Genshin Impact was always going to be compared to Breath of the Wild no matter what its marketing team came up with. The art style and a few gameplay systems like stamina-based climbing and gliding are mechanics that BOTW fans were all too eager to point out. Sure, there are a few other things here and there, but to say Genshin Impact is just a clone of NIntendo’s now three-year-old release is to do the game a genuine disservice. Genshin Impact feels more akin to other action JRPG’s that just so happens to operate in a BOTW inspired world, coming off more like an open-world Tales game, coated in all its over the top designs and anime aesthetic.
Being a free to play game, I had some concerns going in. Most games that entertain this model tend to bait you early on with bonus currency and other means to get its addictive hooks into you. Eventually, you hit a point in the game where it forces you to either grind for hours to earn scraps or pay into a system to push through quicker. Genshin Impact does grant you a ton of bonus currency at the start, at least during launch, and as you continue to level up and play, but I haven’t really hit a progress wall that has had me turn to the shop or any other type of monetization to keep going. While you will certainly hit a point where leveling does slow down, which is around Rank 27 from what I’ve experienced, that is more or less describing most games out there as you eventually hit some sort of endgame and start to focus more on certain events than exploration or story. While the game’s narrative is certainly entertaining, it’s only partially here as the game only ships with part of it, with more to be released as time goes on.
As Genshin Impact is a character-based JRPG that is built around constructing a party that compliments one another, you’re going to want to have a decent variety of characters with unique abilities to round out your squad. While the game will provide you with several within the first few hours, it also provides you with a ton of currency from the jump with more as you level up, allowing you to use a system called “Wishing” to summon more via a gatcha system. While you can Wish individually, you are guaranteed better and rarer drops if you Wish in sets of ten. With spending no money to fuel my collecting habits, I’ve been able to pull off just over 80 wishes, unlocking 11 of the 22 currently available characters. While your Wishes can lead to unlocking more characters, the majority of your rewards are going to be a variety of weaponry that you’ll likely break down and feed into your other weapons, increasing their level.
Now, Wishes require Fate Orbs which are rolled out slowly as you play or often given to you through your inbox as part of various promotions, such as being present during the launch of the game, as I have been. If you don’t have Fate Orbs to spend, you can supplement your cost with Primogems, a type of currency you will get for completing nearly everything the game presents to you; opening chests, defeating bosses, discovering new locations, reading tutorial prompts, earning achievements, and much much more. While it’s drip-fed to you in small denominations, you earn it by doing almost anything, making it a consistent reward around every corner. Now, Genshin Impact has a lot of currencies, some that perform different tasks, and it can be quite a lot to take in. There are currencies you can buy such as Genesis Crystals, that can be converted to Gems and then into Orbs, or even currencies you earn from Wishing that have their own special tab in the store. For a game that is free to play, the monetization doesn’t feel predatory and often not brought up in a way where it’s in your face like some high profile games do despite their already AAA price tag. I'll also point out that I have a very addictive personality, collecting every Amiibo, Disney Infinity, and Skylanders character there is, even the rare variants, so when I say this game isn’t pulling those same strings, that saying a fair bit.
The shop itself is currently bare-bones in regard to items or services that feel worth it. While I’ve spent zero money on unlocking characters, I have purchased the Battle Pass that unlocks at Rank 20 because I felt the time I’ve invested in this free game to be at least worth spending some money on items I have some sort of control over. The Battle Pass mostly offers consumable currencies for upgrading my characters such as experience books and Mora, the game’s gold currency. While I could buy crystals or packs that grant me more Wishes, the RNG aspect of sometimes only getting weapons on a full 10 stack of summoning has left me not really wanting to invest real money until there is a guaranteed chance of at least earning a character for my troubles, especially as a stack of 10 wishes works its way to around $17 CAD when you consider the cost of Crystals in the shop. At that price, I just don’t find it appealing in any way to invest that much money into likely just procuring weapons that will probably boost my existing weapon a third up on its experience bar. There are reports that some aspects of the Wish system are changing for the better and there are some characters that do rotate out each month in the shop to consider as well, so it’s hard to say if some of the monetization systems are here to stay or evolving into something else; only time will tell.
In regards to your role in the game, you’ll choose one of two twins who encounter a mysterious being who captures your sibling and seals you away. Sometime later, you awaken in the land of Teyvat, and you meet a little winged girl named Paimon, who is a bubbly and very outspoken companion who largely acts as a voice for you amongst your text-based dialogue choices. As you explore this strange new world, you’ll encounter a wide range of characters from two of the seven known cities, each of which is represented by an elemental deity. The game contains two cities thus far; Mondstat, and Liyue. These massive locations represent Wind and Earth, which are referred to as Anemo and Geo. You’ll meet characters who belong to some of the other locations, but those environments are to come later on via content packs. As you make your way into each city, you’ll get caught up in a diabolical plan when an unknown force is disrupting the natural order of things as Mondstat, for example, will see its guardian, a dragon known as Stormterror, causing widespread destruction. Then there is your trip to Liyue, where you’ll have to uncover the truth behind a tragic event that takes place during a tribute ceremony.
The story and many of its side quests are very well handled due to some impressive voice acting, at least by anime standards. A solid amount of the game is voiced, and even when it’s not, almost every NPC you encounter has some sort of story to tell, some conversation to engage in. While several bosses exist in the world as you stumble upon them, the fights that take place during the campaign are wonderfully designed and you’re usually assisted by some of the campaign’s biggest stars, even if you haven’t unlocked them through Wishes, such as Venti, Razor, or Diluc. In fact, Diluc’s own personal side quest is rather hilarious when you actually realize what it’s inspired by. Some of the side quests have some very enjoyable dialogue and even some that are made even better by some fun animations, such as your main character trying to act all tough while trying to gain access into a certain location protected by a guard that you try to bluff your way past. The character design and animation, along with the stunning visual detail given to them, can often make this game look breathtaking, reminding me a lot of what Arc System Works did with the Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ games but on an open-world scale.
The world itself is incredibly dense with various villages, the two included cities, and countless secrets that seemed packed into every minute of exploration. There are countless chests locked behind simple puzzles to tracking down floating spirits and guiding them back to their pedestals. Some chests are locked behind combat challenges, rock-covered walls, to flowers that spring objects into the air that you’re required to shoot down. You’ll also stumble across Domains, which are dungeons that are either tied to the story, or part of what you can take on with friends through the game’s co-op mode. What I find the most impressive is just how much there is to do, collect, or discover as you can sometimes stumble into areas you’ve been to a dozen times before you realize there is some grand puzzle at work there. There are also the statues of the elements to track down as well, serving as a way to upgrade your stamina, heal your party, or use them to fast travel. As you upgrade these statues, at least in Liyue, you’ll earn a special item that relates to what I was talking about with discovering a secret about an area I had been to several times before.
Nearly everything you find or encounter is all part of contributing towards new content, whether it’s unlocking new challenges, earning achievements, or the Primogems needed to summon more characters. I always felt that I was being rewarded simply for just exploring, snatching up ingredients to cook, or materials needed to craft some important items. As the map is absolutely massive, with some jaw-dropping vista’s, and interesting locations, exploration is incredibly engaging as you never know what you’ll stumble into next. And, as you explore, you can pin the map to keep track of where certain challenges are, or a reminder of where items are easy enough to harvest from, much in the same way you could pin the map in BOTW. As more content will be added in the future, this already massive map is going to get bigger and better as time goes on.
As you progress around the world, you’ll be focusing on two important things; your Adventure Rank, and your Adventurer’s Handbook. While each character you’ll have will have a level of their own, your Adventure Rank is your overall account level, detailing what quests you can do as they are often locked behind a certain Rank. You can increase this by completing quests, your daily commissions, and a variety of other tasks. As you continue to advance your Rank higher, you’ll transition into more difficult world tiers, making enemies harder, but granting you better rewards. Now, while all this is happening, you’ll be completing a series of tasks like opening up chests, tracking down new recipes, to defeating certain bosses, to work through your Handbook, earning rewards as you complete the chapters within it. What great about the Handbook is by the time you’ve earned it, you may already have a bit of it completed, as it will backdate enough for you to almost hit chapter 2 or 3 by the time you’ve opened it up for the first time. You’ll also be earning achievements while you play, earning Primogems for each of them you complete, with tasks that are similar to the Handbook.
Now, the main focus of Genshin Impact are the characters, and with 22 to track down, all featuring different weapons and elemental combinations, you can either get really lucky and unlock who you really desire, or find things about your unlocked characters that you really enjoy. There are countless tier videos to watch on Youtube that can offer you up a better glance at who is best to use and why, but I certainly have a few of my favorites. Ningguang and her Geo elements can flat out destroy some shields from a distance and is perfect for bursting chunks of rocks as I mine, and she has a shield skill that can stop incoming projectile attacks, perfect for swapping to an archer, such as Fischl, as you try to aim some long-distance attacks in peace. Razor and Fischl both assist with their Electro powers, with Razor having a massive club or claymore, whereas Fischl can remain further back with her bow. Razor also can summon a Wolf spirit that hovers above him, dishing out some massive electric damage, while Fischl can summon Oz, her raven forged of darkness and lightning to remaining on the field even when I’ve swapped to another character. I also love using Xiangling, as her fire abilities are a joy to use and she has a little bear named Guoba, who bites down on a hot pepper and shoots far-reaching flames, something that has made me nickname him HaBearnaro. I would die for him.
Characters belong to a few different weapon classes such as wielding a bow, sword, polearm, claymore, or books and orbs for mages. Each character then belongs to a set element; Hydro, Electro, Geo, Anemo, Pyro, Cryo, or in the case of your Traveler, being adaptive based on which diety you align yourself with, being able to swap back and forth when you receive their blessing at their statue. Each character has a dash, a basic attack, an element skill, and a special attack that charges up as you receive elemental pickups during battle. These range from big flashy attacks, or in the case of Barbara, the ability to heal your entire party in a pinch. You also have a smash attack should you get at least a bit more height than your typical jump can allow. Combat is drastically fast-paced, and the dodge has a billion invincibility frames to allow you to zig-zag around enemies and easily dodge incoming strikes. It makes combat less frustrating, but you do still get a few moments where the camera doesn’t quite work well alongside you in tight areas and you can certainly take a few juggling hits that can destroy a character in seconds.
The real meat of combat; however, comes with switching back and forth with characters as you inflict certain elemental conditions during battle such as dousing enemies in water and then swapping to Razor or Fischl and trigging your electrical attack, therefore electrocuting them. The mixing of elements is easy enough to do in single-player, but really comes into play when you have a full team of four players going at it, mixing and matching skills to get some massive damage chains going. In fact, four-player fights can get incredibly hectic as you have a lot going on on-screen, watching not just damage numbers pop up all over the place, but condition effects as well. This is where combat tends to differ from the inspired games Genshin Impact is pulling from, as while having different weapons is something you’ll find anywhere, the mixing of elements via those characters and weapons, offers Genshin its own unique spin on the formula and can make combat incredibly varied as you are swapping back and forth with a simple button press towards your team of four characters.
Apart from your characters and your weapons, you also have a series of artifacts to equip, trinkets that boost your critical damage, your attack, or your defense. You can equip five different types to create unique builds that focus on your playstyle and what you want from that character. Now, your character, weapon, and these artifacts can all be upgraded, and you’ll do this by feeding the same types of items into them; weapons feed into weapons and artifacts into artifacts. This is typical of most mobile games, as different rarities offer up more experience than others. As you are constantly finding more weapons or artifacts as you complete certain tasks or opening up the hundreds of chests you encounter, as well as through your Wishes, you are constantly earning better gear. Now, each character and weapon have a soft cap level of 20, but certain material costs can cause you to rank up and push past that first cap as you work your way to level 40 and beyond. This is where the game does have a bit of a grind as you start to push past level 40 and it can take a lot of work, especially if you plan on leveling up every single character you have unlocked.
Now, Genshin Impact is advertised as having co-op and while it does, it is pretty limiting in its current form. You’ll unlock co-op at Rank 16, giving you enough time to get an idea of how every system in the game works. Story missions and quests cannot be completed in co-op, which is unfortunate, especially if you want to aid in helping your friend level up to where you might be a bit ahead of them. While I can understand why this is what it is, it does limit what you can do to completing domains or tracking down world bosses only. While you can simply wander around and explore, there are other limits such as who can open up chests, how the fruit is not instanced, or how you can miss out on mining if you are not nearby your co-op companion. The developer has talked about adding raids that include more than four players, and even a change to make domains more co-op focused as you tend to just enter into domains and kill a few waves of enemies and that’s about it. Joining co-op matches is also a bit clunky, with having a handful of times where I’ve accepted a co-op match to have it not bring me into the domain, often stuck outside and not knowing what is going on.
The tasks that you complete in co-op, or on your own if you so choose, all consume a currency called Resin, which allows you to open up the rewards at the conclusion of that activity. You are granted 120 Resin per day, with it recharging 1 Resin every 8 minutes, meaning you can wait and have it recharge for later in the day. You can also use Primogems to have it charge instantly, but the more gems you sink into it, the more costly it becomes. While some tasks can consume up to 60 Resin, the majority of them require anywhere from 20 to 40 to accept their rewards. With only have 120 at the start of the day, it can certainly limit what you can complete each day without waiting for that recharge or wasting your Primogems on refilling it. You do have smaller-tier bosses or your daily commission quests to tackle that don’t require Resin, but as those daily quests cannot be completed in co-op, the activities you can complete with friends just feels far too limiting in this latest build. The developer has stated they plan on making the game more social, so hopefully, that means making more content that can be actually part of the co-op experience.
Genshin Impact can often be a gorgeous game with some highly detailed characters that consistently impress every time I see them, but the game does suffer from open-world pop in that is fairly noticeable, but nowhere as bad as the recent Sword Art Online game, which had the framerate chug to match. Genshin rarely ever dipped in frames, but the pop in can be noticeable when flying around the wide-open spaces. Apart from that, the visual charm present in the game is incredible, including some of the more mystical creatures you encounter, and some of the massive bosses you’ll discover. I mentioned at the start of this review that while the world and some gameplay mechanics certainly feel directly inspired by BOTW, the characters, and gameplay for myself feels like something more akin to one of the many Tales games such as Tales of Zestiria or Berseria, complete with its over the top design and magical attacks.
Genshin Impact is certainly a game composed of its inspirations, but considering it does a fantastic job at marrying them together into a well put together experience, I’m all for it. Several games that are beloved are often the result of pulling from their own inspirations as well, even if we don’t see it right away. Even Breath of the Wild changed from its original Legend of Zelda formula, pulling bits and pieces from other games to create an engaging and expansive open world. Genshin Impact is fun, and well put together, and just because you recognize some of the many pieces it’s constructed from, doesn’t discount how engaging and great the game feels, and the vast world it offers to explore. If you’ve made your mind up about the game already, then that’s fine, but if you’re interested in checking it out, it’s free, and it’s a familiar adventure worth taking.
Genshin Impact was downloaded free off PSN by the reviewer and played on a PlayStation 4 Pro.
All screenshots were taken on a PlayStation 4 Pro.