Genshin Impact by miHoYo is about to celebrate its first anniversary. It is still played millions of times a day, and the trend continues to rise. But what moved MeinMMO author Lena to change her once negative opinion about the game?
Genshin Impact was released on September 28, 2020. Even before its launch, it had over 21 million pre-registered players. However, some skeptics had already declared the game dead before it even came out. Back then, no one could have guessed that Genshin would create such a hype that continues to grow in 2021.
The action role-playing game is available on PS4, PS5, iOS, Android, and PC. It is free for everyone. Genshin Impact was originally announced for the Nintendo Switch, but no release date has been provided so far. Additionally, it features an online multiplayer mode.
What is Genshin Impact about? You start as part of the sibling pair Aether or Lumine and are transported to an unfamiliar world called “Teyvat.” Everyone lovingly calls you “Traveler.” You begin in Mondstadt and are determined to find and rescue your sibling, whom you did not choose at the start.
With this goal in mind, you complete various quests, join the Adventurers Guild, and travel through the different countries of Teyvat. Genshin Impact has released a nostalgic video to celebrate its first anniversary:
I never wanted to touch this “terrible game” again
Why wasn’t I excited at first? When I got to play Genshin Impact in beta back in August 2020, I approached the game with a completely wrong mindset. In my mind, it was: Gacha-Zelda. A large, clumsy world and an expensive gacha system that has low chances of yielding good items but costs a lot of money.
I was so focused on the gacha aspect and on collecting “Destined Fates” through quests and dialogues that I was just frustrated.
Destined Fates are one of the currencies you can use at banners to obtain characters or weapons. I spent hours completing tasks just to be able to make ten pulls. Although I didn’t know yet which character I wanted, I only knew: I desperately wanted to play another character aside from my starting heroes.
Today, I don’t remember why I thought that one would receive gifts in the beta. But I completely assumed that was the case.
What I also didn’t know back then: You can also pull only weapons and not a single character. Exactly that happened to me. After that, I was annoyed with the whole system and decided never to touch Genshin Impact again. I was sure: If I wanted a character, I had to farm for days or invest money. “Lena, your account can’t handle that – better stop!” I told myself.
Epic leaks and updates brought me back to the game
Why did I give the game a second chance? Since I run an active Discord and many people there also play Genshin, I couldn’t help but notice how much people were engaged with Genshin Impact and discussing it. One day, someone shared leaks with me that showed the character Kazuha.
Well, what can I say? I’m an anime fan who quickly crumbles, and that one character made me install the game again and give it another chance. However, I then realized what Genshin Impact is really about and why everyone celebrates it.
Of course, the gacha aspect was still there, but then I discovered so many things that I was completely blind to in August. I want to tell you what kept me engaged with Genshin over the year and why the initial and ever-present frustration has disappeared.
If I think today about the reason why I gave Genshin Impact another chance, it hurts me a bit: Because the character Kazuha, who made me start playing again, only came into the game much later, in summer 2021.
What I particularly like about Genshin Impact: Genshin Impact also receives regular free and extensive updates. Even if there are major bugs in the game, they are patched quickly. A new update is released every six weeks, usually bringing a variety of new events, environments, and characters.
“I was supposed to… OH! Look, a chest!”
What then kept me in Genshin Impact? The incredibly vast world in lush green, colorful flowers, snow-capped peaks, and the wandering cats and dogs in the city immediately captivated me. I especially loved the trees that change colors to fit their environment. I find that detail just beautiful.
When I focused on the negative gacha aspect that annoyed me so much, I couldn’t really notice these details: Genshin offers so much more than just banners and pulling characters from them.
Since I knew that Kazuha would not enrich my team for a long time, I was more open to the game and ready to tackle the huge exploration aspect. Oh, I had no idea what awaited me.
You can move freely in the game, with a few exceptions, as long as your constant companion named Paimon has nothing against it. Therefore, I quickly drifted away from the main quest and got distracted by all sorts of things.
If I wanted to tackle a side quest, there would suddenly be a chest that could only be opened after defeating the monsters around it. If I was about to climb the mountain, a tricky and exciting puzzle would appear out of nowhere. Oh, the blue glowing thing (Seelie) wants me to follow it? Wait, there are still apples on the tree!
Teyvat is full of such things, and collecting, climbing mountains, picking berries, and solving puzzles can also be really relaxing. So much so that hours suddenly pass by. When I first laid eyes on the capital Liyue, I was completely captivated. I knew: I want to explore more! Play more!
Drachengrat. For snow fans 
On the edge of a village in Liyue 
Inazuma Island: Watatsumi 
Small island near Narukami (Inazuma) 
The mentioned city: Liyue
Is it boring alone? Genshin features a co-op mode, for which I am often very grateful. Sometimes I just don’t feel like farming alone or running around the map to complete certain events.
In co-op, you can invite up to three other players and go on adventures together. You share a team of four characters, and each can bring their own character. I really enjoy just standing or sitting somewhere and taking photos or goofing around with others.
No pressure from the game itself – For those with little time
What do I mean by that? One of the most important points for me is playing without pressure. No quest is rushing me, and no one forces me to turn around in the middle of the map because I haven’t progressed far enough in the story.
I am not forced to complete spheres in a given amount of time. If there is a time limit in a sphere, you can realistically accomplish it in that time.
Have you set your world level too high and everything is too hard? No problem! From world level 5, you can reset the world level to a lower one every 24 hours or increase it again afterward.
World level: Determines the strength of monsters and the possible loot
There are no leaderboards or PvP in Genshin Impact, which significantly removes forced grinding. If there were such lists, ranks, or public highscores, I often tend to put pressure on myself and feel compelled to optimize my character. Fast, fast – farm everything!
It can also be frustrating to see someone with the same character dealing double the damage. Every player can set their own goals and level up the character they enjoy the most without feeling negative consequences.
Do you have too little time? It always seems like Genshin Impact inevitably takes a lot of time, but even half an hour can be incredibly efficient and productive. If you have the game installed on a tablet or smartphone, you can even casually play a round in bed at night.
A reddit post and the comments on it are a vivid example (via reddit).
- “I have a newborn at home, and my 30 minutes of Genshin every day prevent me from going crazy.”
- “(…) I wake up at 6 AM and play for about 30 minutes to 1 hour while everyone sleeps (…)”
- “Yes, the best part is the time investment. You can put in the bare minimum or spend a lot of time in the open world. It’s great.”
Still, grind junkies will find something to enjoy
This is what Genshin Impact offers me when I play it a bit more seriously: Sometimes I love to grind: trying again and again to achieve the best possible result. Sometimes, in Genshin Impact, you have to collect specific items for a long time to get the necessary quantity.
Sure, Genshin has the big resin problem. If you want to obtain loot from spheres, weekly bosses, or world bosses, you must spend “Original Resin” on it. Unfortunately, you only have a total of 160 resin, which runs out after a few rounds. For example, you can defeat four world bosses with it. Resin gradually fills up again over time.
When you complete bosses or spheres in Genshin Impact, you are rewarded with materials that strengthen your characters.
The chance of what materials you receive depends on your adventure rank and luck. It is quite possible that you will spend longer battling bosses and in spheres. The adventure rank is also a grind in itself, providing additional rewards, co-op, unlocking new world levels, and other features.
Want to fully equip a character at max level? Then prepare to grind for a long time. What can you expect? Well:
- Experience point cards. A card brings a corresponding number of experience points (XP). A character can be leveled up to 90 and requires over 400 XP cards to do so.
- Certain level ranges for a character must be unlocked with specific materials from world bosses.
- Three abilities of characters can be leveled up. For this, explicit materials for each character are needed from a sphere on specific weekdays.
- Leveling up the character’s weapon. For this material, the same applies as for the abilities.
- The five artifacts that a character receives are the most labor-intensive. There, broadly speaking, stats and the set itself are important. Obtaining the right piece AND the right stats in each artifact sphere is an eternal grind.
- You can compare artifacts with other games’ equipment like headgear, pants, shoes, armor…
I don’t want to go into too much detail. But this is exactly what I love about Genshin Impact: Whether casually wandering around the world, picking apples, and slaying monsters, or the eternal grind for my characters.
But even slaying monsters gives you materials that are valuable for characters and their leveling. Everything you collect or do in Genshin somehow turns out to be practical, valuable, or necessary. Nothing is for free. You can even angrily hit trees – that also yields valuable wood!
Since we’re discussing characters in such detail, that brings me to the next point.
Wonderful characters, their own stories, and design
Well, who would have thought that a single character could make me reinstall the game? I really love the cartoonish look of Genshin and its characters. I usually prefer such games over those that look super realistic.
So there’s hardly a character that doesn’t resonate with me in some way. I would say: There is something for everyone!
Almost all characters also have their own engaging stories or contribute something to character quests, providing the player with more knowledge about that character. Except for Xinyan. She will be forever forgotten. A moment of silence for her.
If I particularly like a playable character, I can’t wait to complete their quests or hear their little stories and dialogues in the character menu. Because the more often you take someone in your team and complete tasks with the character, the higher their friendship level with you becomes. With the increase of this level, you can learn more and more about the character in the menu.
A little bonus for me is the Japanese voice acting. Since I have been breathing anime since kindergarten and have been watching most things in Japanese for about 15 years, I have favorite voice actors that I prefer to listen to over others.
Thus, certain characters like Xiao and Ayaka were simply a “must-have” for me because I absolutely love their voice actors.
Can Genshin Impact be played entirely free-to-play? Yes, some players spend enormous amounts of money to pull specific characters or weapons from banners. Yes, that is easier and requires much less patience. But with a bit of luck and effort, every character, weapon, artifact, and item can also be obtained without spending money.
It is wrong to completely dismiss the game just because it has a gacha system. No one is forced to use it.
Housing system in Genshin Impact
When I have no desire for anything and Sims isn’t available, I disappear into my teapot and create my own little world in the housing system of the game. After completing a certain quest, you carry a teapot with you that allows you to immerse yourself in Genshin Impact’s housing whenever you want.
There, you can craft various furniture and pretty decorations with the previously farmed materials from the world, such as wood and iron. You first choose a theme for this world. Do you prefer high mountains, white beaches, or flying islands? After that, you can let your creativity run wild.
Additionally, you can place specific furniture sets in your house or outside, which particular characters like very much. If you place a character in such a set, they give you primogems. Another currency used to draw characters from banners.
The housing system also helps you to increase the friendship of the characters placed there and to acquire what are called “Taler.” The hourly amount of these Taler increases the more beautiful your realm is furnished. You can use these Taler, for example, to obtain more resin or XP cards.
For me, it’s a perfect way to combine my need for decoration and my later grind.
My conclusion about Genshin Impact
Genshin Impact has definitely become a long-term game for me, which I can also leave alone for a week without feeling like I’m missing something important or falling behind. It’s a relaxation and a change from what I usually play.
I can follow the story well, and I enjoy it. When I feel like it, I can tackle puzzles that challenge my mind a bit or explore a beautiful world that holds many secrets and quests while I can also wander around aimlessly. If you want, all of this is completely free. I love it!
Have you had specific experiences you’d like to share? Are you still playing Genshin or not, and why? Did I miss an important negative or positive point for you? Feel free to write it in the comments.
New trailer for Genshin Impact shows Kokomi – Ruler of the Armies
