Status Omega Sep 14, 2021
My receptions of Genshin as someone that played for a year
I'm not going to talk about the gacha, as its been discussed a lot throughout the lifespan of the game, and there is not much else to add.
- Story
Main story is alright at best, side quests are where the intriguing plots and characters are. Feels unpolished at …
My receptions of Genshin as someone that played for a year
I'm not going to talk about the gacha, as its been discussed a lot throughout the lifespan of the game, and there is not much else to add.
- Story
Main story is alright at best, side quests are where the intriguing plots and characters are. Feels unpolished at times especially in cut scenes, where sometimes dialogue gets randomly skipped while the characters are still talking. The characters, even the playable ones, if you are so lucky to get them, are well characterized and are pretty solid. The playable ones usually offer a variety of voice lines and stories in their character profile tab, where we can not only explore them and how they feel about the world surrounding them, but also their relationship with other characters which is pretty fun to listen at, thanks to the great work the VAs have put in them.
- Graphics
Visually, the game is stunning, the character's design is top notch (if we exclude generic NPCs), and its gorgeous to look at the scenery and enemies alike. The shading and overall art style of the game is very pleasing to look at, as it follows a "cartoony" look, but without lacking any details that usually comes with it.
- Gameplay/Exploration
The exploration of the world of Teyvat can be fun at first, but after you've explored the area they immediately become more of a "chore", as they turn into a daily checklist of stuff to collect if you want to upgrade or maximize a character in a reasonable time, on the off chance that you get them.
- Gameplay/Combat
The combat of Genshin Impact is one of its strongest points. It's fun and mastering it feels extremely good. Weaving characters, creating energy to be funneled on your carries, dodging, enemy manipulations all feel extremely good. Thinking about all the combos and combinations, coming up with your teams as you challenge the Spiral Abyss toughest floors is always fun, and seeing your team run through it like an hot knife on butter is a good feeling. In terms of challenge though its very variable on the characters, weapons, artifacts and constellations that you have, so its hard to give a precise gauge on what's hard and what's not, as its a very personal experience, and the Abyss always changes every month or so, and depending on the blessings and enemies that you are going to face the experience is bound to be much different from the one that I'm used to at the time of writing.
- Gameplay/Dailies
The overall gameplay loop, of spending resin to do domain or "bosses" to get upgrade materials, is fine but can get tedious at time, especially after doing the same domain over and over since its the one that drops what you are after. Most domains don't offer incentives to use comps or characters of a certain element, usually they hinder you if you don't follow the rules which can be a bit annoying at times.
- Multiplayer
The co-op of the game almost feels like an afterthought, it does not feel good to play, you are only locked to one character instead of the 4 that you are used to. Characters still only have their two skills and that's it. You find yourself having a lot of downtime between your abilities, so a lot of time will be spent mashing your mouse 1/attack button while doing pitiful damage to the point where its not even worth it straining your finger and occasionally hitting the dodge button while weaving in an ability or two every 6s+ Co-op was the focus of only one event at best (which was just prop hunt) and that's it. It's huge wasted potential. In its defense, the Serenitea Pot, which is the player housing does use the co-op feature, but unfortunately only to show off your home, and wish we had activities to do with other people in there beside player made ones.
- Extra/Housing
Talking about the Serenitea Pot, that too feels like huge wasted potential. Having to choose to either buying stuff to progress your character or buying stuff you make your Pot look prettier is very annoying if you care about both. Also, when decorating your teapot you are very limited by the difference and "weight" that the game assigns to the furnishing that you are using, and its a very conservative limit. Creative people are sure to get their best out of said limit, but its painful to work around, especially if you like variety between your decorations. To add salt on the wound, if you ever decide to get creative and find out you are missing a specific piece of furniture to create you vision (eheh) be prepared to wait around 12-16 real time hours for it as crafting does take that long.
- Extra/Minigame that I would love if it was done properly
Lastly, I wanna talk about the new feature, fishing. The fishing minigame is OK, by itself, its a ripoff from the Stardew Valley fishing system almost 1:1. The problem comes from the transparency of it, and how it relates to progress. You can only fish a few specific spots in the whole map. There is a limited number of fish per spot that you can get before they run out, then they ender a 48h REAL TIME respawn. You can exchange fish for 1 weapon and its upgrades or other fishing gear. This means that they are tied to progress. There is a chance that a fish might spawn as an "Ornamental Fish" which means you can put it in your teapot to show off. Said fishes cannot be exchanged for your progression. Even though they are the "same fish" as the one you would exchange. It still counts as a -1 to the fishing spot total of fishes. So its not a bonus, its a -1 fish, which go on a 48hrs respawn. MiHoYo managed to create something that should feel "prestigious" and rare that you would want to expose to other people as a "-1 fish". As a detriment, instead of a bonus. Because they want to limit player resources. This is all made worse when you take into consideration that there is no surprise in the fish you find and barely any discovery since we can see which fish we are about to get. It takes the slowness of fishing and takes away the randomness of it, and seeing if you caught the cool ass 1% chance fish that you have been chasing for days. Because you can just see them and there's a limited number of them.
Let me guess. He went off to buy milk and cigarettes.
