Over the COVID-19 pandemic, Mihoyo released an open-world RPG game, Genshin Impact. The game was released on September 28th, 2020, with a pre-registration period starting from mid-August. With its incredible visual and sound designs, the game has proven itself worthy of the praise it receives. 

Watatsumi Island, one of the two new islands in Genshin Impact.

Because it is an open-world RPG game, Genshin Impact is filled with content relating to exploration. Players can explore the fictional world of Teyvat through the perspective of Aether (the male main character) or Lumine (the female main character). The game also incorporates Asian “gacha” elements by producing new limited-time characters that players can obtain at random. This is how the free game earns its money–by producing attractive and fun-to-play characters that incentivize people to spend money on them.

The game’s detailed storytelling makes it one of the most culturally representative open-world RPGs on the market. The storyline of Genshin Impact revolves around the fictional world of Teyvat, with each of its nations representing a different country or region in the real world. It’s clear that the plotline was carefully developed through intensive research of nations such as Germany, China, and Japan.

The game’s visual effects truly set it apart. Genshin Impact has mastered landscaping; none of the regions ever felt inorganic or calculated. There are no regions that ever felt plain or boring; the color choices of regions like Liyue and Inazuma are especially bold, with the former incorporating bold shades of yellow, the latter painted in a soft emerald green or blue.

Mondstadt, where the storyline of Genshin Impact begins.

Genshin Impact especially excels in its music. The music from its cutscenes, boss battles, world exploration, all help immerse the player in the world of Genshin. The game’s music director, Yu-peng Chen, excels in drawing out players’ emotions with combinations such as electric guitar and traditional Chinese instruments such as the erhu. 

Genshin Impact, however, is not without its flaws. An often frustrating problem is that the chance of getting your favorite limited character is extremely low, and once you run out of in-game currency, you’re more likely to spend money. In some situations, it’s likely you’ll get a rare character, but it’s often the wrong one.

Additionally, there isn’t much to do after finishing the latest update to the main storyline and side events; you can only wait for the next update. Not only that, leveling itself is very problematic, as there are many layers of luck needed to get exactly the item you want. For example, if you want to maximize your characters’ damage output–you need to participate in battles. Even then, players are not guaranteed the item they want, which leads to them having to tediously repeat the farming process again and again just to get something close to what they want.

But nevertheless, Genshin Impact is an excellent game, as it is highly addictive and enjoyable. The game isn’t perfect, but it by far outcompetes similar RPG, gacha, and open-world games. As of right now, the game is less than halfway finished–meaning there’s definitely more to come and more to expect out of Mihoyo and their developers. With that being said, Genshin Impact is a well-produced game that is deserving of all its success.