Why You Should Play Genshin Impact | A Free-To-Play Gem
If previously wrote Genshin Impact off as anime Breath of the Wild; I’m here to tell you to take another look.
I’ve spent the last 30 days playing 2 accounts; my main PS4 account, where I spent some money and dabbled a bit with re-rolling characters on PC.
I’m addicted & I have concluded that…
Yes, you should play Genshin Impact!
Why is this free-to-play game a gem? Let’s get into it.
So what exactly is this game? Genshin Impact is a Free-To-Play Open-World Action-Role Playing Game from Chinese developer MiHoYo. That was a mouthful!
Genshin Impact is a party-based RPG, with an emphasis on questing and leveling.
I find it hard to compare it to another video game, honestly. It’s probably closest to a game from the Bandai Namco Tales series than The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Characters all have their own specific roles, elements, abilities, and play-styles.
Roles:
DPS, Tanks, Healers, Support, etc.
Elements:
- Anemo (Wind)
- Geo (Earth)
- Electro (Lightning)
- Hydo (Water)
- Pyro (Fire)
- Cryo (Frost)
- Dendro (Nature) *No current characters just yet
The Element system is what gives the game depth and what makes it fun. Certain combinations of elements will trigger Elemental Reactions. Hit an enemy with Hydro followed by Cryo, for example, will cause the Frozen reaction, which freezes the enemy in ice, rendering them unable to move or attack. Follow the Frozen reaction up with a heavy attack will cause Shattered damage.
Abilities:
There is a huge range of abilities. Each character has:
- Basic Attack Combo with weapons or magic (catalyst users)
- A Charged basic attack
- Aerial/drop attack
- Elemental Skill
- Elemental Burst
Each character also has a unique set of upgradable passive skills.
Play-Styles:
Characters are locked into weapon types; so a bow user can only use a bow and a sword user can never use a claymore. What’s great about Genshin Impact, is that you can create a party of your favorite characters and play the way you want for 90% of the game.
Since we’re talking about characters so much, let’s get to the elephant in the room.
Genshin Impact is a Free-To-Play Gacha Game.
Gacha? What is that? It’s basically a loot box system. In Geshin Impact, you use a system called “wishes” to hopefully unlock a cool new character or weapon. Genshin does give you some freebee characters over the course of the game, but the majority will need to be won by making a wish.
Yes, you can purchase a currency that allows you to make more wishes, with real money. You DO NOT have to do this, but if you are so inclined to attempt to unlock your favorite character, you can. There are many currencies and systems in the game that you can drop some real cash on, and I’ll maybe go over them in more depth in the future, but just know that you get a decent amount of wishes by just playing the game.
While there are tons of guides out there on how to build the best party or which weapons to upgrade for each character, the Gacha element can easily ruin that, since you may not ever unlock any of it!
I feel this shouldn’t deter you from Genshin Impact; you just really need to understand that you may not get the experience of your favorite streamer. Even if you spend real money and make 200 extra wishes, you still might not unlock the 5-Star character you want!
Now, MiHoYo, isn’t stupid. Every 10 wishes on a specific banner, guarantees you a 4-Star or above character/weapon. You are also guaranteed a 5-Star by your 80th wish “pull” – and you may very well get lucky and receive multiple before that. I find it to be part of the excitement of the game.
Game-Play:
How does Genshin Impact play?
I have been looking for a game that plays like this for a very long time. Not since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or the original Destiny have I been this addicted to a game. It’s extremely fun.
I have to have 80+ hours into this game across my two accounts and I am not even close to seeing all the content.
There are currently 2 unique regions in the game, with a 3rd coming in December. Each region has its own slew of collectibles to find, bosses to fight and quests to complete.
There is: a main story questline, daily quests, weekly commissions, monthly events…let me emphasize – the amount of content in a game that is free to play is pretty ridiculous. It’s a full-fledged Role Playing game!
I really enjoy the game-loop. Depending on how much time you have to play, you can spend 15 minutes simply completing your 4 daily quests or 3 hours running through the multiple floors of the Spiral Abyss.
One aspect that I don’t love, but deal with is the resin system.
Resin is another gate that Genshin Impact blocks your progress with. Semi-deep into the game, you will want and need to farm bosses or levels for specific loot drops (upgrade material, Mora, experience books, etc.). When beat, a currency called resin must be used to gain the loot. The problem is, you only have so much resin per day (MiHoYo upped the maximum to 160) and the recharge rate is slow at 1 resin per 8 minutes. Resin needed varies from 20-60 per run.
The resin system is nothing new for mobile games. Once you’re out of resin for the day, you can work on other open quests, turn the game off until your resin has recharged or…pay real money to instantly receive more resin. It’s a gate that makes sense for a mobile game (which Genshin technically is), but for a whole console/PC userbase who is treating this like the full-fledged RPG that it is, it’s most definitely disappointing.
I haven’t had an issue with the resin system just yet, as I still have many quests to do. I’ve only just recently started running into issues where I run out of Mora (a currency needed to upgrade anything) or experience books (used to upgrade character levels).
MiHoYo has been really good about adding content in the form of limited-time events (additional monthly quests for extra wishes, and loot), so I don’t see myself having the issue of running out of content any time soon.
If any of what I mentioned seems interesting to you —
Try Genshin Impact out, IT’S FREE!
Really, just download the game and try it out for a few hours. Get to Adventure Rank 7 or 10 (even more wishes unlocked), make a bunch of wishes, and see how you roll.
If you’re enjoying the game and playing on PC, I would suggest re-rolling a few times until you get a 5 star or a party of characters you’re happy with. If you’re just a casual player, you won’t have an issue with running out of content, as more is always being added.
Are you interested in Genshin Impact? Have you played it already? I’m obsessed with this game, so I’d love to hear your thoughts!