A serious critique of Genshin Impact

[@PokeHunterStudio]

- Bennet is the worst character - Experienced player said These two phrases can't be used together

[@user-qj2iu6cc9d]

but rlly tho, If u were been at that time when the genshin just released, they put qiqi up high coz of her healing and bennet somehow down hill at the tier lists. Maybe ppl those days thinks better healing makes u a better healer, while in fact yes, but it turns out more buff and damage + healing is much preferrable than tons of healing but just healing.

[@stormlight131]

My thoughts exactly. They’d have to be an absolute scrub at this point to think Bennett is bad.

[@xFirebird925x]

@@user-qj2iu6cc9d But that would mean this guy only played at the very beginning. That's still not an "experienced player" lol.

[@cacksacker6937]

@@user-qj2iu6cc9d at that time ar 35 was considered very high and clearing abyss 36* was considered whale territory. The reason why qiqi was rated s while benny was rated so low is because 1) qiqi can do decent dmg and high heals at that level, i mean, the enemies are still weak af so qiqi can help there since she does deal decent dmg at that lvl 2) benett wasnt on rate up for a long time there, the only ones who actually have him are either whales or lucky people, and getting a const of him is near impossible at that time, its also the reason why fischl was also so high in the tier list. She was easily accessible while benett was not so not alot of people can actually use and test benett and when u read his skills, it doesnt seem that strong because u might think u need c1 (u dun actually need c1 but if yer new to the game and read his skills, it might seem that way) 3) people were still fixated on benny's e skill hold 3rd level, its damage and its cd, so factoring that, he might look weak 4) relating to the collective ar of the player base being low, most people lvl 40,50 or 60 benny and weapons. benny isn't that strong at that level, benett may not need high investment in artifacts but he do need lvls for talent and base atk, now imagine benett with lvl 4 burst and like 400 atk? That doesnt look strong right? Specially when we have foods and again, abyss was still considered whale territory so no one bothered with it. No ones really gonna use benny if he can be outclassed by food buffs Not related but fun fact, u noe why keqing mains subreddit do alot of maths and theory crafting for other units now? It was because at that time keq and mona are confused fkers who cant decide what tier they are. Mona kept changing roles as dps and support and kept hoping into A and B tier both as dps and as a support while keq kept going up and down so keq mains decided to prove to everyone that keq is top tier dps by calculating her numbers only to find out she kinda weak.

[@whoizrez]

@@xFirebird925x Bennett’s true potential wasn’t discovered until the theorycrafters started testing him. Every other whale just used the 5 star characters because they were 5 star. People knew about how valuable bennett was, it just took time for ppl to realize how valuable exactly and that doesn’t exclude the general player base who also thought he was bad for a long time

[@vasilyfamilienko4318]

The phrase "Bennett is the worst" - is the meme in Genshin community. When game released, people thought he is very useless and one of worst characters to get, but when people leveled up and learned game more, they realized that it is not true. Bennett in current meta is the best 4* support character, period. So that meme became very ironic one.

[@christopher6600]

"Bennett in current meta is the best 4* support character" You can drop the 4* qualifier, my boy puts most 5* to shame.

[@ItzMeKiyo]

Not gonna lie, Bennett is an overrated 4 star and people are overestimating him...

[@Niellium]

@@ItzMeKiyo Are we not playing the same game? Bennett elevates already great Pyro units into God tier status with his burst, Pyro Resonance, low cooldown and fast particle generation. Xiangling, a free 4 star character, because of Bennett elevates her into the best AoE Pyro carry in the game currently. One of the fastest clearing abyss team builds, Melt Ganyu, uses Bennett. You literally facetank boss enemies and not die with Bennett and you can build him as a Pyro carry as well with great success in the abyss. Oh and on top of that, he cleanses and heals too! When people say Bennett is the best character in the game, they mean that he makes everyone in the team, including himself, better. That combined with his personality and goofiness makes him just that lovable to many people. Also, only fools say, "You need Bennett to play this game." or "Bennett is required in the abyss for it to be doable."

[@rickykun22]

He is actually commonly touted as the best character in the game bar-none (besides Ganyu-but let’s not get into that conversation) among the genshin community

[@muppyoktaviawonderchakviii5699]

@@ItzMeKiyo Why do you think so? If you just said something like that out of nowhere and don't provide some reason then people will not take you seriously.

[@purpling]

When you talked about how you were fine with your characters because they are yours, I felt that. I've seen a lot of people say Diluc is out of meta, or how the starter characters are trash, or how Mona's sprint makes her unusable, but I've been constantly using Diluc, Kaeya, and Mona, and for no other reason other than they are mine. They might not do big PP damage, but they hold a special place in my heart so I'll use them.

[@iinskiyuii]

THIS!! I'm an amber main and has been constantly harrassed by other genshin players just because I use Amber

[@angkunehonghindimakali]

Wait! This is not how people play? I usually play with who I want to, my current team was Razor, Rosaria, Bennett, and Aether. Simply because they're the ones I have. Aside from that, they're quite fun to play. (Aside from the fact that I've never played Multiplayer as my current phone can't handle it so I don't know how other people in the game think of my way of playing.) 😅

[@drowningsuns]

Lmao what?? Mona is a monster if you can't build characters right or team comps that's on you bud

[@rpamungkas13]

If you want to keep your sanity in gacha games, remember this: Waifu>Meta

[@purpling]

@@drowningsuns you're not wrong. My team comps are all a mess and it's all on me. But I tend to play how I think is fun, and if I wake up one day wanting a play a team of nothing but tall hot men, I'm going to play in a team of nothing but tall, hot men.

[@Jupiterlattes4269]

I feel like ningguan makes a good point to summarise some of these arguments: “Even if an antique is priceless, the happiness it brings lasts for only the moment you obtain it.”

[@Deepstab1]

Honestly I don’t agree with her, I believe in fact the joy of buying an antique starts the moment you begin to investigate about it, owning it it’s a milestone but displaying it, talking about its history and even place it in an exposition are all enjoyable parts of hunting antiques

[@FlashKillerX]

Genshin does the unique thing of allowing you to have long term use of the thing (character/weapon) you obtain. And it fundamentally changes the core gameplay, which ultimately is the primary focus of the game.

[@truthseek3017]

You get enjoyment from looking at it and playing with it.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

​@@FlashKillerXwhat do you mean?

[@NomfuI]

Not unless you're a gunpla collector.

[@roy2067]

38:31 I think I heard a similar line before... "I was doing a quest that required a wild radish so naturally I went hiking to find 1 and accidentally discovered the entirety of Ming Dynasty China".

[@1stjohn478]

Maxor

[@snorp6781]

From the same man that gave us "Here's a fun tip that most Genshin players don't know. The age of consent is 18 years old."

[@eh2239]

Also Max0r: I play Genshin Impact because of the "CUTE WOMEN"

[@aishar9814]

@@snorp6781 who was that?

[@thatsnomoon4221]

@@aishar9814 Maxor on YT

[@heychrisfox]

>"I don't have a waifu." >"Bennet is MY character." Boys, we got him.

[@MrAdessaa]

--"Maybe Porco Rosso is my Waifu"

[@ami_gourav]

1:14:39 unacceptable " sorry ayaka u can dance anl , my loyalty .... my boi ben!!! "

[@YluuimSad]

he doesnt have a waifu, cause he has a hasbando

[@probablyahypocrite1246]

"because Tartaglia is mine." - Never (1:20:10)

[@littlegreenclementine]

also, whoever told him Bennett is the worst character in the game, um, well... no he's literally S-class support and can fit in almost any team comp and is essential in many popular team comps.

[@kerusan7352]

When you started talking about Genshin as escapism, I resonated alot with the whole section. Liyue was really the point where Genshin's world touched my heart. When I climbed up those mountains, took in the view and just listened to the soundtrack, I just felt like I was in that place at that moment and it was beautiful. Genshin is my escape and it's definitely the main reason I played this game in the first place, it never failed to take me away.

[@salmonible]

This game is heartwarming

[@ultrawhale1712]

I remember when dragonspine was released. At first it was such a chore but when I reached the highest pillar and stopped to listen to the music, It was peaceful. And I never really saw it as a bother again

[@felinawell]

I loved and treasure liyue as it's based off Chinese culture which as a Chinese person myself it reminds me of home

[@DoingFavors]

Ayaka story is the first time since I was a teenager that a game actually made me care about a character, shit is witch craft.

[@naravejtroya1211]

for me is qingce village the first time i feel like that

[@rohanvijay2534]

I was initially drawn to this game for its aesthetics and exploration in both main and side quests. However, I found myself unknowingly falling into the rabbit hole of seeking character upgrades and getting stronger. Towards the end of the video, it dawned on me that I was investing time in something without a real purpose. In my pursuit of upgrades and building the best team, I delved deep into learning complex game mechanics and optimizing them, losing sight of why I started playing in the first place-for the joy of exploration and pure enjoyment without commitments. This video was truly eye-opening. Initially looking for reasons to stop playing, I ended up realizing that I can approach the game more responsibly and still derive enjoyment from it, albeit not every single day. Thank you for providing this insightful context. I appreciate the time and effort you've dedicated to creating this content. I also hope this game teaches players like me how to manage resources better beyond the game itself, making the time spent on it a valuable learning experience.

[@SubwaySandwichBossIngo]

I can't sit and focus on a 12 episode anime recently, but I can willingly, and happily, listen to a guy talk about a game I've never played for nearly 2 hours.

[@icantthinkofagoodnameso1954]

What anime were you watching?

[@Theo-si3ik]

@@icantthinkofagoodnameso1954 one peak

[@LiveType]

I think that's because the 12 episode anime you are watching are hot garbage. Trust me. Most anime are worse than this video. This is a highly polished video. Most anime is very much not highly polished. Anime is a mass market commodity race to the bottom. Quality is optional. If anything quality is discouraged because quality doesn't typically lead to increased revenue while costing an "unreasonable" amount in terms of money, time, and talent.

[@icantthinkofagoodnameso1954]

@@LiveType indeed, despite being quite a big anime fan myself i must say that the recent airing anime have been boring, but i've heard jujutsu kaisen season 2, AoT s4 p2, Chainsaw man and hell's paradise are getting adapted and unless they mess up which i doubt since they are all being animated by studio mappa, all those are certified bangers of an anime.

[@FinalJimothy]

@@icantthinkofagoodnameso1954 aot? you sure lol

[@jonathanthoresen7646]

To me, even the "daily grind" is a relaxing way to end my day, Peaceful environment with relaxing explosions of color helps me unwind. So many games these days are stressful and tense up my body, while Genshin helps me relax.

[@bonecag3]

same. I don’t have too much time to play games bc of school but the Genshin grind is nice after doing homework all day (except for the frustration I feel when I don’t get the right artifacts, but I’m a casual player anyways lol)

[@zukiechi]

I like the daily grinding. I have no problem with the gacha, it's in a good soft spot with flaws ofcourse that I could've nitpicked but it's okay as-is. The real problem really lies in the endgame. There's no endgame. Yes it's mostly for casuals I get that, but don't tell me grinding artifacts isn't stressful. It's legit copium in disguise, hoping so much for a small shit that probably won't and get disappointed; then try again tomorrow for the same result. The fomo-inducing artifact grinding system is just dogwater, and I see more and more people including myself be forced to play casually and soon forget the daily streak to log in. And just, forgot or unmotivated to play anymore.

[@GraveUypo]

yeah, i do almost daily monster routes because it's relaxing and sort of "idle" fun. i stopped doing it for a while and i ended up sitting in my chair sometimes think "what do i do? i don't want to do anything". that's usually the spot monster routes took on my days.

[@mauriciomorales4146]

I was like that, however it was just a 20 minute routine of wasting resin and doing commissions, then I asked myself why I was still doing that, I passed the abyss (also I think this is unnecessary) and now why I would like to get artifacts, why to max my characters when there isnt more difficult content and even if it were, I wouldn't like to complete it

[@zukiechi]

@@mauriciomorales4146 it's just pain

[@EdibleDrumBeats]

“Even if an antique is priceless, the happiness it brings will only last for the moment you obtain it.” - Ningguang

[@wthistreasureisummon]

this made me laugh she actually said that-

[@Valsin]

this is not true lol. there are people with collections of antiques as a hobby. by acquiring things you can use said things, its not a one time buy and its useless. take cars as an example, same thing with genshin characters

[@dragini3551]

nice ningguang quote

[@kinggecko503]

I hate how true this is.

[@jkterjters]

@@Valsin Assuming it’s useable at all, and not locked behind a glass case. Collectors are never satisfied.

[@casperes0912]

The point about sincerity and how one scene would have been awkward in real life but felt natural in Genshin - that's why games being realistic matter. And I don't mean realistic to our reality. I mean being "real" within the world set up by the fiction. When everything fits together and is "realistic" in the same world, it comes to a point where what would be out of place in our world, perfectly fits in that new world.

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

The term you're looking for is "verisimilitude." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verisimilitude_(fiction)

[@forsagebone]

Some of those "unimportant NPCs" are actually foreshadowing a little bit of the future of the story and some of them even lets the players get a glimpse of the future regions you are going to visit. Without prior knowledge, throughout your exploration you have already met people from other countries like scholars from Sumeru, Kurisu, a merchant from Fontaine, even Snezhnayan merchants and diplomats. In a way they let you have an idea of what their homeland is like. In my opinion I love the level of detail Mihoyo did with their chatacters, including the main playable ones and NPCs because it feels like they are people that have lives and not just some narrative plot device for you to move forward. One thing I do agree with you though is the long dialogues, and from time to time I catch myself wishing that they would just get to the point already when explaining stuff. Edit: I forgot to mention you also meet Atsuko in Liyue harbor way before update 2.0 (Inazuma). This ties in to what I said above because when you talked to her she gave you an insight about how oppressive it was in her homeland so she escaped to Liyue.

[@lechungus1832]

rip kazari

[@LunarEdge7]

That guy who went to Inazuma for some reason I forgot, who now really misses the breeze of Mondstadt and the scents of Liyue The guy who had to say: _Ah these Crystal Marrows.. I'll sell it at a high price._

[@ruupuu8862]

@@LunarEdge7 that kid's story is just sad

[@madamsafwanmsabri8245]

"my names chris but people here calls me kurisu"

[@GraveUypo]

@@lechungus1832 kazari is the main character of inazuma tho. best npc in the game to the point i elevate her to deceased pc status

[@mzshmkn]

Tfw when Bennett is actually the best 4* out there. Him being unfairly ranked as worst 4* during launch just tells you how much tier lists are unreliable for a single player game such as Genshin. You just really have to play who you like.

[@Mogmogs]

Theres no bad characters, only choosy players hahah

[@KiyoKiyoshi277]

_"There's not bad characters, just bad players"_

[@Plpr00]

Xingqiu is lowkey better

[@izutonura810]

The tier list are bad before then because we have not much info and more possibilities to explore. Now we actually have more info, all the elements, skills, their relationship with other characters explored so I think the tier list now can be trusted, most of the time at least.

[@gamerx1133]

@@Mogmogs There are really bad characters, its just that they made a mistake testing Bennett.

[@Magneto2606]

As genshin player this is the best Genshin review/critique video I have ever seen. The transition from the Ayaka dancing to the banner is gold.

[@syneresis]

Genshin couldn’t have released at a better time. With the entire world going on lockdown, it’s was one of the best ways to escape from the reality.

[@yosafatbakti]

couldn't agree more

[@ignaciovelasco9452]

You could say that a bunch of techno otakus were trying to help the world , you could even argue that they were trying to save the world 😉

[@Helvetica09]

I wish I started playing it during lockdown 😭 I just started like a week ago

[@bernkastel7438]

@@Helvetica09 it's actually a pretty good time to start, considering that a lot of rerun banners for limited characters are probably coming out. Make sure to save primos, always wait a week before pulling on a banner in case new info on the next banner comes out.

[@Helvetica09]

@@bernkastel7438 I got Yanfei on my first single pull and now I am happy 😅 I am. not too big on the gacha aspect tbh I like the story and the exploration. I've been playing Botw aimlessly for years so I really enjoy not doing much in a game 😅

[@koisfish]

the part about escapism really hit home.I can’t recount how many times I wished I could be the traveler,or even just an npc,happily walking around mondstadt or travel to liyue.

[@chanshengsupremacy8889]

Sometimes I feel more like than lumine than myself

[@henrydoesstuff4260]

same same pwp

[@livingfaery]

Me too

[@KingTai64]

The thrill of adventures calls to gamers. Why waste your life paying bills every month, when you can go on an adventure, experience new worlds and meet interesting people(that aren't mentally ill, high end jackasses or just deadass stupid).

[@xfreja]

i can’t relate bc i can imagine myself being too afraid of all the hilichurls and enemies djhfjd

[@entoro2195]

“Bennet is the worst character in the game” If only he knew

[@yes78]

Like who told you that? GachaGamer?

[@juan3143]

@@yes78 Well at the start of the game he was considered a bad characther, but considering the time he has been playing this clearly wasn't at the start so no idea

[@harshitmadhav9907]

I was hocked too like who in their right mind would think the Bennett is bad ……like he’s great if not the best 4 star character

[@inkedjayy]

I'll C5 Bennett but never ever unlock the C6

[@aKraT12]

@@harshitmadhav9907 bennet is the pyro archon wdym

[@melmarmoria167]

Your talking point about Ayaka finding a friend in you really resonated with me. I had a similar experience with Razor when i first heard his voiceline about how speaking is difficult/hard for him, but he still feels the need to communicate with us. It really solidified him to be my first favorite character - especially with him having the arguably cutest yet most heartbreaking idle animation and character story i've seen so far.

[@cyanvouzz121]

This is what I hate about Genshin… you throw at me the best character ever written and designed, and 2 patches later you decide to abandon them, make them useless in abyss and even make me farm for MONTHS to make them useful… I wish Genshin let us play with the characters we really want, and forget about “meta”.

[@ChillAssNova]

I was a razor main till AR 35 for this same reason 🥹

[@ivanchen3428]

@@cyanvouzz121it’s not like razor couldn’t full 36 star clear abyss back then now it’s just powercreep which is natural people do go with some goofy soup comps with razor and an infusion typically with c6 bennett and still full clear a modern abyss

[@writer747]

Talked with one of my friends yesterday that was like "Look, I have every character in Genshin!" and we were like "Dude, you were talking about wanting to move out of your parent's place. How much money did you throw out at this game? It's only been out for a year." The answer is $3k+

[@msclinplay4815]

Sadge. And they say it’s not an addiction

[@yahirdoesbadvids]

@@msclinplay4815 whoever says gacha games aren't addicting are literally coping.

[@VladGrim]

@@yahirdoesbadvids Nah they'll come up with excuses like that, it's still addiction for some, based on my experience of course though I'm more balanced now as I'm focused on my studies. Most of the players I now are addicted, so u can't just say it's a way of coping.

[@vs_richy8516]

0 bitches bruh 😂

[@keshi5541]

I feel bad for spending 8 dollars on genshin bro... I'll miss those 8 bucks.

[@Hexra_]

I think what makes the world of Genshin Impact feel so immersive is how much the devs try to make everything relate to the game; The pause menu is called the Paimon Menu. The housing system has a story surrounding it. When we make a wish on the weapon banner, we're given an "Epitomized Path". Gacha games or online games in general tend to call things as it is, only relating it to the game when it makes sense. In Genshin, the world tries to make everything we do make sense. Every single item in the game has lore to it, secluded areas have background information in the form of environment visuals and even things like the built-in camera has in-game importance as well. Mihoyo basically managed to capture a near perfect form of immersion and translated it to proper world building.

[@donovanf8870]

this ^^

[@gatotriste1573]

I wonder how are they gonna introduce collab units in the game

[@Hexra_]

@@gatotriste1573 Its most likely gonna be the typical "transported to another world" scenario, but it'd be impressive if they can somehow get it to make sense like how they made zero mention of "Other Worldly" in the in-game KFC recipes.

[@lazypayday4476]

Except when one of the most deadliest characters in the game is the Director of a Funeral Parlor and has no combat experience, that's a bit immersion breaking.

[@thelemon2732]

@@lazypayday4476 To call her just a director of a funeral parlor is kinda misleading when she can move in and out of the afterlife at will.

[@MeronEntertainment]

This is my opinion: if the journey is enjoyful, it doesn't matter there's no destination at the end of it. That journey is destination for me.

[@yanfei7782]

I actually love Genshin Impact, I'm sure that much is obvious if you look for longer then 10 seconds.

[@PanRobak.]

That's also basically what Genshin has been trying to teach us in the story. Although, I like to imagine that in 10 years, when the main story is finally finished (hopefully, it will be by that time), I'll be looking back on the entire journey and all the years I've been with the game, reminiscing all the good moments with a tear in my eye. It already makes me a little nostalgic, even though it's only been roughly a year.

[@bigmama3372]

I'm sorry but the anime profil pic makes your opinion invalid. Please try again.

[@PaintedHoundie]

Ok sun wukong

[@hollowedentity7097]

@@yanfei7782 it’s such a good game been playing been since day one. Didn’t rush though any of the story. I don’t mind grinding in this I just enjoy walking around in it. And man some of those cinematic fight scenes look awesome. I found it to be surprisingly a really good experience

[@Avery_37]

The biggest problem with Genshin is that it is very much a casual game, but it tries too hard to make itself not that. With the many events and the fear of missing out, combined with daily quests and resin it forces you to play every day, but if you do this you will complete more content than hoyoverse can output, so you'll eventually only log in to do your daily quests and spend resin, which only takes a couple minutes at best. This also reveals another problem - that newer players will have more content to go through at first, but they will have missed a lot of the events, rewards, characters and most importantly, *time*. They will never have more resin than some players who have played for a longer time who, were able to spend it as it recharged. Genshin tries to do too much at once - make content for newer players, but also keep old players hooked by *straight up abusing* fear of missing out. For late game players there's hardly enough stuff to do, while newer players will be overwhelmed with the mountain of content to go through. Another problem that only really got traction after a popular genshin youtuber came across it was that when newer characters come out with materials only being obtainable in different lands that you need to go through hours of quests and story, newer players won't be able to use their favourite characters for a long time, and by the time they do get to it, they will already have a leveled up party which would have grown on them. This not only ties into the first problem, but also raises yet another one: The time it takes to level up a character, and more imortantly get them good equipment and artifacts, along with all of these materials being time-gated by resin, is simply too long for a casual player. You can spend weeks of farming artifacts and not get any good ones, and this is entirely hoyoverse's fault. All they would have to do is compress cryo, hydro, pyro.. bonus damage into "elemental bonus damage" and maybe remove stats like flat health, attack and defense, and the artifact system would be much less time consuming. The actuall act of getting artifacts (doing domains) is already good as is! Another problem is the wish system, or more importantly, primogem rewards. The rewards of most of the events are not good enough, and it can take months for free to play players to save up enough for a character they want, and even then they have to wait for a rerun of that character! With the characters being the main focus of Genshin + not all characters being equal in the value they bring to your team (example - QiQi is a 5* but feels like a 4* and Bennet and Xiangling are 4* but feel like 5* and let's not talk about Kazuha and Zhongli) it very quickly becomes obvious how greedy hoyoverse is. Some of these characters feel amazing to play, some being straigh up necessary for a good team (zhongli on mobile), and some of them fall short or feel clunky (Klee, Qiqi) and yet it can take $200+ to get *ONE* copy of a character - which doesn't unlock it's full potential - needing 7 copies of a character for that, or sometimes needing only a couple to unlock an much better way to play a character (C1 kazuha) not to mention some of those copies *nerf* the character (C6 bennett, C4 childe), which hoyoverse still hasn't made togglable which they have done in other games, AND needing a weapon that can take $300+ dollars and needing 6 copies for full potential makes it painfully obvious that they just want money. Yes, people can beat the whole game being free to play, but the difference is too big. The ratio of rewards given to currency required is just far too small, and sometimes in a patch (6 weeks long) the new characters are the only new content available, which makes F2P players have nothing special to do. *UPDATE*: A bit about the gacha: It's not *really* an average of ~60 pulls for a 5 star character, because up untill 70 pulls in, the rates are a constant 0.6%, only after 70 do they rise up all the way to 100% at 90. In practice you actually get a character around every 80 pulls or so Possibly the last problem with genshin is coop. Genshin offers you the ability to play with other players, random or friends, however it locks most of the features available. Up until recently, you couldn't even condense your resin inside coop. This limitation basically makes the joy of playing coop be only doing PvE combat or exploring the map, which really isn't all that enjoyable for long periods of time. Sometimes they make coop event and I would say that is the abosolute peak of genshin content. I have never had as much fun in genshin as i did playing hide and seek with friends, doing the recent golden apple archipelago minigames together and playing theater mechanicus (tower defense minigame) To close this off I will point out one last thing. You can really see the lack of content there is in genshin, and how bored the players are of what there is to do in game, when you see how much the players break the game just to have something fun to do. For example: sayu's skill allows you to bypass the borders of the game, exploring the background ares of domains and walking on air in the chasm, doing a glitch that allows you to walk underwater, travelling to inazuma using kaeya's... It breaks my heart to see that, without realizing it, people are doing their hardest just to have some more fun in the game they so love, when the company doesn't provide the content from them Genshin has the potential to be the best game in a couple years, but the biggest problem is hoyoverse's lack of care. As you said in the video, things aren't inherently bad, but they could be so *so* much better. I just want to see genshin succeed, I've already quit twice, but I keep coming back because the foundation on which genshin is built is great, however it lacks the structure and finishing touch to be truly great.. -A passionate genshin player

[@forstuffjust7735]

There is one tiny problem with your points , even though i agree with many of them. Casual players dont care. Most casual players i know are still "trying" tp catch up with the side content, and their artifacts most of the time are "good enough" if they understand it in the first place.

[@geegeep]

A problem that really bugs me is how bad the storytelling is - like, the lore and story itself is very interesting and full of details, but the quests present it with very boring extensive redundant dialogues, the same npcs with nothing interesting to them, reused animations, no facial expressions, no voice over, etc.

[@forstuffjust7735]

@@geegeep girl you better not play some older jrpgs then, and im not talking about the 90s, bu way closer

[@Avery_37]

@@geegeep oh god yes I forgot about that

[@sidekic1109]

@@forstuffjust7735 at least older JRPG's let you use the characters without having to gacha for them (7 times)

[@soirism]

"And that's the problem with the idyllic.. it never fucking lasts" *KZbin plays a Genshin Impact ad*

[@yawzheek6722]

*Laughs in Vanced app*

[@michimatsch5862]

Yeah, lol.

[@michimatsch5862]

@@yawzheek6722 never been brave enough. I sail the torrents of the high seas but I only know computers man.

[@chillhour6155]

its all ive been getting, even though I play the game a couple of hours a week, I stopped worrying about fomo

[@James-oj6ru]

I have a question.... what’s a idyllic?

[@twoworldwars4633]

Something funny about the Birthday letters: Klee sends you a letter on her birthday with a Primo Geovishap Scale. This immortal elf child travelled to another country to blow up a wierd giant lizard and send you one of its scales through mail. There’s a reason she’s the best selling character in the game lmao

[@cyborgnc1500]

She said she was waiting to go home so I actually went there to look for her. Lol

[@nagi-springfield93]

well she is no longer the best selling character anymore

[@Aki_the_unaware]

The most selling character (Day one) at the moment is Baal

[@putent9623]

Hehe. Her rerun didn't sell though.

[@putent9623]

@@Aki_the_unaware yeah, on her first day. After a while we will get the full picture, but ffor now I think she is followed by venti and overall venti is still the top (but we won't know until the end of Baals or Eis banner is over).

[@pewpewpew1834]

I’ve never felt that grinding domains were boring, and I think I know why. It because I always do it coop, and through coop, every run is different, and sometimes it’s a 10 second clear, sometimes there’s only one person alive grinding while the others chat. And it makes me play teams I would never play alone. Genshin has given me a source of social interaction in these times, and tbh has probably kept me from going insane in my single apartment far away from home.

[@girlysoap9031]

that's very true I'll play coop domains even without having resin just to see who I'll meet 🤔

[@Lana.381]

@@girlysoap9031 me too! Even after I’ve done my weekly azdaha / childe I’ll still play it a few more times in coop just to hang out with people

[@sheria447]

Same

[@MecoJoeyRamone]

I can't enjoy co-op because I feel like I'm missing out on friendship xp lol, at least in a few months I'll have everyone maxed out and will refresh the experience I guess

[@phoque9713]

I did coop once and I've never done it again. It sucks to be a socially detached introvert with anxiety in this game where sometimes you need to play with others. My serenitea pot is still stuck at that one "purchase 2 things from the salesman in another's player teapot" quest thing and it pains me whenever I try to join another player's world they always decline :"

[@AclibButLikeTheRealOne]

Wow, props to you mate. I've watched my fair share of critiques and essays and this one may be my favourite one ever. The way you put my exact feelings when experiencing genshin impact into words gave me goosebumps.

[@VivaLaReverend]

"Gacha is an addiction that brings ruin, pain and suffering" Me, stares at long list of gacha games I've since quit: yup

[@Lite_Me_Up]

Me who plays gacha games but had only spent on 2 (genshin I only spent 15-30 And a game called Love Nikki I spent over 300 dollars over the span of 2-4 years lol)

[@TheMADC999]

I remember playing clash of clans in highschool and feeling frustrated to the fact that I don't have money to spend to get my walls and buildings instantly upgraded. Now I'm very glad that I didn't have a job at the time otherwise I would have probably spent a lot.

[@Meilk27]

I spent thousands on brave frontier

[@MrCmon113]

With the enormous quanitity of games you have easy access to, you basically have to seek out gachas intentionally.

[@caleboop1814]

Me: About to cry because of him talking about Ayaka’s story quest “Except that’s a lie. You won’t be there for me. Because I haven’t actually payed to unlock you. And that’s the problem with the idyllic. It never fucking lasts.”

[@thesherlock7552]

Oh 50/50 you always hurt me

[@blastermaster5039]

If only Genshin is a whole game with no barrier to hold back the characters you like from your main similar to BoW... or the Witcher 3.

[@desura5417]

meanwhile f2p ayaka savers who got her for free

[@Brkncntrllr]

@@blastermaster5039 Then it wouldn't be a free game.

[@IngwiePhoenix_nb]

That quote actually sums up Genshin quite well, dunnit? XD

[@zixilius561]

mihoyo has actually, pretty recently, used a ton of their revenue to donate an entire primary school in a rural area in china with equipment and everything, i was never expecting something like this, mihoyo is not only setting new heights in video games themselves, they're even setting new heights for game industries that have high revenue, which i think is an amazing feat

[@marselo1316]

that’s the kinda news that should be on tv. something good coming out of something as overlooked as gaming

[@lovelykitty42]

woah that’s really cool

[@hihi-my5jw]

Yeah. Other games also do this which is pretty cool.

[@johannesschmeckelbauer9831]

Its easy to make yourself look good when you make billions of dollars every six months

[@thefreaks8926]

@@johannesschmeckelbauer9831 i mean donating a school, even if it’s not much for mihoyo, it’s still very commendable of them

[@bruno_kyouka]

29:48 Oh dear, those old times when dendro was a mystery...

[@YoriichiEvA]

I wish sumeru was just a bad nightmare

[@malenamancaimunozmeza5244]

​@@YoriichiEvASumeru was amazing!!

[@bruno_kyouka]

@@YoriichiEvA As for me, I wish i had the chance to explore Sumeru like the first time again

[@EasternStory]

@@YoriichiEvA saying that when midnazuma exists

[@sappyp9026]

The comment “Bennett is the worst character in the game” has since now become something only og players would understand. As someone who also pulled Bennett first, it warms my heart and gives me bragging rights about how much the perspective on the unluckiest pyro boy has changed.

[@aweckzs]

truly kudos to mihoyo for making a gutsy, anime protagonist, loud little shit of a character the best healer in the game. i love him so much.

[@heartabduction]

I remember it took so long for me to pull him, and when people started realizing how OP he is, I was jealous. Now he's C5 and I refuse to activate his C6 unless they let us toggle constellations someday

[@goodvlogph5081]

The only unlucky characters in Genshin Impact is Traveller, Amber, Lisa, and Xinyan. These are the most rejected characters in Genshin Impact, it fuckin hurts me.

[@killertigergaming6762]

I never really listened to the community i got bennet as one of my first and used him as a main dps for a while when the game was new

[@tabioca]

hence why he's a little unlucky lol

[@getit6775]

That guy who spent 70k$ made me shed a tear. Legit just want to hug and tell him it'll be alright. Help him finally get rid of his addiction

[@BigBoiDaKid]

Yea a hug is going to cure his manipulative addiction LOL. If you really want to help him then stop suppprting predatory games or become an activist and try to get them banned.

[@river_brook]

@@BigBoiDaKid "if you REALLY want to x" is an irritatingly dismissive response to well-meaning people and if you *really* want to say anything of worth, maybe try to put a bit more nuance into what you're saying eh gambling is already pretty heavily regulated for a lot of reasons, and not regulated even further for other reasons; even if you're campaigning to restrict or eliminate it, you still have to address the customer base that will also be providing an ever-present financial incentive for those companies to continue skirting around your legislation efforts also this person just feels bad and hopes that person will be ok and this thread of conversation is, like, tangentially related to their unpretentious empathy and concern lol

[@BigBoiDaKid]

@@river_brook it's naivety and you are just defending your own addiction too get out of here

[@BigBoiDaKid]

@@river_brook and gacha games are poorly regulated they get away with so much scams full of shit bro

[@BigBoiDaKid]

@@bowl3864 I don't play gacha games have a gaming pc

[@Minecraftgnom]

"Bennet is the worst character" Bennet meanwhile laughs in SS+-Tier. xD

[@fdstofarto]

Yeah since i started playing everyone hyped bennet up i was hella confused

[@manhappy435]

​@@fdstofarto At first everyone around me thought Bennet was a budget Diluc, but actually...🧐

[@PearoIGuess]

@@manhappy435 bennett is a budget diluc, but with op heals

[@Lycoriste]

@@PearoIGuess diluc is a budget bennett

[@narminaaa]

@@PearoIGuess it's not just heal lmao

[@spacenexo5654]

I know im late but I love how open-minded the video is. he doesn't try to prove his opinion or overlook anything about the game, he tries to see if his opinion is correct and even shows the other side of the gacha based games rather than just showing the bad part. the speaker isn't scared of saying how wrong he was on something and learns from his mistakes, he says how he feels about the game instead of only just looking at the quality of the game as a linear, yes or no question. He says not only the positives and the negatives, but also explains how the negatives affect the positives and vice versa. I learned that playing a game shouldn't just be about critique and analysis, rather how much fun one can have when playing a game and how you can have fun. After he talked about the grinding part of the game, instead of leaving it at that, he says afterward that despite the negative effect of grinding, he still finds enjoyment in the environment and wants to continue to have fun with the game by just simply avoiding the grind. Also he absolutely roasted italians at 49:39 and no talked about it.

[@MistaHoward]

I think the arguments in favor of gacha are just the slightest bit deluded. He ascribes a lot of positive community aspects... which all happen all the time in traditional games like roguelikes, dungeon crawlers, strategy games, and party based RPGs. Nothing about Genshin's community is unique except its size, which plays into another argument. He says that F2P models allow poor players to experience the game. True, and good. He also says it results in more money that's invested back into the game, but from what I've seen, it seems like the game is developed at the same pace as many less profitable ones, or even slower, and that money gets used instead to market the game to bring in more players to market the game harder to get even more players in an endless spiraling abyss. And thus does the serpent consume its own tail. The italians roast was spot on tho

[@spacenexo5654]

@@MistaHoward I feel like your twisting the positive attributes of the game. Saying that he says a lot of positive things about community is only repeating history is weak because there have been many arguements of Genshin having a bad community which is what he is argueing over, but i agree that the size of the community is really the only thing unique about it, but to me it doesnt play into another argument because size doesnt really determine a communities attributes, rather it just shows more of one side or the other creating the illusion of what the community looks like based on what side youve seen the most. saying marketing tricks more people into this game creating more money for marketing the game more makes it sound bad, but to me you've literally just described the growth of a project or business, getting people to see your game isnt a bad business practice or a flaw of the game itself. Do you like Italians?

[@MistaHoward]

@@spacenexo5654Forgive me if it came off that way, but I wasn't intending to imply Genshin has a uniquely bad community. (Personally I think most if not all gacha games have an equally "bad" community, but not due to malicious actions of any members, more in the sense that the communities are all unintentionally misleading about the quality of their games out of ignorance). I understand that Genshin fans get a lot of unwarranted flak that other gacha communities are equally guilty of just due to popularity. I was more referring to the disingenuous framing in the video that Gacha games in general have cultivated a uniquely data- and character-driven community when there are plenty of numbers-focused games that have similar community discussions all the time. I'm more trying to make a point that really when it comes down to it, being gacha is a net negative for a game from a consumer's standpoint and his arguments to the contrary were weak, aside from his one about financial accessibility.

[@spacenexo5654]

@@MistaHoward Id o personally agree that being gacha game isn't a very good look as a consumer, and that most of its system is about maximizing demand for online purchases, but i feel like the video was simply showing the other side of the arguement too so that it wont appear or act bias, and i do feel like theres a lot of prejudice in the the whole gacha system which is one of the main things he discussed. and i also think that there are some good things about gacha that arent very seen, which can be maximized if done correctly, but even when people do see it, they will brush it off because it contradicts their belief. So i think he mainly did that to send a message, especially when he said "Genshin Impact is a good game, but what stops it from becoming great is its gacha system"

[@MistaHoward]

@@spacenexo5654 Yeah but I think the inclusion of weaker arguments hurts the stronger argument which could have had more focus, is all. Although I would say the bigger issue is his clear lack of experience with Japanese action combat.

[@racool911]

"He doesn't have a real story" For Bennett? His hangouts is my favorite! With his constant bad luck, and kinda sad backstory

[@AirLancer]

He's also probably either the best or 2nd best character in the game, lol. Bennett is insanely powerful, being able to buff his own attack, low cooldown damage-dealing abilities that have high damage multipliers, builds a ton of energy, and has powerful healing. He can fill the role of main damage dealer, healer, buff support, or all of the above at the same time. I can't imagine Mihoyo will ever put out a 4-star character as strong as him again. A lot of those early "tier lists" from random websites trying to ride the Genshin gravy train for clicks were terribly wrong. They rated extremely strong/useful characters like Xingqiu, Bennett, Sucrose, Kaeya, and Beidou as being weak and not worth anyone's time. The funny thing is many of these lists added later characters, but never updated their initial, extremely incorrect info. Meanwhile, mediocre to plain bad characters like Qiqi were placed in S-tier simply because they were 5-stars. About the only thing they got right was Amber's placement at the bottom.

[@racool911]

@@AirLancer Ah back when Diluc was the most op person in the game. Poor Amber though.

[@lazypayday4476]

To be fair the Hangouts are only enjoyable to a select few, I only did them for the rewards, and some might not even find that worth it.

[@prajwalkrishnabhat5539]

@@AirLancer I mean Bennet's backstory and hangout explains in detail why Bennet has to basically do everything by himself. He was alone most of the time during his adventures and to survive he had to heal himself while being to Deal damage consistently. Mihoyo can make a character as strong as Bennet but the character would have to be the most loneliest character in the entirety of teyvat.

[@killerguythefox]

@@prajwalkrishnabhat5539 Just about every character atleast if we go with our playable characters. Have stories that form up who they are as a person and their often why they became a vision user. Bennett as an example is a pyro vision user. That means in his situation he has a burning passion for adventuring even with his unnatural unluckiness that surrounds him he pushes on and in one moment he was about to die when adventuring but for the fact he always stayed true to his desire to be an adventurer its assumed the archon that granted him his vision decided he was worthy and he even in such a situation he was in at that very moment dying. That he still held to it. Basically the visions people hold represent a trait/traits of the archon of the element and its interesting to deduct and analyze who the person is.

[@liveeeh]

I personally really enjoy the resource management aspect of most gacha games. It's not about how many characters you have, it's about how efficient you are with what you have available imo

[@ooo1o8o1]

Same same, I like saving for what I want, I don't mind spending money but for me saving the free things is much more fun

[@liangnattanat5859]

Well if you watch Upper Echelon Gamers, he complained about it.

[@TheJasonmanguy]

I think what causes that cringe from the English voice acting is that in English, a language that we understand, any not amazing acting or writing sticks out to us. We know how people talk in our language, and so more obvious when a voice doesn’t pass our sniff test. But in Japanese, which most English speaker don’t know, the voice sounds natural because we can’t pick up on the bad acting or writing. We just look at the subtitles and assume that’s how Japanese people talk. Also the change to a language we don’t understand helps us imagine that this is a world we don’t belong to and can immerse ourselves in.

[@msclinplay4815]

Not a lot of people understand that. When you know a language on high level it sounds completely different.

[@sidiqdidi9925]

Im not a native so i really like English dub i don't find it cringey at all. Maybe Razor or Qiqi and Klee, i found their eng dub cringe

[@zana6327]

@@sidiqdidi9925 I personally think im very good at English but I still didnt get any cringe, ig I just now less than what I thought

[@sidiqdidi9925]

@@zana6327 I think people who are familiar with theatrical english won't find it cringey. Many Eng VAs took art school i think.

[@MrAngelus08]

I can understand both English and Japanese dub and still find the Japanese dub more enjoyable. Maybe is because we relate Japanese to anime (which is like more fantasy or surreal and we are more used to it) and English to more reality based media.

[@yoshikamiyafujidesu]

When the video started, I expected you to just hate on the game and that's it. Instead, you described the pros and cons of the game very well and pretty fairly and with a nice humor and before I knew it, I watched 100 minutes of a guy talking about Genshin. Excellent video!

[@andersnfabiano]

Wow, the whole section about idyllicism made me cry. It really feels like I'm connected to this world, because for the last year, I've been using it to escape the horrible reality we're in. You really knocked it out of the park with this one.

[@chaosnoob1125]

yeah same feeling for me it reallt struck me in the right place also crying by the way

[@mylesobrien7477]

That happened to me in when I was in college last year and genshin came out

[@RamielLilith]

Get ya bag up, meet some girls. Too many people losing their Alpha energy. 🏌🏽

[@f.b.lagent1113]

as sorta long time gacha player(not really, just 3-4 years, f2p, played 3 Genshin is 4th) I’ve been pretty numb to deep immersion, my mind knows when to stop and the shift in my mind from “immersed” to “irl” is almost instant because I know I have studies, I just keep moving forward until all of my school days are exterminated from this world. (disclaimer, I’m not comparing gameplays like 3d to 2d games, just the universe of the game and how I “immersed” in it.) (tho even with GI’s 3D it (maybe yet) hasn’t captivated me hard, maybe I’m just too edgy) the first time I played gachas ngl made me daydream everytime its quiet, so far my favorite was Arknights world-building and rock-cancer concept, like I animate the story(complete with fight choreography) in my head lol, Genshin is close second for me, maybe Fontaine would make me like GI even more(I’m expecting giga cathedrals, giant observatories, victorian atmosphere, goth mansions, very epic.), though I totally get the euphoria when I first played Genshin. maybe it’s because I’m unfamiliar with rpg almost- triple A games, but I’m more familiar with literatures specially books and manga.

[@smumble1795]

Same.

[@sushi2933]

There are times when I'm pretty bored at the game and would just do commissions and craft some condensed resins and log off. There are also times where I somehow managed to play for half a day as I was super immersed in the game. All I can say is play however you want and don't follow blindly what others say so you can fully enjoy the game. Some would play for big damage, for using whatever is op, for pulling their waifus/husbandos, using free characters, doing random artifact builds, etc. This is *FINE* You shouldn't care on what others say and just play it with the way you want, you'll have more fun this way :>

[@r3digit]

literally same lol

[@jaredlewis3001]

I mean I play fortnite cause of the huge things no other games could do like events

[@Hephaestus_God]

I like just logging in, doing my daily stuff, and then logging out. It gives me something to do for each day when otherwise I would have had nothing

[@Pantheon_]

I always do this, and I do events on the last day it will be up.

[@kkTeaz]

And so I completed the spiral abyss with the starter characters only, cuz I'm bored.

[@tahsinhossain8028]

The way you critiqued the game and yet made me feel nostalgic about the early days... It was simply splendid. You are right on all points. Genshin CAN be repetitive. It CAN be a bit boring. But in the end, I don't regret those 15 minutes each day I spend doing these commissions. After completing everything, going to Watatsumi Island or climbing the mountains of Liyue to just see the clouds are things that keep me coming. It's a beautiful game and if you can avoid the honey traps of the gacha system, it's definitely worth spending time on.

[@katsuito1083]

The way I see it, if I really enjoy playing a free game (pretty rare) I don’t mind spending 5-10$ every now and then. And for the same reason people hate the gacha system I love it, that’s why I started playing. But I would like to see more end game content that’s not just in the form of gacha. But I will say be careful if this is your first gacha game. I started with battle cats and spent hundreds of dollars on that game, granted I was in high school with less responsibilities and had a part time job. And you know what? The only thing I regret is not saving my code to transfer my progress to another phone. If you enjoy breath of the wild and watching anime then I can pretty much guarantee you’ll get a good kick out of this game.

[@tahsinhossain8028]

@@katsuito1083 I have played FGO and other Japanese gacha games, so I know how it is! But I know the value of my money and I am not greedy enough to get every character, so the Welkin moon is perfect for me! And yes, I do love anime and light novels, and just as the video explained, I know how it feels to escape into a beautiful world. That is part of why I love this game!

[@evilmiyoho6742]

@@tahsinhossain8028 You know the value of your money, but you still pay for a game that offers you nothing. No, you don't.

[@tahsinhossain8028]

@@evilmiyoho6742 I am a freelance artist, and people pay for my art. However, my art gives them nothing but "satisfaction of mind". The same can be said for the characters I own. I mean, what does ANY creative media give you? Watching a movie gives you nothing but " memories and momentary satisfaction". Reading a book? Same. Getting an art done of your face? Same. If we went by your rule that "spending in games is worthless and doesn't return the value in any way", then the gaming industry, alongside the creative side of the world, would disappear in a moment. Not to mention, your name itself says " Evil Mihoyo", so I can't help but think that you will be isolating Genshin and see only the negatives in it. So yes, I know the value of MY money. Thanks. ^^

[@evilmiyoho6742]

@@tahsinhossain8028 The comparision is a but dumb. I'm also a freelance artist, and I still know the value of those characters is on the content you use them in. And Genshin doesn't have it. I said investing in Genshin is a bad move. And that is a fact. Going against is another bad move from you.

[@zjxdiu]

As a Chinese player, my experience is exactly opposite from yours. For many years before, Chinese game industry is conquered by Tencent and Netease, but since they basically monopoly the market, we are getting more and more trash games that just repeated or direct copy from overseas games, and they also tried their best to trick you out of your money. So then there's Genshin Impact, this game truly blows away our mind by the quality of its content. The graphics looks amazing for a mobile game(at least in 2020), the soundtrack is really masterpiece, and there's no VIP or "First payment" popups everywhere, which are literally everywhere in Tencent games. However, the more I involved into it, the more upset I am. By 2022 when I almost quit entirely, I realize I already spent around 2000 RMB (≈300 USD), maybe sounds very few, but I was in college with 2000 RMB monthly cost of living, and spending my parents' money into it just makes me feel guilty. Finally, I found that after the initial year, every update since then is worse than before, and it keeps going, just tons of poorly optimized region, anti-human design of map, quests that not only super time-consuming but literally nearly impossible for normal player to finish without tutorials before being frustrated enough to quit. That's when I find this is a scam, with well-made initial content to lure me into this rabbit hole, and then try to crack my wallet to spend money. Now I just want to play buyout games, they are designed and developed as a whole game, they have polished and optimized system, in general they are just higher quality than these free to play games. Since these gacha games make me feels that the game company behind the scene is hostile to me, I just cannot deal with it.

[@e2rqey]

I'm surprised by how many reviews/discussions of Genshin Impact don't bring up Mihoyo's previous game, that gave them the money to develop Genshin Impact, *Honkai Impact Third* . A lot of systems in Genshin Impact seem to be evolutions of ideas that they introduced in HIT.

[@BlowBow2]

He did say that GI was the FIRST gacha game that he played. Who knows? He might already be making a video on honkai.

[@Madpotator]

He did show a short clip of HI3 at 1:25:53 when talking about how their games keep getting more ambitious, but I assume that was borrowed footage. The games do share a lot of similar systems at their core, though you can debate which one executed them better. Genshin certainly appealed more to the mass market. I do very much still prefer Honkai over Genshin mainly due to the story, characters and gameplay being more appealing to me. Genshin definitely has the exploration aspect and beautiful open vistas as a plus, but it's not enough to make me love it as much. Honkai had a slow start with its story, so I expect Genshin to cause much heartbreak in the future if it gets a similar cinematic treatment. Whenever Honkai 4th inevitably happens, I wonder if they'll go with the Genshin style open world route but with a modern / futuristic aesthetic. Maybe it'll play like APHO, but on a larger scale.

[@Begaria]

There may even be story connections between Honkai and Genshin. There's little clues here and there but we'll see as Genshin progresses.

[@TwoSouthFarm]

@@Begaria The Quantum Sea serves as a convenient mean to connect both games. But that’s it... unless we count the recent collab between the two games.

[@iron666221666221]

Because this video isn’t about honkai

[@kez2936]

When I heard Genshin Impact was a gacha game I also didn't bother touching it. Everywhere I go I see people talk more about their pulls and 5 star characters than the actual story (last time, before more lore came up) so I thought, man, this game is so centered around Gacha I don't think I'll play it. Then I saw some of their cinematic cut-scenes and was amazed by the amount of lore it has and the stories of each character (also the high quality production it has). I decided to try it out and I'm obsessed! I'm amazed at how far I can play without ever spending money. I've only got my first 5 star on AR44 few weeks ago but I was still able to use the characters I had to the fullest and go through all the bosses (without having to spend money on characters, artifacts and weapons) which really amazed me! The gacha really isn't as important as I thought it would be. Plus I'm more of a story person, so having a lot of the different archon quests, world quests, story quests, made me play the game more and more. It's really well thought out and you can never really run out of content in Genshin (unless u really speed run it i guess LOL). Also!! I felt the same way when I discovered Liyue! I've only seen people talk about Mondstadt so when I entered Liyue I was soooo excited. It's amazing. And the music.. its beautiful.

[@prismaw5674]

Wait until you get to inazuma!

[@horyer8684]

4 star characters actually gives out pretty great damage already and I bring four of them into spiral abyss. I have to admit that 5 star characters are there to make our life easier but you won't miss out on any of the lores just because you don't get all the 5 star characters. Not getting the characters you want would be a bit of a bummer but at the end of the day, the lore and the stories are the one keeping me playing the game. Though, I have to admit that I am a welkin buyer (and used to buy BP but stop purchasing it because the rewards are just meh) and with proper planning and saving, i'm mostly guaranteed to get the characters that I want without having to spend hundreds of dollars. And I can say all my husbandos are home (except for albedo because he's the one that got away :'D)

[@zee1645]

Wait till u see inazuma

[@angelvu]

Same!! I got my first 5 star Keqing by luck on the beginner banner, then recently got Ayaka on her banner. Even though 5 stars are great, the 4 stars are really useful and do big damage if you build them right. I’m at AR42 right now and F2P, I’m also more of a story person and I absolutely love the cutscenes and animations. I can’t wait for more Archon Quests in Inazuma and Baal’s banner. I’m at 60 pity and I hope I pull her 😊

[@sarii_p1697]

I'm ar44 and I have Qiqi, Venti and Mona and I can tell you it really doesn't matter bc they still have low dmg lol I'm not very great with builds as I don't care about them too much, but even like this I could beat most of the stuff I needed to beat

[@chuanli7526]

Don't know if I'm missing something but I was really pleasantly surprised that every single character was entirely unique, down to basic attack animations. I thought it was quite amazing for a f2p 3D game. I'm the kinda gamer who drooled over weapons with unique animations in dark souls, and I thought it was normal for all weapons in a class to share the same attack animations. Anyway, I was fully expecting Kaeya to have the same attack animations as the traveler since they both use straight swords. Definitely was impressed when I slowly realized every character would have their unique basic attack chains.

[@flytelp]

Bennet/Kaeya and Fischl/Amber have the same animations for basic attacks but in general most are completely original and match the character’s demeanor.

[@d3m3nt3d_t3acup_]

@@flytelp there is small difference in that Kaeya teleports while Bennett doesn't and Fischl has the more expressive post-attack animation, but other than that, basically identical

[@hundvd_7]

@@d3m3nt3d_t3acup_ There are other differences. The tall-man one-handed-sword characters have the *same* animations for the most part, but they are only _very similar_ to the same sword wielding "shorter boy" types. So there *are* differences between every single swing of Kaeya's sword compared to the Traveller. Not a lot, but they are different still.

[@Falllll]

@@flytelp Bennett and Kaeya have very similar but not the same basic attacks. I believe this is actually intentional since Kaeya is supposed to have taught Bennett how to fight.

[@ace22neon3]

I mean, they're unique until they copy other games like Devil May Cry 5 in Ayaka and Vergil animation (just one example)

[@familyguysofunny1933]

After playing genshin for a few months, I learned that you have to not bend to its will. When wishing, I use a few ground rules. 1. No using primos on the standard banner 2. No wishing on the weapon banner. As for characters, they have to be good and fun to play at C0, with a f2p friendly weapon and they cannot need specific 5 stars to truly shine. It has been going great so far

[@MrCmon113]

Or you could just play a game that's not trying to make you spend thousands on an ingame lottery.

[@persnicketyVC]

Hearing this opinionated documentary FEELS like a whole movie on its own. He started on the advert, pure hate for games of the genre; yet, putting aside Genshin's core of gambling, he slowly welcomed the true beauties of the game into his heart. I love how you expounded every detail, every side to the story. No bias, no clickbait, just a voice and damn good opinions. Props, man. A whole 1h41m that felt like an amazing class lecture.

[@fashyakupercent20]

is this the best game review video i've ever watched?

[@persnicketyVC]

@@fashyakupercent20 damn right.

[@deschain1910]

I think there's an interesting connection that could be investigated between gacha games and KZbinrs. Many KZbinrs who focus on these games are whales and it's part of their content (opening a bunch of boxes in one sitting, etc.). The gacha game companies are, in a way, syphoning at least some of their revenue from KZbin through whale KZbinrs, and they form a kind of symbiotic relationship.

[@VictusPrime]

And those same whale youtubers just get the money back they spent on the game via viewer/ad revenue of them whaling on the game.

[@deschain1910]

@@VictusPrime Yeah, it's an interesting circular ecosystem, and I'm really curious how much of these games' revenue comes from this source. Is it a good chunk, or is it insubstantial because there'd only be a few big KZbinrs doing this for each game?

[@VictusPrime]

@@deschain1910 Unfortunately we don't have access to these revenue metrics (wish we did tho, would love to understand more about it). There are plenty of people who whale on this game but don't make any sort of Genshin content tho, they just have absurd amounts of disposable income. The game does have millions of players as well, and I dare say the majority of them probably buy things like the monthly premium currency card (which is $5USD), and perhaps also the battle pass ($10 USD, which can be bought once every 6 weeks). Is that enough to rake in the bulk of Genshin's revenue when compared to the whales? I honestly don't know. From what I've read, a sizeable portion of Mihoyo's total revenue comes from Japan, and I don't really know of any popular Japanese content creators for Genshin. So interpret that how you will.

[@HelloOnepiece]

@@deschain1910 Same can be said about contractors like voice actors, the noew generation of voice actor are nerds themselves, so plenty of them circulate the money they got for the role, back to the game. But hey wasnt the main goal of money this circular economy in the first place? Instead of hoarding

[@deschain1910]

@@HelloOnepiece Yep, not necessarily anything wrong with it. That's why they say currency is in "circulation." I just think it'd be interesting to know if the popularity of KZbin is integral in some way to the widespread popularity of gacha games, or if it has minimal impact.

[@zicas1010]

My enjoyment of this game is 40% exploration and quests, 30% soundtrack, 15% events, 15% rolls

[@11041347]

lol me 40% lore, 30% exploration + music and 30% characters

[@Jojo-sh7xp]

As long as its story is enjoyable then i will play it and so far Mihoyo has not disappointed me. I also played its other game Honkai and im not that far in the story but its story is fine, i heard that its depressing af so im looking forward to it.

[@user-zp5yu6pg6r]

Lore is also extremely good, those moons, gods, wars, ideologies of every region, references to mythology etc.. I actually started to get into our history and mythology because of Genshin.

[@Lite_Me_Up]

@@11041347 ikr even the artifacts have good lore!

[@KYSNYAN]

Genshin’s main plot may not be very impressive, but it’s lore, it’s deep lore is quite amazing and very well written imo and i enjoy it as much as i enjoy it’s incredible music.

[@adrey8160]

after an other year and currently at update 3.3, many of the things you said havent changed. So unless the game does a completly 180, it will stay the story crpg with good music, a peaceful and beautiful world and the bitter taste of cacha and resin. I think this critique will discribe the game pretty good even in the later stages. Very nice Video dude :)

[@martinmcfly5405]

It s a shame.

[@martinmcfly5405]

It could be even more sucessful 😥

[@bloom1129]

i've always wondered why i''m so attached to genshin, and you finally spelt it out for me. my life sucks, to me at least. i've never really been happy as a child thanks to my parents being emotionally and sometimes physically abusive and at the moment i'm struggling with anorexia, recently finished secondary school too and i miss my friends ( i'm 16 ) so genshin is one of my forms of escapism. i have so many memories with it and most of them remind me of how happy i was with all my friends for some reason.. i've always stayed up late at night playing this game because usually night is the time i feel the loneliest, but playing it made me feel better. i'm a sucker for games where you have to grind anyway, it gives me a sense of purpose and i feel proud when i look back at all the progress i made ahaha. sorry for rambling.

[@koolaidmansam8yearsago273]

I used to believe my life sucked for the dumbest reasons. We take our lives for granted so much, complaining about so much stuff. And yes, life can suck at times. Believe it or not nobody lives a perfect life. The best thing to do is to not complain and just go thru it. I wish you the best of luck and I hope you can eventually over come your anorexia.

[@bloom1129]

@@koolaidmansam8yearsago273 ah you're right about that, nobody has a perfect life. i should stop being so pessimistic ahaha. thank you

[@CalebCrow]

@@bloom1129 hey! I hope things change for you in regards to your situation. Sure, other people may have it good and etc, but you totally don’t deserve being treated horribly by your parents. Complain! Know that you deserve better!! Because you’re worth it, yes you have good things but people deserve better than just ‘good things’. That being said, getting better with things like aneroxia and getting out of an abusive household is easier said than done :’/ I hope things get better for you, genuinely. As you get holder hopefully y pull get more independence and be able to take the reins on your own life! All the best to you

[@bloom1129]

@@CalebCrow aaaaah thank you so much :(( that means a lot. i really can't wait to get out of here but for now i just have to live with it. i dont feel like its getting any better but im going to try and remain positive.

[@Broomful]

I’ve used lots of things as a coping mechanism for my depression and nihilism and my relatives say it’s just a phase but it’s not and I know how that feels

[@ريّان-ذ4ت]

I can't believe this game is only 1 year old, it feels like it is part of the culture of the internet already and existed for a long time

[@balazsszucs7055]

I know, right? I mean I talked with a friend who started playing before me and I was shocked when it turned out she hasn't been playing for years. It is ingrained into pop culture like Harry Potter, Star Wars or WarCraft.

[@thebarrel1051]

Yeah, and I feel like I'm getting older every day

[@klaroxy7552]

The amount of hentai is unbelivable it could generate.. One of my friend said..!

[@___echo___]

I think its because its filling what was a big gap in the gaming market (no notable pc gacha games in the west with increasing interest in anime)

[@20000dino]

I honestly thought it was much, much older.

[@zek7881]

One good thing miHoYo did is adding the pity system, I seen many other gacha game doesn’t do that and people spent thousands cant get a single damn character. Adding the pity on the character technically set a price to the character and as a grown man and woman it is up to us to decide if it is worth the $. However, miHoYo put so much care into the game and made almost every character worth pulling is another story.

[@sibeliusan]

any gacha game available in japan is required to have some sort of "pity" system but genshin is much more generous with pity. i have played gacha games where you have to pull 300 times to have whatever you're pulling for guaranteed

[@faraday3683]

Genshin is so damn detailed with all of it’s characters. Not to mention the dozens of books and world quests that have unique and interesting stories, with a lot of thought put into them! (Looking at you, Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual)

[@tuisuki]

that's true. other gacha games i played either have a higher pity or none at all and genshin is really generous in that aspect

[@tntproductions1996]

The pity is nice but imo the rates are too low

[@sphinxan]

@@sibeliusan what about fate grand order? is that banned in japan because it doesn't have a pity system, or am i stupid XD

[@silveratlas2706]

Here is my experience with Genshin. I heard about it for the first time because of my girlfriend around a year ago when we were starting to take our relationship a bit more seriously. One night she puts up some, "interesting visuals" about some characters while we "were together" and then I asked a faithful question : "is this from a cartoon?" 🤦. A bit of a background on me. I'm not much of a gamer myself, I have an old PS4 that I use once a month to play one of my 6 single player games (The Last of Us, Red Dead 2,Spiderman, Witcher 3, The Walking Dead and Mass Effect Legendary edition) and I'm not even that much used to "modern technology". Being a 22 year old Italian farmer who lives in a really isolated area it's a miracle I learned how to order things online in time for the pandemic. All my friends don't play games or watch anime, the only person I personally know that does that is my girlfriend, which is also how I got introduced to anime eventually. I don't like gambling, smoking or even drinking particularly. I'm the type of guy that goes out with friends, drinks one glass of whatever alcohol costs less at the beginning just because everyone else is doing it and I would feel weird just ordering a bottle of water or cola, then spends the whole night making people laugh and at the end drives everyone home. I consider myself really funny, so I don't usually feel left out, I often find something to talk about. Anyway, she told me it was a very successful game and I should try it. I only download free apps on my phone so when I saw it was one of them I said "fu*k it why not?" and started waiting for the colossal downloading and updating time. After it was over I started playing and I was really stunned how beautiful the game looked on my 4 year old smartphone (with no cracks this time btw). I never played Zelda, so Idk about the comparison with Genshin. The gameplay seemed interesting enough and I actually quite liked Paimon. To me she was just this cute fairy that accompanied you through your journey making funny comments obsessing over food and treasures (honestly girl, same). I never found her voice annoying, Idk if it's because English isn't my first language or because I'm just used to her. I wonder, what's so bad about her? Is it the high pitch tone? Regardless, I started playing it once a week and I liked it enough to decide to continue the story. After a year I've completed Mondstadt and Lyue without spending an euro or even that much time with it. I still don't have any 5 stars characters or weapons, I pretty much ran with my starters. I think I used the wish mechanic like 7 times or so, so I can't complain too much about not getting anything important. The game is fun and I enjoy my time with it in spite of my very tight schedule to actually play it. I feel bad for people who ruin their lives on gachas, gambling, or addiction in general. I just wanted to tell you that these games can be enjoyed even without spending money or an absurd amount of time on them I see the appeal of playing with your favorites or having the best arsenal or just losing yourself in it, but thankfully I am too poor and occupied to be tempted. If you've made it this far, thank you for your time, bye👋

[@silveratlas2706]

First 5 star ever today, and it was Hu Tao!! Let's goooo!!! Her Japanese va is literally my favorite

[@sonarsonar7676]

​@@silveratlas2706 Congratulations!

[@gwenythice7230]

That’s sweet, it sounds like you’ve found a good balance.

[@zhangzhaorui1336]

I am a Chinese person who played this game and found out we have common sense despite different cultural backgrounds. I think your critique is great and would be more widely spread with a table of content or an introduction play that same role. Genshin is an ongoing game with a large profit. For that reason, it is hard to see a real critic like this. thankyou

[@Njin8492]

I played genshin when it came out, i have mad love for any game hack and slash. You can even check my channel. Genshin is by far the best F2P hack and slash game that i have ever played, but i just cant continue playing it. I just cant. Theres too much artificial padding for me, and the gacha is just not my thing. To be honest, if mihoyo would charge 60usd for the game, and all the characters are unlockable via story and you didnt have to pay a dime outside the 60usd price tag, i wouldve bought to copies, 1 for me and 1 for my wife. But no, they didnt.

[@weixinong3877]

@@Njin8492 Tbh with all the characters and new regions coming out, buying it full wouldn't be realistic considering the costs of making the characters and maps The gacha system makes it so that even if you're completely F2P, you can still complete all the future contents and with the right mindset, only saving up for characters you especially like since you most likely won't be loving all the characters nor will you be using them all in actual gameplay Remember, there's still 4 whole regions that's not out yet and the game will likely keep pushing out new contents for years to come

[@Prinzherbert]

@@Njin8492 That wouldn't work. It's an updating game, after the playerbase paid 60usd, the income would fall off and it would probably be hard to keep updating it. The only way this could work is if the other regions were DLCs, or if they could finish the whole game before release. A lot of people would probably hate the first for being too expensive, and the other would require both a huge risk on the initial budget and a long delay in the release of the game.

[@Njin8492]

@@weixinong3877 ok. How about releasing it "full" then? Then the future updates can be like paid DLCs

[@Njin8492]

@@weixinong3877 the costs of making the maps isnt all a big deal. We still have AAA games that has bigger and denser maps than genshin, but they charge 60usd upfront. Witcher 3, ghost recon wildlands, etc.

[@Jakeyosaurus]

This was such a joy to watch, very good review/critique!

[@mango-float]

I feel like the entire community had a rollercoaster with the game, it depends on them whether or not it had more ups or downs or not, but it was and still definitely is a ride

[@NathaNeil27]

This video was so drawn out. 7 minutes to say he doesnt like gacha. Still watching tho

[@mango-float]

@@NathaNeil27 it's better to explain his reasoning and how he got there if you ask me tbh

[@mango-float]

Or I'm just biased because I like to explain myself or my reasoning as extensive as possible so people can understand me

[@ViviSaggio]

@@NathaNeil27 So have you watched it all, he perfectly summarized every perspective and respectfully values all opinions.

[@cycloid2326]

I’d happily play Genshin Impact for the soundtrack alone, it’s simply incredible. Enkanomiya’s OST has easily made it my favorite region in the game.

[@shi-chan5779]

I love dragonspine because of the nostalgia of the events, Albedo and the music. But enka is so good lore,enemys and music is so sick.

[@facepalm50]

@@shi-chan5779 dragonspine is my favorite zone in the game cuz of the music too! i hope we get more events that make us go to stormterrors lair (like the current tanuki one), feels like a waste having that godtier ost & only going there once XD, i used to kill the hilichurls mob packs daily until end 1.1 just as an excuse to hear the ost.

[@collectiondepixels]

same, when i hear enkanomya's ost i just fall more deeply for this map

[@skit4950]

sometimes i just teleport to certain places to listen to the music

[@chockitkat3776]

That's me tbh/ I literally play for the bg music and the bg itself. The fandom sucks for me

[@27455628]

This is such a awesome reviews that really shows you had the whole Genshin experience. It is a such a breath of fresh air to see someone to give an objective opinions onto reviewing what is genshin impact.

[@holven]

What a great video. Thank you for this. I think the saddest thing about Genshin is that even if you manage to assemble a team of good characters that synergize with each other, you still need to farm artifacts for all of them. That's a whole new level of grinding hell for me and actually what made me quit. I don't mind working with the characters I got, but at least allow me to improve them without wasting days or even weeks of my life hoarding items that serve no purpose other than being fed to better versions of themselves.

[@noah4607]

Plus. Its so tiring too

[@MisterMoxie7]

Yeah, realizing how harshly time gated and tedious gear progression was going to be was the straw that broke the camel's back for me too. I didn't like the gacha monetization model, but not even being able to grind at my own pace to progress as a free player absolutely killed my enjoyment of all aspects of the game. Even the good parts just started to look like the bait on the game's many many hooks.

[@ringo69420]

@@MisterMoxie7 it doesn't matter if you're f2p or a whale, the pace of progression is still the same

[@TheUltimoSniper]

The number of time and progression-gating mechanics to halt your grinding really illustrates how little Genshin Impact respects your time. Battle passes have max xp per week, you only get so many primogens per day, you can only get so many boss/dungeon drops a day/week, etc, etc. It takes at least half-an-hour to get through all of these systems, and they're repetitive as hell. I got a full team to level 80 only to find out that the level 90 requirements were 3 times worse. I'm supposed to somehow farm just as much, if not more, in a more difficult game-world, all over again? _Then_ I have to farm a slew of equipment for each character I'm invested in, which I already know will take far longer in comparison? No thank you.

[@Jackie-fi3yo]

@@ringo69420 uhh no it isn't. Whales can buy battle passes which gives them more fragile resins and also can recover resin through primogems as well. While yes the chances are the same they have more chances of doing domains and leylines

[@kisamimi]

my only gripe with it is the story telling and i really think that if it hadnt been a gacha game then it would be on-par with others like ffxiv. genshin lore is so interesting and thats what kept me playing, but the storytelling can be god awful levels of childish sometimes

[@gimmefreemogems7048]

i found another lore enthusiast. Hope they delve into the darker sides of lore in sumeru and I want to kill dottore every week.

[@IronTrickster]

Personally i stopped playing because of the amount of grinding required for progressing in the main story😑

[@denzelherrman]

@@IronTrickster well ur the opposite of me then im playing bc of exploration and grinding and i kinda dislike the archon quests

[@kisamimi]

@@gimmefreemogems7048 yeah reading into the character wikis and webtoon it genuinely interesting but i feel like the delivery in-game is lacking. Hopefully it gets better from sumeru onward lmao dottore is my favorite of the fatui.

[@acreativename2781]

Yeah the characters move like robots and the dialogue is awful and stretched out so much

[@thehotwindblowing]

Liyue definitely has a sublime "idyllicism" and mystically ancient feel to it, especially around those western peaks. I do like that they managed to give Inazuma a distinct feel, it's mystical albeit in a sort of spookier way, and frankly hostile in some areas. It's quite refreshing.

[@brianaguila6925]

The introduction to Inazuma when we arrived at Ritou is a big foreshadowing of how Inazuma feels like. There is a BIG tension due tothe closure of the nation because of the Sakoku Degree and the Vision Hunt Decree along with the ongoing civil war because of hunt decree yet I feel curious as to what the story,side-quests and gameplay will offer.

[@efectovogel8295]

I love how they made Inazuma. Almost everything there is dysfunctional. The Kanjou commission in Ritou tries to milk every possible mora out of foreigners. Narukami island’s sacred Sakura Tree has not been cleaned for ages, Kannazuka is a war zone infested with pirates with an abandoned mine that could potentially blow up the entire island. Yashiori island is a hellhole, with rampant disease, abandoned settlements, endless storm, war, devastation and full of sad stories. Despite being the nation of “eternity” and “tranquility”, Inazuma basically radiates chaos, devastation and corruption, making it the most dynamic place we’ve been, contrary to what the Shogun is seeking. I love how they treated this region and what it represents, I had high expectations but this was something else, and it’s not even over.

[@brianaguila6925]

@@efectovogel8295 the euthymia really fits Inazuma

[@andrewrivera7496]

@@efectovogel8295 Yup, and to think most of that was caused by the the Shogun's relentless pursuit of eternity in the first place, it's really ironic

[@sharpcheddar6453]

@@efectovogel8295 Okay now that’s actually the most interesting reading of Inazuma I’ve read so far

[@StarlightLancer01]

This is why I always target single-player focused experiences (Good ones, to be accurate) because I'm so tired of playing a game where content, whether it be DLC or add-ons, are added after the game rather than have it all at the beginning base of the game. I can't stand having to unlock characters or attaining anything through an extremely rigged rng gacha system. The only games I try to pick up and invest time in are complete, finished, well-constructed, cohesive games, and entertaining games.

[@Swagbastian]

BASED

[@savel5453]

There was a time where I got completely depressed over genshin’s gacha system. I think it was on ganyu’s banner. I legit couldn’t stop rolling until i got her. I was convinced on spending my money because I was guaranteed but still ended up spending a lot! I didn’t even like ganyu at that time and was planning on getting xiao but at that time i was a freaking meta slave. When I finally got her, I suddenly cried a lot. I realized the amount of money I spent and lost. I realized that my diluc and zhongli isn’t even complete yet. I stopped playing for a week and kinda hated ganyu. After I calmed down i decided to stop rolling for every character and focus on who I already have. Ganyu who I once cried on and hated became my character and my 1st triple crowned. She became my main for months until I decided its time for her to rest on the bench after getting hutao and homa. Now I’ll skip all banners for my boi kazuha but till then all my attention will be on hutao and make her perfect like my ganyu. For me, investing on a small amount of characters truly made my genshin experience more fun and meaningful.

[@infochan6776]

Someone once told me "Don't get Kazuha/Yoimiya bro they're bad save up for Hu Tao or Ganyu" I will never get a character I do not enjoy, I would skip Hu Tao and Ganyu 10 times over to get Childe, Yoimiya, or Albedo because I love these characters and there were even some time I'd log in specifically to play their Test runs(sadly I didn't get any of those characters). I have never regretted pulling on a character I like, it doesn't matter if Kazuha turned out to be a tier 0 support character, even if he was absolutely trash I would play him cause he's fun and I love everything about him from his EN voice and his JP voice to his satisfying swirls to his peotic nature to his clothing and most importantly how cool his playstyle is. So far my 5 stars are: Kazuha, Bennett, Raiden Shogun(Got her after losing 50/50 on Yoimiya), Eula, Mona, Jean, Keqing(love this character even though I was disappointed when getting her cause of all the controversy surrounding her), Qiqi, and Aether(best boi). I'm hoping on saving for Zhongli cause who doesn't want to listen to his voice, oh and also cause of him **literally calling down a fucking meteor to petrify his enemies**.

[@TadanoCandy]

Yeah I honestly don't like meta slaves shaming people for using "bad" characters or not spending every day in artifact domains. I'm half-meta half-waifu-over-meta but I think everyone should find the way to enjoy this game, or drop it if it's not their cup of tea. I personally find it more fun to invest in a little over the 8 units necessary to clear Abyss, even if my builds end up being a little sub-par (my Hu Tao with Homa just has a little over 200 cdmg and 60 crit rate, for example) so that I can use different teams. I also created a strictly F2P account and I've had as much fun on it as I did my "dolphin" account because I had to be more mindful of resource allocation, which was a new way to play the game for me.

[@eunyounguzun2597]

@@infochan6776 You can play and enjoy this game with EVERY character and every character can be good or bad. Its just the spiral abyss (maybe) that KINDA needs the meta characters? Idk. All other things are fine with any character. I'm skipping Xiao and Shenhe and will be skipping Ganyu for Zhongli 💃🏻 Dont listen to those stupid meta slaves who spends thousands of money!

[@Damian_DH]

Just follow a simple rule like i did after playing my first mmo never pay a single cent and fuck those who tell u if u do that ur not suporting the game. Let those soyboys waste their cash this way following ur own rule u can enjoy games without stressing over every new waifu they release to keep u wasting real money like a ill person. And since ur not attached due to money invested u can quit wherever u want believe me easy life dude. "We spend money we don't have on things we don't need to impress people who don't care about us".

[@dev1lykt14]

smart choice, and with additional banners there is no point to always get characters as soon as they released, because of reruns will be happen way offten. In my case i rolling 1 or 2 characters per patch, if lucky even weapons. And all that only with Welkin and BP(wich i dont buy anymore, cuz got r5 serpent xD). I have more than half of 5stars (didnt get yet 7 of them: Mona, Childe, Albedo, Kazuha, Yoimiya, Venti, Ganyu). Have signature for Ayaka, Xiao, Ganyu, Hutao, Itto, Eula. And all that because of not rolling for constellations. only const i have its c1 Zhongli and c1 Dulic xD

[@winghong3]

For real, your friend was definitely wrong, as Bennet is god-tier. In fact, I continue to fear that the existence of Bennet makes most current and future healers/buffers obsolete simply because they made his ult way too damn useful. (Just never constellation him to C6 and you are fine). I'd even go as far to say that he kind of made the meta of team building comps way more stagnate/static than it should had been. On another note, you made a very good point being that the gacha system certainly has a hand in artificially inflating the inherent value of a video game character. Gacha makes it so that you are not guaranteed to have the same units as the next player, and because how scarce the currency are, there is an artificially created attachment created between you and your character simply because the acquisition system made it so. It is a cheap move, but certainly very effective.

[@Grim_Bud]

lmao I had flashback of tierlists at launch and his journey happened arround Eula's banner? I honneslty doubt about his friend credibility because if you've played the game for a while you definitely know about Bennett being an absolute unit. Edit: Nvm pressed play

[@azuarc]

On NA servers, Bennett was considered to be trash tier at the launch of the game until the Chinese meta showed us all why we were stupid poopoo heads who thought characters were only good if they could function as a carry. All this proved was that our documentarian started early on in the game's life cycle or was talking to someone who didn't learn better after those early times were proven laughably false.

[@norwegianboyee]

I remember getting Xingqiu on one of my first rolls in Genshin. And i thought to myself "I would never have chosen to use this character unless it was my only new and available water unit" and now i actually love Xingqiu and i almost always use him.

[@LeoOo0oOo]

C6ed my Bennett and haven't even looked back, think saying definitely not to is incredibly stupid personally

[@winghong3]

@@LeoOo0oOo Obviously, you can play the game however you want. But you have to understand that C6-ing him is an irreversible decision. Forcefully turning all of your normal and charged attacks to be pyro infused would limit the amount of team compositions that Bennett can fit into, especially if your active character is fighting a pyro-aligned enemy at the moment. Why trade away flexibility willingly is the question.

[@kleeklee1087]

I kept wondering why Paimon was always the one talking for us since launch until I realized on 2.1 launch week that she's our translator. We aren't fluent in the Teyvat language so she helps our adventures as both guide and language teacher. She needs more love.

[@Jehphg]

also drives me bonhers people complain about the en va and not the other languages, if a strident childlike high pitch voice is annoying, then all of them are, or none of them are, it's as simple as that.

[@Red-ux2ff]

Anniversary rewards still garbage tho

[@misbahnurjaman9490]

@@Jehphg there's a difference in your concentration between understanding the language and not.

[@Jehphg]

@@misbahnurjaman9490 this is not about concentration at all though. it's about weebs being unfair and overly critical of en voice actors just because. that's it.

[@misbahnurjaman9490]

@@Jehphg you are generalizing it (if i said that correctly). We love Zhongli's EN voice. People mostly don't like Paimon because she talk english with high pitch note as "little fairy child" which people consider annoying, and she talk like every other step you take.

[@williamhumble7072]

The work you put into your videos is almost unmatched. This is my first experience with your channel. I fell asleep near the end at three am. Waited for my phone to charge just to find this video and subscribe. Thank you.

[@JoshhTW]

“3* which can be considered an unimportant trash” Me with a 3* Harbinger of Dawn on Albedo: *sad noises*

[@-localbard-]

Well to be fair that's one of the better 3 star weapons and if you're broke when it comes to 4 star swords, like I am deSpiTe geTtiNg eVerY sWorD cHaraCteR, it's not a bad investment :v

[@viniciusespindola7238]

most are though, there's just some exceptions

[@-localbard-]

@@viniciusespindola7238 yea that's fair

[@TigerSaber1]

Three Stars give out 15 Stardust you can exchange to materials in the shop. It's borderline the single-most important thing in the entire Wish system :D You've Any idea how much annoying Whopperflower farming I can bypass just by buying their nectar for some "Unimportant trash"? :D

[@AzureDrag0n1]

There are a few 3 stars that are very good and even I use some of them when I have 5 star weapons available like Black Tassel, Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers, White Tassel, Skyrider Greatsword, and Harbinger of Dawn. They are all very useful on some characters and even outcompete some 4 and 5 star weapons. For example Black Tassel on Zhongli and Thrilling Tales on pretty much any support catalyst user. Skyrider Greatsword is amazing on Eula or Razor and is saves you from using a prototype. Harbinger of Dawn is the best weapon on Albedo and even beats most 5 star weapons. White Tassel is a budget Staff of Homa for Hu Tao. White Tassel R5 competes with Skyward Spine R1 which is a 5 star weapon on her.

[@Blunteen]

TLDR: Its a nice game with problems and easy hooks, don't be stupid and you will love it.

[@xtra7264]

bruh u just need to play genshin to love it

[@khaoscualdawath]

^ this

[@Mortal_Indeed]

@@xtra7264 Dont be stupid part is important, genshin is my first gacha game that I paid for. And I paid the sum that could bought me a second handed car within the first 3 month. Although I have a job and the financial situation is fine, just opening the game still caused me anxiety. And I will proudly say I was stupid af. I quit whaling after that, the game is now immensely more enjoyable than ever.

[@prajwalkrishnabhat5539]

@@Mortal_Indeed also people tend to forget you can just quit for a while if your not having fun. Like after zhongli banner until Klee banner, I didn't play the game at all or I just did the dailies sometimes. I didn't even do the resin. Only at the golden Apple archipelago story quest did I start playing properly again, and it has been much more fun that when I left it. You don't lose a lot in an update if there aren't any new story quests.

[@xtra7264]

@@Mortal_Indeed I said what I said because at the time I was typing, I was listening to the first part of the video where he said he hates genshin and didn't try to play it because he hates it. When in fact you cannot judge a gane until you have played it

[@maryanntheconqueror]

Ok but I NEVER realized the massive gap between primogem value in welkin vs genesis crystals. That being said, if in some perfect reality there was ever a full-package version of Genshin in the future after the main game and story is finished just for a set price, I'd personally prefer it over the gacha system.

[@mybeaniebooz9601]

same, no matter how pricey it is i would 100% purchase a version of genshin impact as a full game. and i never spend money on video games. though unfortunately this is unlikely, since i heard it's illegal in china to make one-time payment games? i hope it isn't true

[@arlter5037]

@@mybeaniebooz9601 No, it's legal to make one-time payment game in China. But in China, where consoles have long been banned during 2000 - 2014, many people are used to F2P GAME.Despite steam has made some progress in the Chinese Game Market, there are still a lot of people who are used to F2P. Of course, China is still a developing country, and maybe some people are very rich, but most is not. They may think $50 is expensive a little for a game. Mihoyo has made some one-time payment games a long time ago, but they suffered a huge failure, and that's why Genshin came in.

[@mybeaniebooz9601]

@@arlter5037 ohhh ok i see.

[@catsouplover7745]

The thing is genshins model just wouldnt work if the gacha system is removed from the game and it becomes a 1 time payment, they would have to re haul the very concept of party sistems and probably drastically reduce the amount of characters there are, or at least the playable ones, it would basically turn into a diferent game entierly.

[@maryanntheconqueror]

@@catsouplover7745 That is very true and I have thought about it, but to be fair I feel like this would be mainly to preserve the world exploration, music, and storyline and less so the og combat system. It may be too different for some but imo it would be worth it for many

[@samuelconnolly347]

I picked up Genshin Impact during lockdown and I enjoyed it for a while. Pretty much just what I wanted at the time, and I found the gacha mechanics fairly unintrusive at first. However, as the game progressed and the grind settled in I found myself enjoying it less and less. I wish it had just been a full-priced single-player title with no microtransactions - I'd have absolutely loved that and I could see it being one of my favourite games and I'd have happily brought DLC expansions for it.

[@Krysnha]

yes knowing you will not have what you want make it sad and kill the game

[@eldritchangel4058]

Genshin Impact: Guys I can explain... Breath of the Wild: You turned our game into a gacha... Fate Grand Order: You turned our gacha into a game...

[@andreirachko]

Loooool

[@ITBEurgava]

Best comment I see so far

[@TheHikariOne]

I'm not going to lie. This video was what finally got me to give Genshin Impact a shot. I absolutely loathe gacha as a concept. Went into it expecting to be slammed with pop-up ads for cash shop stuff and other things companies in MiHoYo's financial place do [EA and Activision for example]. But what do you know; Genshin had none of that, and MiHoYo seems to put the insane cash it pulls in right back into the game to make it better with each installment [as well as donating to charities]. This is the first time I've run into a gacha game that actively puts the money it rakes in to good use, and this + MiHoYo's very humble beginnings actually got me second guessing myself on if gacha is really as awful as I originally thought. Only real gripe with it so far is that it feels derivative thanks to all the obvious BotW elements. I'm only on the first region and only started yesterday though.

[@crazycats08]

Enjoy the game my friend. If you don't like it, uninstall. No refunds needed. If you like it and you are a sane human with responsibilities, getting welkin and battle pass (equals to $15 every 30-40 days) should be enough as a form of appreciation for devs. If you are in doubt or you have other priorities, cool, just be a f2p players. I bet that probably half of the player base is a complete f2p players. Just don't spend on money that you don't have. If you ever find yourself an urge to swipe that cc for a certain characters, you probably need to stop playing for a while, wait until the hype on that characters die down, and return on the later date to enjoy the game. My final advise is... Don't speed run or play this game on a single long run. Genshin is unfinished game in terms of stories. Like a TV serial, you won't get the conclusion of the story by binge-playing this game. Many people burnout and finally uninstall this game because they've completed everything within hours after the update release, which is okay but not a great fun way to play. Personally I play genshin 10-15 minutes on weekday and proceed to go for 2-3 hours session on weekends. Why? Because the moment you've completed all current in game contents, you will soon realize that the rest of the game is just a chore/daily grind. So yeah, don't rush the content. New contents/update released every 40-ish days, you gotta manage your play session so you can enjoy most of your time in game until next update arrives. If you find running out of things to do, just play other games, do your irl work, and enjoy other things...then return to this game when new update arrives

[@TheHikariOne]

@@crazycats08 This is probably my favorite reply out of many I've seen to one of my YTube comments. It's nice to see how welcoming the community is -- when I put the idea forward that I might get into Genshin, my friend group reacted similarly. Part of the reason I started was due to two factors: I absolutely adored Breath of the Wild [and Skyrim, which it was inspired by] and grew up on anime/JRPGs. My financial priorities begin and end at the $5 Welkin deal, though [and the battle pass if I think it's worth it], since 80% of my disposable income goes towards an original series I'm putting together. I guess that's three reasons, actually. Third being I'm putting together an anime/manga inspired endeavor that also has a sizeable female roster.

[@218kq]

I just play free-playing video games and never played paid games (games that makes you _have_ to spent any money), and for all of it genshin is the one who i enjoyed the most. And I've been playing it since it's released globally (with a month of burned) until now in the most recent update with zero money have been spent. I didn't much expect from it (since i didn't paid them whatsoever) and just accustomed myself to the game, and my interest had never been low. If you feel weak just grind more. If you feel exhausted just take a break or even leave. They didn't push anything to me and for everything they did gave to me, I'm really thankful for it. And one for my hope, since this game still had long story (or even lifetime), I'm kinda hoping that i could get along with it and finally looking back when i reached the finish after years have been spent. It would be great nostalgic.

[@superded6092]

Lets not get carried away now lmao, Genshin is a pretty good game but everyone should still treat gacha with open hostility. Let’s not forget how expensive and exploitative the gacha system is lol

[@TheHikariOne]

@@superded6092 I'll admit I left the original comment _before_ finding out the $99 option for 6480 Genesis Crystals isn't even enough to max out this game's pity system to guarantee you get the character you wanted.* You actually need to buy that _twice_ , and even then it's still not enough [81 pulls -- you need 90 for 100%]. I don't live paycheck to paycheck, but there's no way in hell I'd throw that kind of money at a videogame "microtransaction". That's over $200 to get a guaranteed 5☆, assuming you have the worst luck. I wouldn't say me getting into Genshin is an endorsement for the gacha genre [the whales can have that Crystal Top-Up shop]. Part of the reason I even gave it a shot was due to how lenient its gacha was, though, at least when compared to others like FGO, whose pity system is apparently so awful not even whales bother with it. *At 90 summons, you actually still only have a 50% chance to get a particular 5☆ unit -- it could be the advertised character or a random 5☆ you weren't aiming for. To absolutely guarantee you get a 5☆ you wanted, you actually need to summon _up to another 90 times again._ This applies to special banners only; standard banners always hand out random ☆5s and is probably why folks strongly suggest against pulling from them.

[@bendingbananas6540]

Wouldn't it be cool if we got all the characters through the story line similar to how we got amber, kaeya and lisa? And then instead we would be wishing for weapons and artifacts instead lol

[@rambohimongon8314]

That's an interesting take, but~ wishing for artifacts would probably cost more than a character when the artifact is already gacha hell in itself. Curse u def / hp rolls!

[@Popka_Drugs]

@@rambohimongon8314 it could be like stigmata on Honkai, where every piece have permanent stats

[@flutterin4595]

*and people who want to support the game would pay money for a lot of skins?

[@skit4950]

couldn't think of a way to make artifact farming worse but here it is :D

[@jinorism]

Early in the game, I legit thought I'd get characters after playing their story quests. When I didn't get klee from her quest, I was like 😲😲

[@meepmeeb]

I'm about 2 years late on this video, but wow, I've never seen anyone describe genshin in such an accurate way

[@bluebandit471]

A lot of reviewes of this game are "Gatcha bad, Genshin bad!". But you can tell that this guy gave the game fair shot and saw what people like about it. It's also very clear that after finishing Ayaka quest he sat one hour in front of his computer making calculation on how likely it is to get Ayaka as F2P and then just used them video - so he really had full Genshin expierience. In short - good job and great video. Also lack of end game is currently number one complain in community so hopefully Mihoyo will improve on this.

[@cmdrjanjalani]

Genshin is a live service and I think as long as they make gazillions, they will slowly unlock the story until the actual endgame. Based on their pace, it might be a few years for that. Their decision to have this playable as a mobile game in spite playing and looking like a full-fledged AAA title is not helping as well. I would say this is a great effort and the developers seems to care a lot about the game. There are a lot of gacha games which just uses a flimsy "plot" to justify their world but there is a very little effort to actually have an actual story. You can play through the main quests and most of the side content fine without paying actually. Of course there are a lot of manipulative ways the game will try to make you pay up to get waifus and cool weapons.

[@vetreas366]

Can someone please explain to me the "depth" of the plot in Genshin? Because it's about as deep as a kiddy pool. Have you people not read anything before? Books? Movies? Played better games? Which part of the plot is deep? Characters are one-note and archetypes of the most obvious kind and hilariously the plot is literally the same as Mario Bros. ffs! "Your brother/sister is in another castle" and it even has the same number of regions. We're at fucking Lightning World 3-2 right now and waiting for 3-3 to be released because "fuck you, can't have you actually make progress, sit down, buy some shit, we'll tell you when you're allowed to advance!" Where's the depth, could anyone point it out?

[@greenanon8588]

@@vetreas366 so you haven't played the game you are criticizing got it

[@linnen_elm]

@@vetreas366 you should look at their sister game hongkong impact, that shjt is on par with gintama, madoka, fate series, evangelion, etc it's one of those masterpieces. Gambling Impact show signs that it will become interconnected with it later on, that means, the two universe will merge together and if that were to happen then lots of things could be explained. Hongkong impact also starts with happy go lucky just like Gambling Impact, but then oh hell no, hell yes, roller coaster of emotions. I no longer played hongkong impact cuz of personal reason but i still following it from time to time just to get more on the lore!

[@jimjimson6208]

@@linnen_elm Gambling Impact lmao

[@antoniusbaseloy9236]

i like the idea about idealism, it's been a common theory that people enjoy video games because of the escapism of the real world. In game any problem has its own conclusion and way to solve the problem, most games doesn't involve politic or religion in the problematic world, you rarely worries about money inside the game, and simple stuff such as NPC thanking you or calling you hero actually means a lot for some people. Nice theory, you actually put a great in depth review.

[@chelronin7843]

Kind of a bit ironic cuz this game could have simply been a normal priced game for a full experience instead of a gacha system, really the deal breaker for me despite me getting some good hours of fun with genshin

[@BooelGaymes]

@@chelronin7843 but the gacha thing changes anything? like there's no wall that you can only pass with the gacha

[@chelronin7843]

@@BooelGaymes i guess im just salty that im broke and cant get the characters i want, i personally think that’s extremely anti-consumer friendly. I would rather pay for skins than to unlock a character, since many games, like league, that are free allow you to realistically grind for a specific character you want. Its not just chance

[@pumkinpatchwork]

@@chelronin7843 really? personally I much prefer this gacha model. I can’t spend money on games and this way I don’t need to- it’s just in game grinding I have to do and compared to many other games I played, oh man primos are SO much easier to get. it’s quite nice and characters will rerun anyways so even if I didn’t get a character I desired I can just save for them when they come back

[@fakhrimahendra4171]

@@chelronin7843 for me, i would not have been able to buy "normal priced" game. So i am thankful the whales funded the games, so i can play it for free

[@Pedro-yr8fl]

Like me and most FGO players say: love the story and characters! 10/10 would not recommend

[@mochii813]

You are 1000% correct

[@EnderHeart5911]

This makes too much sense

[@jimjimson6208]

FGO player here, I feel this one deep in bones. Literally my exact response when one of my friends who is a fan of Fate:Stay Night asked if he should pick up FGO. IMO you would get an extremely comparable amount of enjoyment by just watching a playthrough on youtube to actually playing the game. If we get a good anime adaptation of Cosmos in the Lostbelt, then I feel like there would be very little reason to actually play the game. At this point I only come back to FGO when a new story chapter drops and then go back to not opening it for months on end lol.

[@linnen_elm]

Shirou about to be hero of justice. Archer: Neat! love the story and characters! 10/10 would not recommend _LMAO ZEDONG_

[@GOLDHAJIKVONGOLA]

in the imortal word of a hero " thats hell you are walking into"

[@Pheonee]

A late comment, but I really enjoyed this video. I felt like it was a sincere and good-faith review of a game that's become quite contentious due to its sheer cultural dominance. Like all creative properties, Genshin has both flaws and merits, and it was nice to see you cover them both. Your framing of player dissatisfaction as "making a bad investment" was also very insightful and well-put. In a way, this video + the comments solidified my belief that "enjoying gacha games" is an actual skill that people need to develop, because gacha games (and other habit-forming or live-service games) are extremely good at making you not realise when you've stopped enjoying them. For me, once I gained an understanding of the systems at play (including the explicitly rigged artifact system), and post the slew of QOL updates and optimisations that have been added in the last year, I can now say that 18 months in, I still genuinely enjoy nearly 100% of the time I spend in this game every single day, even tedious grinds like farming artifact EXP in the overworld. An important part is realising just what Genshin is, and confirming internally that it's something I like: a slow-paced exploration game with gorgeous scenery, a character progression system that has almost nothing to do with the exploration but which I enjoy anyway because hehe my guys made a big funny number go up good, and combat that is relatively easy and balanced around medium-quality builds. And even when I inevitably lose interest in the game and stop playing, I will still have gotten hundreds (if not thousands by then) of hours of enjoyment out of it. Your comment about Genshin reinvesting the money it makes is also spot-on - since this video Hoyo has put out Honkai Star Rail and is about to put out Zenless Zone Zero, both games with Hoyo's signature polish and breakneck content cycle, but very different aesthetics and gameplay loops that will appeal to different audiences. A fun fact is also that Hoyo is famously one of the best workplaces in the gaming industry: they enforce reasonable work hours with little overtime and nearly no crunch, and pay TRIPLE the average salary compared to others in the industry. This on top of their surprisingly frequent philanthropic ventures which they do not publicise widely. The Genshin billions are 100% getting reinvested into the workers at the company, the game and its sister games, and even the wider community.

[@lumirairazbyte9697]

In terms of the Gatcha gaming space, I can compare Mihoyo with CDPR, and Netease or Nexon with EA. Many will find safe to play games from Mihoyo, understanding that they may promise to not double dip, neither making the experience more expensive and frustrating, or shutting down whatever they want…

[@PewPew_McPewster]

This is a impressively even-handed review of Genshin Impact, especially so when coming from someone who is so adamantly against gacha. I honestly began in your position too, I'm not a fan of gacha, especially after playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2- a microtransaction-free gacha game, but I was deeply impressed by the campaign of this game and how it's been balanced to be cleared by F2P units. I do think this is a game in 2 parts. One part is an excellent open world game with a plot that has fun combat, profound environmental puzzles in a staggering density and beautiful vistas; and the other is a timegated gacha grind. The former is leagues better than the latter and I recommend everyone this game with this single caveat. In a world where both Western and Eastern game devs are trying to turn videogames into a predatory, microtransaction-riddled live service, it's nice to see a gacha trying to actually be a goddamn game for once despite all its own predatory microtransactional live service practices.

[@planetary-rendez-vous]

The irony is that you make your life harder by leveling up due to the limited resources but everything encourages you to do so.

[@ratska96]

Honestly the main thing I hate about gatcha games is stamina and the timed events. I very much like to play my games all at one time and then not touch them for months but they really don't allow that. They make you come back every day to do just a little bit of playing or do events on a schedule they decide which is really not how I like to play games

[@zaidanhakim4974]

I know that feelings. I have played 3 gacha games from fb ads (which completely utter shit). The thing is, it's a new game and it's very tight people competing to be the best player in the server, or even in the game. The early events are the best part where it's the peak of the competition (let alone p2w player), I literally can't close the game because of the events and how much i have to do. Eventually, the game died in less 2 months because the game getting repetitive and the playerbase got bored. It's a fun experience playing new games and learn the systems while competing at the same time. The cons, it has no fun gameplay, everything sucks. But the events are why I adore them lol

[@mordecai8707]

Yeah, I really hate how quickly and often they do time limited events. It feels like you can't drop the game for a breather, just back to back FOMO.

[@MrCmon113]

>all at one time and then not touch them for months You're not even remotely close to the target audience, lol.

[@seraaron]

This was a really well thought-out critique, and I think it's really interesting how you went in convinced you would hate it, and came out trying to justify the gatcha system in small ways. I think you're point about it being free to play, making it accessible, is a really key point that I'd never considered before. I do wish that certain aspects weren't so predatory though, and you're 100% right about how they frame certain scenes with characters to make you want to pull for them and maybe spend money.

[@bakakaoru12]

"how they frame certain scenes with characters to make you want to pull for them and maybe spend money" now, friend, this is actually a marketing plan.

[@officialpaimon3176]

@@bakakaoru12 booba sword

[@bakakaoru12]

@@officialpaimon3176 yes, the true sublime art.

[@jadecoolness101]

I like that there's a pity guarantee system. After 90 pulls (or whenever a 5 star comes up) you get a 50/50 chance of the featured 5 star, and after another 90 pulls (or whenever a 5 star comes up) you have a guarantee to get the featured 5 star. My only issue is that permanent 5 stars cannot be gotten through pity in this manner.

[@OneRadicalDreamer]

It's honestly shocking how more people don't critique gacha itself, I don't think it's justifiable in anyway to spend over $100 to unlock a character, nevermind multiplying that several times over in order to unlock their skills.

[@padowo]

This video has been a godsend. Funnily enough I was similar in that I refused to play it for a long while because of the gacha, but my reasoning was that I am aware that I am a vulnerable person. I have a very addictive personality and I already have a gacha game I play (responsibly now but not before) and I didn't want another one. I started playing Genshin 7 months ago and loved it, but as of recently I was getting overwhelmed. Logging in everyday was one thing, but I felt like I had to do teambuilding and pay attention to the meta constantly now that I'm basically endgame. I have a daily schedule and building plans and plans for banners to wish on etc etc. It's a lot to stay on top of. I've spent quite an amount on the game, as expected. If there's a character I want I will get them and their signature weapon but no constellations. This video made me appreciate why I got those characters in the first place. I just like them and I feel like my appreciation for that aspect has been renewed. Thank you.

[@ruifenghuang1029]

Kind of a cup half empty half full thing. The character you chose to pull is limited so it is important to appreciate them. However, you will miss out on many other characters by choosing this one. Half full is nice, plus Genshin is not only about the character

[@eiarsan]

I feel like music plays a big part of setting the atmosphere in this game and they did it perfectly. Like what you see and what you hear are perfectly synergized.

[@joebanana8006]

NEVER LEETT YOU GOOO-

[@Lucielain]

ITS WHY I DID THEM ALLL~~

[@kieranki]

FOOOOR A CHANCE AT LEAST

[@thecherryblossompie]

Something I tell all my friends about the game that I love is that it is one of the few games of its caliber that does not paywall its content. You may not get every character you want, but you can absolutely play the game completely free and enjoy a boatload of free content. While I’ve spent some money in genshin because I want to, I’ve never felt like the game forces me to pay. Additionally, my favorite part of genshin actually is the story, including all the little side quests and fleshed out npcs. Rather than unnecessary, I see these side stories as adding so much more life and character to the world.

[@krankarvolund7771]

So the most profitable game of its kind don't hide anything behind a paywall... Maybe paywall does not work and just disgust players before they can get hooked ^^

[@someguynamedtom9873]

I only buy welkin to speed up getting characters but that’s it The game gives you a lot

[@fellipepessoa1685]

Characters are content and they are behind a paywall

[@99toyotacorolla]

@@fellipepessoa1685 They're not. They're locked behind gacha luck and RNG. It's the player's choice whether or not to pay money for them. Other than that, they're all free. It's the gacha system that drives people to spend cash

[@thathollyplant]

@@fellipepessoa1685 you can get any character free if you grind so technically no

[@DistantKingdom]

i shared the same reservations as you with genshin and haven't looked at it since... until this video. im alot more compelled to check it out now, looks fun! and the gacha system doesn't seem nearly as intrusive as other gacha's ive played in the past

[@johns783]

it's bloody fantastic. that said the gacha is horrible and you will not get much currency as an f2p or even a low-paying player (there are some very reasonable monthly passes). So the gacha element is there to give you a few good items/characters a long the way, and to draw in the whales to spend infinite $$ because it literally would cost as much as a decent house to have every weapon and character in this game built completely.

[@raphu2272]

@@johns783 Besides, don't be a cheapskate. The game is completely free. There is no conceiveable argument to be made that the game is unfair or anything in that category when 1) You aren't supporting the company whatsoever and 2) Demand more while doing 1). The game is very manageable by at least spending some for the Battlepass and the daily primos. Or even spending a little bit of money every few patches to make up for the remaining primos needed to roll for pity. That's the whole point. The company has to live off of something too, considering the games completely free to play lmao

[@Tenchua917]

This gacha game has a pity system that most gacha games don't, that's already a plus

[@Virjhin-4ever]

Just don't get addicted or you won't get out of the gacha hell

[@crazycats08]

Try it. That's the beauty of free to play games. Play it for the exploration and stories. If you don't like the game after it's first 5 hours, just uninstall it. No need to refund or storming the dev site if you feel disappointed on the game. But if you do like it, I just want to say that this game is probably the best single player/coop experience out there that you can get for free, and probably outclassing some paid AAA single player games out there, so yeah spending on Welkin/battle pass is good enough appreciation for the devs. Just make sure you manage your resource (both in game and in real life) responsibly. I hope you enjoy the game

[@imacatinasock3074]

The last part is a really good conclusion on Genshin Impact. You've summarized each pros and cons in the game while still giving room for the viewers to think. Been a long time since I've watched a long video essay on a game, but that may be because I'm a Genshin player myself

[@Second_UNIT]

Ngl, I played genshin while listening to this I'm aware of the criticism, and I have my own of it, but I figure it's interesting enough and the story and the character design is nice enough to feel like I'm okay with my casual experience with it. I primarily enjoy it for the character backstories and for my own interactions with them in the world. I'm waiting for one or two characters and making teams out of them, regardless of how well they synergize because I just love those characters specifically

[@yanfei7782]

I just want to start the game over without having to delete my PSN account.

[@zeinner237]

@@yanfei7782 then create a new one, like create a different account on ps4 and make a different psn account for your 2 accoubt

[@yanfei7782]

@@zeinner237 I still need online capabilities to play, I did create another account but that one can't go online.

[@kekku2104]

@@yanfei7782 you don’t have to play genshin impact with ps online/love you can play it without

[@yanfei7782]

@@kekku2104 Then why does it say that it can't log in when I try?

[@aloysiuschong8891]

Instead of talking about my own long personal experiences with Genshin and even though I rarely comment on videos, I'd like to congratulate you for presenting your take in such a thoughtful way. Your ability to integrate references from gaming meta culture into your anecdotes while still maintaining a comedic, sometimes sarcastic tone, demonstrates your talent as a writer. While other creators stand out from being over the top, you remain unique because of your intelligent presentation and well thought out arguments, all of which (to me) causes me to have a huge amount of respect for you. Thanks!

[@mindfulselfindulgence]

I love the ‘Escape’ section, because the use of nostalgia is very interesting. The idyllic and carefree atmosphere you describe is akin to how a child may see the world. It’s free of cynicism and unabashed and uncompromising in its beauty in a way that is not interesting nor inspiring, but comforting in a satisfying, if ultimately juvenile way. But it’s because it is juvenile that it can evoke these specific feelings. Feelings which I believe aren’t higher than more ‘mature’ wonders as we make them out to be, but feelings missing from many’s human experience nonetheless. Edit: Specifically the world design itself. The monetization model, as is mentioned in the video, is antithetical to that.

[@uwu.-.5873]

100% agree fk i miss being a kid

[@mindfulselfindulgence]

@@uwu.-.5873 I am of the belief that what people describe as ‘seeing as a child does’ is only a matter of simplicity and love. It’s difficult when the primary accomplishment of life experience is to build an aversion to risks alongside a wealth of memories that reinforce it. But it can be done. The world is cold and meaningless and empty on its own, we are the ones that tell ourselves what it all means. And that can be anything. I just hope we can take back the freedoms we once had, instead of needing to fight tooth and nail for a breath of them.

[@marocat4749]

Agree its thought provoking and poignant with relatability to social, that th world is not a nice place, its the best place we have, but not nice. And agree the world can be as meaningless and make no sense , we are the ones gicing it out meaning and find it, you might wanna say, explore it,.

[@Bunn77]

I especially love when he was talking about the music. There are songs that just take my heart and fly with it. I can’t help it when I hear “loners departure” when exploring the mountains in Liyue, and “mondstat starlit” at night when the piano comes in it just hits me like a truck. It’s bliss and I feel like I’m really on the adventure of my life

[@JJ-ze6vb]

Sadly, this video ended up playing down the predatory systems in place in this game. We need to ban all content that is gambling related from games that are clearly marketed to kids and young adults.

[@baboin1851]

I would pay 50 dollars for a game like genshin impact but without the gacha part. Instead replacing it with a system of unlocking charecters by building a level of bond with them. Weapon grinding. Spend time. Artifact grinding spend time. Please one game that does that.

[@zexumus4064]

Make it so it go off of character story’s a 4 star character story short but progresses their personal plot 5 star character starts larger than already and have changes to the world (on the last) with 7 character story’s for each character weapon and artifact just grind but less than normal and 5 stars are easier and not gacha based

[@daniellin1726]

This becomes a project management problem at its core: Who can you rally to join in your cause? How can you balance your budget? Where would your initial investment come from? How will you market yourself... Most import of these all is: Will ‘you’ make it happen? To us who are neither game developers, nor anyone remotely associated to the gaming industry we are at the mercy of those who do. People who took to themselves into trekking in this murky water. The gaming industry is unforgiving. It is natural that the powerful (in this case successful, profitable) lives to be even noticeable to us. We can only make the wish for a ‘pure’ game that is spiritually fulfilling and void of ulterior motives of the dirty, dirty reality. Meanwhile, those people fights, struggles and maybe emerge in our consciousness, maybe lost to history. On a less morbid note, there is certainly games like that! Well, similar that is. But again, video games are seldom perfect. The people who make them have very real limitations. Though my closest feeling of this ‘idyllicism’ is probably in TTRPG. Especially TTRPG under the GLOG philosophy. Sadly without the glory of computer graphics, but it is a worthy sacrifice, for me.

[@baboin1851]

@@daniellin1726 I agree, but I fear with how successful genshin is. This might become the norm. This is why I want to get to the top. I may forget the problem when I arrive there. But at least I will die without regrets of not trying to prevent it.

[@daniellin1726]

@@baboin1851 Donno what you're up to but go break a leg and eat that horse. Just don't ever forget that no matter how despicable it can become, finance is always and will be an intrinsic part of any project.

[@swordz828]

A few games I could recommend, although I might seem like a FromSoft simp, Bloodborne and Elden Ring are damned amazing, my favorite games of all time, and for good reason in my opinion. They are humongous open worlds, and although quite difficult, it’s also extremely fun and explorable, any of the souls games, except Dark Souls II which has a crap story, are worth playing, large open worlds, and amazing stories, boss fights, many different builds, multiplayer functions that are completely original and unprecedented in some natures, and a combat system that is challengingly enjoyable all give way too an amazing gaming experience.

[@bruh-hr1mt]

Honestly I just treat gacha like testing a restaurant: there's a max limit you'd spend on a meal (a character in this scenario) and you know full well there's no return for your money and you might just get poisoned too. Still, eating new foods is enjoyable and I find it worth the money, both as in food and as in characters. Yeah, over time, you spend a shitton of money on food, but that leads to you finding new places and foods you enjoy. Still don't think you should pay anything more than a Welkin and BP though, and that's coming from someone who has been playing since day 1.

[@Artsyballoons]

Yup. Welkin is all I purchased and I don't even touch BP. And I'm still enjoying all the awesome characters and game

[@GraveUypo]

i think bp is kinda stretching already. it's kinda expensive. i say get that once or twice for a weapon you want and never again. it's what i did. and to be fair i did the BEST farm you can for this game: i took a quick freelance job i normally wouldn't to pay for a year's worth of welkin's. few hours of "grind" irl for a whole year of that daily primo goodness, guilty-free. i just did it again last month. and i don't really needed to do it, my normal income would be enough for me to easily whale if i wanted. i just can't bring myself to value virtual goods over real money, so i needed to get money SPECIFICALLY for the game so i don't feel it's being wasted.

[@Artsyballoons]

@@GraveUypo yeah. BP is not worth it in my opinion too. Welkin Is perfect.

[@sagwan6991]

Just say what it is. Just replace the word restaurant with casino and you're done.

[@joobtheboob]

I agree fully, my advice to f2ps who want to spend spare change on the game is simple. If your bp is level 50 then buy that shit because it is absolutely worth it.

[@yubinator7455]

That "idyllicism" is just a sugarcoat to the dark lores of the game. Mihoyo is known for having dark stories/lores and everything is tragic in this idyllic looking world. The more you know, the sadder you get.

[@nabieladrian]

THIS is also one of the investment.

[@Blazer6464]

Oh, you mean like Childish Jiang? Or Timmie still waiting for his dad? Or maybe even the _entire region of Inazuma?_

[@JasHendrix]

@@Blazer6464 In waiting for our first major character death... it's coming.

[@Fernsyn]

@@JasHendrix Definitely coming VERY soon. As a honkai player I knew the lore was about to go deep after doing Dainsleif’s quest.

[@JasHendrix]

@@Fernsyn oh I know, I'm a day one Honkai JP player and switched to GL on launch. The flags are everywhere, but I'm not gonna say who I think it is just yet.

[@Kaeresh]

This video when it came out made me change my mind on this game, as I went from starkly against it to allowing myself be somewhat open to it. By then my kid already played it and had made several attempts to get me involved. Life getting in the way delayed things for this to happen until very recently and I've now spent about a week in the game and I am loving it. Having a large and immersive game that is this complex is a great topic for me and my kid to bond over and we've spent several evenings together exploring the area's I've not been to yet, even area's they've not been to yet by now. Now that I'm actively playing this game, I came back to this video to watch it again only to realise I should've started this journey sooner. Still, I am very happy that I am, in fact, on this journey right now and I have you to thank for it. At least, for a large part. So thank you.

[@JeiHS]

you living everyone's dream. I have not been so genuinely jealous over something like this

[@zylaaeria2627]

Despite it's flaws, I think Genshin Impact will go down for me as one of the best games I have ever played. Surprised you didn't rip apart the weapon banner. I was waiting for that lmao.

[@zylaaeria2627]

@QueenJuliRose The irony is that I have. Genshin actually reminded me of my first time playing Skyrim. Find it more engaging that Skyrim in my opinion, but Skyrim will always hold a special place for me. I personally don't like most AAA titles though. I tend to stay away from them. I stick to PC gaming. I take recommendations though. I need to finish Control & Nier...

[@speeddemonji9547]

Taking recommendations? well, what have you played?

[@pilotomarcos610]

i think you dint played alot of games.......

[@koolaidmansam8yearsago273]

@@pilotomarcos610 ikr

[@KDGamma]

@Shanks I actually think you can compare Skyrim and genshin. Like Skyrim, genshin has an open world that you can easily get caught up in while exploring. Genshin can also leave you breathless, as that's how I felt when I reached the top of Dragonspine. They are both games about exploring a fantastical world, and just because genshin has greedy monetization practices doesn't change that.

[@yourlocalweirdo8810]

The best genshin critique I’ve seen so far. You’ve clearly put a lot of work into this video, and it’s absolutely amazing to watch (plus, your voice is very pleasant to listen to). You just gained a sub :)

[@JayTohab]

Unexpected! This is such a perfect breakdown of gacha "culture", both its positives and negatives. Thank you for contributing to the discussion.

[@enthusiastofcute]

Yeah, it’s weird that some people treat gacha like it’s something completely new/different

[@templarkid.]

This. Effing amazing review.

[@Peasant_of_Pontus]

Talking about positives of gatcha is like talking about the positives of recreational heroin use.

[@papasscooperiaworker3649]

@@Peasant_of_Pontus and that means??

[@sivvinod3187]

@@Peasant_of_Pontus explain.

[@ashenarrows579]

Why i love genshin is that it's one of the only large scale games that can be enjoyed without spending a single penny. I have alot of trauma regarding spending money and it has always been an issue of mine when playing even the simplest games just to be met by a pay wall. Genshin offers you alot more than most games for no money spent and that's probably why it's so popular.

[@userlpI13645]

The bit about Bennett is so sweet. It's so weird how we treat a loot box reward as a real person when they are given a face and name. It's like those unique talking guns from Borderlands which might be useless after some level-ups but you cant stop loving them. Bennett needs an epic backstory after this video blows up!!

[@boo9781]

but he has one... has nobody really read how he got his vision? its really epic and it shows his love for adventures so well, its really good in my opinion

[@userlpI13645]

@@boo9781 didn't know that. I'm not a genshin player tbh

[@BingQilin]

ikr we even say "X came home" when we pull the character we wanted

[@Ben-vg6ox]

Theres a thing called story-telling. Why do you think people get so passionate about fictional characters? Why do u think a million people signed a petition to have season 8 of Game of thrones re-written?

[@madmantheepic7278]

@@userlpI13645 Bennett's backstory is unique, he is the epiphany of the light at the end of a tunnel, he always gets back up no matter how unlucky he is... and trust me he is extremely unlucky.