Back when Genshin Impact was first announced last year, this lush open-world adventure bore some key similarities to Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Now, over a year on, Genshin Impact still hasn’t shaken those comparisons, but since the release of 1.0 last week it’s clear it’s so much more than a free-to-play clone of Nintendo’s finest. That’s evident from the numbers alone: Genshin Impact is now the “biggest global launch of a Chinese game ever”, and is currently on track to gross more than $100 Million in its first month alone.
Genshin ImpactDeveloper: MiHoYoPublisher: MiHoYoPlatform: Played on PS4Availability: Out now on PC, PS4 and Android/iOS
Developer MiHoYo is no stranger to technically impressive free-to-play mobile titles, with a decent pedigree with titles like Honkai Impact 3rd, another action-focused game with gorgeous graphics, locked to mobile devices. Of course, how a company is able to put out high-budget games for free is that they rely on you spending money on in-game currency to get a lootbox for items and characters in the game. We’ve even seen Nintendo pull out their own “gacha” games in the form of Dragalia Lost and Fire Emblem: Heroes, but there’s something different about Genshin Impact. Instead of having a lower budget game locked to mobile devices, MiHoYo has thrown a $100 Million budget at it, and come out with a fully-fledged AAA open-world RPG that’s on console as well as mobile.
Genshin Impact – Launch Trailer | PS4 Watch on YouTube
Ostensibly, Genshin Impact is an open-world character action game where you play as “the traveller”, sent to the world of Teyvat after a brief fight with a mysterious god of some kind alongside your twin of an opposite gender, which you can select. You’re very slowly lulled into Teyvat with the cute but ever-so-slightly Grating Paimon, who serves as your Navi-style guide through the world. Soon after, you meet Amber, an archer for the local town who joins your party, and introduces you to the city of Montstadt, which serves as your base for the early hours of the game.
The prologue and plot in the early-hours of Genshin Impact aren’t anything spectacular, but that’s not really the point. Soon after you’ll get access to two more characters, so you are running around the world with a full party of four. Exploration is compelling, with your characters gliding, climbing and slashing their way through the world – which is where the comparisons to Breath of the Wild come from. While the game clearly takes notes from Nintendo’s smash-hit from 2017, it feels more like an evolution of the groundwork of Breath of the Wild than a simple clone.
Genshin Impact’s greatest trick is how it rewards exploration. Whereas Breath of the Wild’s Koroks may have not done a significant amount for you, Genshin Impact’s equivalent, the Anemoculus and Geoculus give you meaningful rewards in addition to upgrading your stamina. You’re able to gain important rewards for following them, which link into other systems embedded in Genshin Impact. You’re able to spend your rewards back in town, where you can use them for upgrade materials, money and more. Genshin Impact forces you to engage with its myriad mechanics like this, and it’s looking like you’ll definitely need them if you want to advance through its later levels.