers. They quite honestly made a complete-feeling game and then gave it away for free hoping that people would like it enough to pay the microtransactions, that's leagues more than you get out of most big-name game companies out there, who put so much into their product that they end up having to nickel and dime every step of the way to break even. For the 15 or so hours I've already spent in Teyvat I've had a bit of a blast without bumping into any paywalls. I mean sure, there is a grind wall but I expect that out of RPG games. (I've grown soft on F2Ps!)

Now I should probably go back to something I claimed in my initial look over of the game and mentioned again here; The BOTW clone accusations. I'm willing to walk that a bit back and call it heavily BOTW 'inspired', but you can just as easily see the inspiration of many other open world games on it's sleeve. I'd still argue that Zelda is the biggest archetype they draw from, however, as you can see it's DNA everywhere. The very art of the game looks like a different, less inspired, take on BOTW's endlessly picturesque smooth-shading; the stamina-based exploration actions, as well as the generally sprawling wilderness; the random puzzles dotted across the environment with rewards that benefit the feedback loop and simple combat that's easy to pick up but still fun to get to grips with. In fact, I'd even argue that Genshin's combat is even superior to Breath of the Wild's in some angles, (as scandalous as that is to say) although that is where the superiority ends.

The world itself is frightfully generic, with the land and it's people feeling like they've been stitched together out of every Isekai ever made; the story is fairly bare and standard with any twists or reveals being telegraphed from a mile away (I mean; it's entire continents better than RAID: Shadow Legend's story, but that's hardly an achievement) and the characters seem pretty two dimensions and paint-by-numbers; but for a game that's entirely free does that even really matter? Having to shell-out absolutely nothing does tend to put thing into perspective and makes it a lot easier to shrug and go along with the average aspects of the game. As it stands right now, I have very little I can really complain about with the game and that which I can complain about just seems petty. Maybe I've caught some kind of bug which is wasting away at my reasoning right now, but I'm totally okay with the average here. (Or maybe it's because I've got an absolutely extraordinary game to play in the meantime; it really balances out like that)

As the game is as of right now, at version 1.0 of the game, I feel absolutely comfortable recommending this game to those who want to have a little bit of RPG fun without feeling that constant pressure to whale out which most mobile games thrive off of. Of course, there's plenty of room for the game to dove tail into that abyss in the months to come, but I'm hoping that if the success of it's launch leads to a sustainable model than this game can continue being a remarkable haven in the Free-to-play landscape. A free-to-play game that's an actual game. (Disclaimer: I know there are other actually worthwhile F2Ps out there; I'm comparing this one to the vast majority) Don't expect this game to blow you away in really any regard, but maybe leaving satisfied is just enough. Keep on keeping on Genshin Impact; you're alright.