The thinkings/opinions of a bizarre, quiet girl: EXPOSURES (PS4) -- Genshin Impact

Since it launched the night of September 27th, I have been playing Genshin Impact for hours each day... going into the late hours of 2-3 AM. I was never sleepy when I played, but I definitely felt it the next morning.

'Cuz of Genshin Impact, I can safely say that I am a certifiable zombie. (f',,,')f

Genshin Impact

Playtime Length (so far): 3-5+ hours each day since launch
Platform Played on: PS4

Also Available on: Mobile, PC, maybe Switch in the future
Language: English (Some text are voiced in Japanese). Other languages are available.
Type of Game: Gacha, Open-world, MMO-like, RPG, item / material gatherer's paradise
Game-specific Details: I'm currently Adventurer Rank 17, doing my daily quests and using up my resin each day while getting sidetracked by the scenery. Also trying to get farther in the story, but... well... it's a bit slow-going, haha.. orz

WHAT I LOVE

What can I say that hasn't already been said? It's a solid game. For a free-to-play game (with gacha elements), there is so much I love about it. Let's go over them:

-The Graphics: One word -- gorgeous. So gorgeous that I had to mention it. On to the next thing, lol.

A shot of my character gliding. I love the way the moonlight shines on those wings.

Beautiful view of the waters. Thanks to Tectone's YouTube video for showing me this spot.

-Open-World Exploration: One aspect that I love about the world exploration in Genshin Impact, is that your character can climb almost anything (given you have enough stamina to get to the top). This allowed me to let my free-roaming-in-video-games spirit go wild. It feels pretty liberating. Small-to-medium-sized walls / obstacles can't stop me now! :D

When there's not much music and you're exploring the world, it makes for some great ASMR.

-Treasure chests / Secrets / Puzzles about: On top of loving the open-world exploration, I also love how Genshin Impact rewards you for exploring. There are treasure chests strewn about in the world, some in obvious places, others in the strangest nooks and crannies. Many NPCs can also give items so it's encouraged to talk to them. That's a big plus for me since I usually try talking to all NPCs anyway.

On top of all that, there are puzzles and not-so-obvious instances / challenges all over the world (I've only seen one challenge so far but I'm sure there would be more). I just really enjoy playing games that have secrets like this.

-Fairly Unique Battle Mechanics: I'll just say upfront that I'm really bad at the battle mechanics, but I can't deny that it's unique. You can fast-switch between up to 4 different characters to fight. Each character represents one of the 7 elements. The general goal is to fast-switch between characters to slap two different elements onto an enemy to cause an elemental combo. Thing is each combo does something slightly different so you can try strategizing what combos to do. With characters having a slightly different fight style and special ability, it's possible to have a lot of variety when fighting, which is really nice.

THE CO-OP (FROM WHAT I EXPERIENCED)

Let me first explain how co-op works.

Co-op gets unlocked when you reach Adventurer Rank 16. You may also need to do some sidequests, but I'm not 100% sure. When I unlocked Co-op I had finished some of the sidequests already. Now, when doing co-op, there is a World Rank to consider. You can't visit another person's world rank if they are higher than yours. BUT, the person with the higher world rank can visit your world. I'm guessing it's like that to make sure those in the lower world rank don't progress too fast, since supposedly better loot is present in higher world ranks.

I've tried co-op a couple times now, and it was very enjoyable. Once you visit somebody's world or somebody visits your world, you can do many things. You can fight any baddies that are out in the world or you can just laze about, too, if you want to. You can also gather resources. You can also do some instance called Domains, but I haven't tried that yet. I had read that you can't co-op in dungeons, but I haven't tried so I can't confirm this.

When doing co-op, I strongly recommend either voice-chatting or having some kind of messaging system in place outside of the game when communicating. Genshin Impact does its own messaging system for co-op, but I find it too much of a hassle to first open the chat window, press a button to indicate I'm going to start inputting a message, then press another button to send the message through (please remember that I'm playing Genshin Impact on the PS4). I guess playing FFXIV really spoiled me in terms of a messaging system (navigate to the chat box, type the message on my keyboard, press the Enter key to send the message through).

I do have a couple qualms with the co-op system, but I'll list them in the next section.

MY NITPICKS

Genshin Impact is a really great game, but I do have some minor beefs with it. I wouldn't say they are game breakers, but I acknowledge them. Without further ado...

-Lack of Game Explanations: This might be prevalent in gacha games in general (it has been for pretty much all the gacha games I've played except for maybe SMT Dx2), but there are times where certain features aren't explained, so you end up having to look for the information yourself.

For example, I didn't know anything about resin (the moon energy on the top right corner when you look at your map) until I watched a YouTube video explaining it (then I get a short explanation about resin when I reached the next Adventurer Rank).

I didn't know anything about co-op being limited to your world rank or less. A friend with a higher world rank had to explain it to me.

Even now, I have no idea how to actually take a selfie when in Camera mode, aside from saving a screenshot with my PS4.

I also have no idea how to access all the in-game explanations that have popped up. Can they be accessed again after seeing it for the first time?

I guess after playing the game long enough, the mechanics and everything would start feeling like second nature. To the uninitiated, though, it could be a stumbly learning curve.

-All the Different Currencies: Just thinking about the different currencies give me a slight headache. Maybe there is a bigger reason behind it, but when the gacha system (called Wish) was unlocked and I had a look at each banner and the shop and all I thought was 'Why? Why are there so many different currencies??' Maybe I'll think differently in the future, but for now I'm just baffled.

If you want to know if I think buying the currency is worth it, I cover it in my next section.

An infographic of the many currencies in Genshin Impact.

It came from this Reddit post here (you can enlarge that graphic for more detail):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/j3lnoz/made_a_currency_guide_infographic/

-Finicky Friend System: So I couldn't add a couple friends to my friends list, even though I had the right UID. Other friends I could send the request right away. I've come to the theory that for PS4 players, you have to be friends on PSN in order to show up on each other's friend lists. If I am wrong, somebody please correct me!

-Co-op Request Prompt Lasting too Short: I guess this was done to make sure the player requesting the co-op didn't end up just waiting, but I find it can be way too easy to miss a request. I was doing co-op last night and I was text messaging my co-op buddy on my phone and then I looked at the TV to find I had 2 seconds left to accept a request. Being a slow reactor, the request expired. I didn't even know if it was a friend who requested to join my world or not.

Maybe instead of making the request prompt longer, have a notification sound play when somebody requests to join. If there already is one, make it louder.

-Some Dialogue Points That Don't Seem to Go Anywhere: Maybe these dialogue conversations will go somewhere later in the game, but for now, there are some dialogue conversations with some NPCs that don't feel they lead anywhere. Like, one NPC would talk about another NPC, so I find that NPC, talk with them, sit next to them... then I go back to the original NPC and the dialogue doesn't change. Not even an acknowledgement that I did something because of the previous information they gave me.

I know it's really minor, but experiencing that can kinda break the immersion for me sometimes.

-Not Being Able to Pet Cats / Dogs or Pick Up Small Animals in the Game: Make it happen, please! Otherwise I become a mass murderer of small video game animals u___u

The first small animal I saw. I wanted to see if I could pick it up. When I realized I couldn't,

I wondered if anything would happen if I attacked it...

this was my first animal kill... and sadly not the last... u___u

GACHA CURRENCY WORTH IT?

So I did a couple calculations to see if it was worth buying Genesis Crystals, the gacha currency. This only applies to Canada since Genesis Crystals can cost differently in other regions.

Compared to other gacha games, I'd say it's not bad. Buying the most expensive bundle (6480 Genesis Crystals plus 6480 bonus for $133.49 CAD) calculates to about $1.65 per wish, which is much cheaper. The best value, though, is the $6.99 CAD monthly (300 Genesis Crystals instantly while receiving 30 Primogems for 30 days), which calculates to about $0.38 per wish -- assuming that you do login everyday for 30 days and can wait.

Now... are the gacha rates good? Well... there is a pity system in place where if you roll enough times you will be guaranteed a featured character or weapon. Otherwise, it really is up to RNG to determined if you are blessed or not. In other words, I heard that gacha rates were abysmal.

Now... is gacha necessary to enjoy or progress Genshin Impact? No, not at all. You get some characters for free when playing through the story, and so far I find them sufficient. I've done a couple Beginner's Wish 10-rolls that guarantee a character per 10-roll and I'm still mainly using the free characters.

CONCLUSION

All-in-all, I'm enjoying Genshin Impact very muchly. I strongly recommend that anybody curious should try it out. As long as you can resist the gacha (though you will be able to gain some primogems to try the gacha over the course of the game), it is free-to-play. You got nothing to lose, but everything to gain from this... breath of fresh air game :)

Thanks for reading my blog! Feel free to comment on / ask about anything. Though please keep in mind that I may not have the answers if they are questions about Genshin Impact. ^^'

I HAVE TO NOTE THIS: I am aware that my screenshots and videos reveal my UID. I'm just gonna make a blanket statement that unless I know you personally, or unless you tell me your UID (send it through the contact form if you want to stay private -- if you're a PS4 player, though, I'm sorry, I'm not comfortable adding unknown PSNs to my friends list), any friend requests will be rejected, I'm sorry. Whatever time I got to spare for co-op, I'd like to prioritize doing so with my family and friends. Some are a little uncomfortable playing with unknowns so I gotta take that into consideration, too. I hope you understand. *bows*

I actually still have some screenshots and videos to share so I'll add some scrolly things in case you don't want to see them. I wouldn't call them spoilers, but for those wanting to play the game completely blind, it could be.

Fingers crossed that me playing Genshin Impact won't affect my blogging like when I got sucked into playing FFXIV.

Take care, and until next time! :)

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MISC SCREENSHOTS / VIDEOS

Here are some screenshots and videos I took from Genshin Impact. I was planning on sprinkling these throughout my blog, but thought they could be a little spoilery if you wanted to experience everything firsthand.