I have to explain something very fundamental about this game, anything that pertains to the story is bad, comically bad, Genshin's likability outside of its combat and environments comes from its characters but some of them are just lifted from anime archetypes, archetypes I very much hate
Characters like Ayaka are genuinely just generic cookie-cutter waifubait for losers, her brother Ayato is somehow very influential in the political landscape but does not make him at all interesting or alluring of a character despite how committed his fans may be,
You pull up Xiao’s trailer and it’s just some dumb shounen emo MC bullshit, everything I dislike about the game is in its insistence to cater to the most rancid, acrid, putrid smelliest part of its fanbase,
Don’t even get me started on whatever they were doing with Shenhe
These however are a blip on the radar as there are plenty of endearing personalities in the game like Mona, Fischl, Keqing etc (this etc is doing overtime in this sentence because there’s like 70 billion characters).
The gacha factor that fuels enough revenue for each monthly update both ensures and bankrupts the game’s quality, Genshin genuinely markets one of the best trailers I’ve seen, with one of the best OST I’ve ever come across, I’ve listened to them till my ears have bled, with each update Genshin just does something that makes me come back and want to stick with it. It’s always experimenting, oh you hate climbing? Here’s electric totems in Inazuma you can zoom across in the air. Oh, that was a bit janky to use? Well in Sumeru we’ve made these golden symbols in the air that you can “grapple hook” onto so you can traverse the landscape much faster. It acknowledges it’s flaws and constantly reduces tedium and increases enjoyment, and having fixed updates month-wise really helps it increase its quality and potential,
But on the flip-side Genshin always wants to rush things, it can’t hold onto an interesting story beat for more than a hot minute, it’s too busy making flashy cutscenes it can showcase on YouTube, bigger shinier bosses that are cool to look at horrendous to fight just so it can be cooler to market it, and it does work, every single day I watch the Genshin Global group post a damn “Genshin Anime Opening!!!” with all of the most anime-tier shounen MC scenes the game loves pushing out, the audience it panders to really does reciprocate in full, especially the harem loving audience.
The combat is excellent and that’s all I have to say for it, it’s simple it’s responsive and plenty of room for experimentation all the time and the new Dendro element they’ve included really shows how they completely understand how their system functions and the most fun that can be extracted out of it.
All in all, with a bad story, good lore, good combat, hit or miss puzzles, ambitious environments as well as some insufferable ones, Genshin persists, and on the occasion it can truly blow your mind (like the Chinese Opera), or completely fail to meet any expectations whatsoever.
Characters like Ayaka are genuinely just generic cookie-cutter waifubait for losers, her brother Ayato is somehow very influential in the political landscape but does not make him at all interesting or alluring of a character despite how committed his fans may be,
You pull up Xiao’s trailer and it’s just some dumb shounen emo MC bullshit, everything I dislike about the game is in its insistence to cater to the most rancid, acrid, putrid smelliest part of its fanbase,
Don’t even get me started on whatever they were doing with Shenhe
These however are a blip on the radar as there are plenty of endearing personalities in the game like Mona, Fischl, Keqing etc (this etc is doing overtime in this sentence because there’s like 70 billion characters).
The gacha factor that fuels enough revenue for each monthly update both ensures and bankrupts the game’s quality, Genshin genuinely markets one of the best trailers I’ve seen, with one of the best OST I’ve ever come across, I’ve listened to them till my ears have bled, with each update Genshin just does something that makes me come back and want to stick with it. It’s always experimenting, oh you hate climbing? Here’s electric totems in Inazuma you can zoom across in the air. Oh, that was a bit janky to use? Well in Sumeru we’ve made these golden symbols in the air that you can “grapple hook” onto so you can traverse the landscape much faster. It acknowledges it’s flaws and constantly reduces tedium and increases enjoyment, and having fixed updates month-wise really helps it increase its quality and potential,
But on the flip-side Genshin always wants to rush things, it can’t hold onto an interesting story beat for more than a hot minute, it’s too busy making flashy cutscenes it can showcase on YouTube, bigger shinier bosses that are cool to look at horrendous to fight just so it can be cooler to market it, and it does work, every single day I watch the Genshin Global group post a damn “Genshin Anime Opening!!!” with all of the most anime-tier shounen MC scenes the game loves pushing out, the audience it panders to really does reciprocate in full, especially the harem loving audience.
The combat is excellent and that’s all I have to say for it, it’s simple it’s responsive and plenty of room for experimentation all the time and the new Dendro element they’ve included really shows how they completely understand how their system functions and the most fun that can be extracted out of it.
All in all, with a bad story, good lore, good combat, hit or miss puzzles, ambitious environments as well as some insufferable ones, Genshin persists, and on the occasion it can truly blow your mind (like the Chinese Opera), or completely fail to meet any expectations whatsoever.