Genshin Impact is now one year old, but is it worth starting in 2021? What does the action role-playing game offer today? How is the introduction for newcomers? MeinMMO answers these questions for you.
Genshin Impact offers a large, colorful, and explorable open world with many tricky puzzles, a story that becomes more exciting for the player over time, and numerous enemies and bosses to defeat.
Upon the release of the game, hardly anyone thought it would become so successful. It was always labeled as a Zelda: Breath of the Wild clone, and some predicted that it would be dead in no time.
However, Genshin Impact is the game that has reached the one billion dollar mark the fastest as a mobile game. It even dethroned Pokémon GO (via activeplayer).
Furthermore, it continues to receive major updates every 6 weeks, each time providing players with new events, quests, and often new areas to explore. All quests are fully and vividly voiced, and you can choose between Chinese, English, Korean, and Japanese. You can of course switch the text in the game completely to German – you do not need to be proficient in English.
What is Genshin Impact?
This is how gameplay works: At the beginning of the game, you can choose between Aether and Lumine, a sibling pair. However, you do not have to stick with the original names, but can freely choose one. The character you do not choose is kidnapped by an unknown goddess.
After that, you find yourself in a completely different world, where you directly meet Paimon: your constant companion. The tutorial clearly explains the basics and controls of Genshin Impact.
You can freely decide whether to play with a controller or not on PC and iOS. There is still no official controller support for Android smartphones.
In combat, you can freely move between enemies and receive light assistance through an auto-aim feature that can easily switch to other enemies as soon as you look in their direction and stand closer to them.
During your journey, you form a team of 4 different characters. Each character has a specific element. The elements can trigger reactions on enemies, which help the player deal damage. We have written everything about that in a guide.
You can level your world, which makes the monsters stronger and grants you better loot after each increase. You also level yourself – your adventure rank. Your adventure rank unlocks a lot of new things for you, such as the coop mode.
This is what to expect in Genshin Impact:
- Freely explorable open world with 3 huge areas, accompanied by voiced, witty, exciting, and mysterious main and side quests
- Various spheres with challenges (dungeons) and tricky puzzles
- Level processes regarding your world, you, your characters, and your equipment
- 41 available, incredibly detailed characters, of which you can have 28 at any time
- Pure PvE content
- A housing system that still receives further updates
- Hangout events with various characters, where the course and ending depend on your responses
- Daily missions
- Coop with your friends or other Genshin Impact players
- Crafting system
Additionally, there is fitting, fantastic music in every area and during battles, which perfectly complements everything and definitely enhances the exploration experience. You can find all OSTs for the different regions on the official Genshin Impact YouTube channel, and a spectacular concert with an orchestra also took place:
- “Melodies of an Endless Journey” concert (via YouTube)
- Mondstadt OST (via YouTube)
- Liyue OST (via YouTube)
- Inazuma OST (via YouTube)
How does Genshin Impact finance itself? Genshin Impact is free to play, but you have the option to invest in the gacha system. For example, if you want to pull 14 times on a banner, you need to spend 29.99 euros. Additionally, there are skins available for 2 characters so far, which are priced around 25 euros per skin.
Furthermore, you can expand the Battle Pass for 10.99 euros for rewards, or you can purchase a pass for 4.99 euros, which gives you daily primogems over the month, allowing you to pull on banners. You can also acquire items to upgrade your characters there.
If you tend towards gambling addiction, better not play Genshin Impact. The gacha system strongly tempts towards gambling and is designed to trigger impulse purchases.
You can find detailed and individual points on the topic here:
This is how Genshin Impact plays in 2021
The positives of Genshin Impact: If you start with Genshin Impact in 2021, you have much more and longer to do than those who started in 2020. Many areas and quests have been added, keeping you occupied for months.
At the start of Genshin Impact, there were two worlds to explore – Mondstadt and Liyue. With ongoing patches, areas like Dragonspine and Inazuma with its total of 6 islands have been added.
The events that keep coming with updates are also a great way to pass the time and bring you useful rewards. During the event in Patch 1.6 “Summer! Sun! Adventure!”, there was even a special map created and made accessible just for that. It featured many quests, a story, and a new boss to defeat.
Additionally, quests have been added that allow you to increase your reputation in the respective city. There, you must complete bounty hunts and fulfill requests from residents. Rewards include recipes and unique gliders that allow you to fly over the overworld.
Over the past year, a total of 20 new characters have been implemented into the game, offering you a variety of strategic options and teams.
The comic-like graphics fit well with the nature and character of the figures. The voice actors perform their roles very well in all languages. The main and side quests feel very lively due to the voice acting and matching music.
Also, features like the fishing feature or housing system were only introduced with the latest updates, which you can now enjoy relatively early as a newcomer.
Many “quality of life” features, like the auto-loot from dungeons or certain item transformations, were only introduced with specific patches. So you can always expect updates in this category.
The problems of Genshin Impact: The main problem is not actually the gacha system, but the resin system. The resin system greatly limits your ability to visit dungeons and loot bosses. You have 160 resin available, of which you need to spend 20 to 60 if you want to collect your loot.
You can calculate how much you can really farm for your characters each day. Additionally, you collect equipment, so-called artifacts, for your characters. The stats on these artifacts are completely random, and the chance of getting a truly good artifact is quite low.
If you get a good and fitting artifact for one of your heroes, the other 4 stats come into play. When you level up the artifact, you receive random bonuses for the stats on the artifacts. If you are unlucky, the wrong stat may level up too often, and the farming starts all over again.
While it is not the main problem, it is still a big one: The expensive gacha system prevents you from obtaining all 5-star characters, unless you spend vast amounts of money or are extraordinarily lucky.
What does the future hold for Genshin Impact? The number of players continues to increase (via activeplayer), and many updates are still to come. Many areas should follow, and since we are travelers from another world in Genshin Impact, it is open to miHoYo whether we have the ability to travel to more worlds.
Patch 2.2, which will be released on October 13, is coming up first. There will be a new island to explore, the chance for returning and new characters, and a major update of the housing system.
There is currently no end in sight, and it is fundamentally never too late to start with a game like Genshin Impact.
Conclusion about Genshin Impact in 2021
Conclusion: It is never too late to start playing Genshin Impact
I believe that everyone who enjoys exploration and open-world should try Genshin Impact at least once. Since the game is available for free, you can download and test it at any time. Especially if you enjoy stories about characters and generally extensive narratives, I can only recommend the game to you.
For me, the PvE aspect is definitely a huge plus, as I am absolutely not a fan of PvP. It means stress-free gaming for me and upgrading characters at my own pace. Even with little time each day and a full schedule, you can enjoy the game in between.
The combat system is relatively simple, but with the abilities, talents, and effects of the characters, you can use extensive rotations and combinations with your team.
If you are looking for a relaxed game to dive into and let yourself be entertained, then Genshin Impact is just right for you. Don’t stress about the gacha system – the characters you receive for free are enough to tackle the entire game.
Lena (Sayumi)
Freelance author and Genshin Impact addict at MeinMMO
What do you think about Genshin Impact in 2021 and what are your hopes for the future? Do you have further things to say for potential new players? Feel free to write it in the comments.
A year of Genshin Impact – From greedy Zelda clone to “I love it!”
