Online game "Genshin Impact"

Genshin Impact is one of the major gaming phenomena of recent years. While experts and fans of Honkai Impact 3rd (the developers' previous project) knew about the preparation of the new hit, the release of the hitherto unknown game had a bombshell effect on a wider audience. It became the most successful international launch in the history of the Chinese industry, bringing the authors only on the mobile version of more than 60 million dollars in the first week (and for 2 months almost 400 !!!). Genshin Impact overtook perennial leader Fortnite in the number of views on Twitch (over 110,000 people). As a result it was announced as the game of the year 2020 by Google Play and Apple, and it was nominated in several categories at The Game Awards the same year. Today Genshin Impact is available on PC and mobile platforms, uses the trendy gacha model (details below) and is still extremely popular. Let's look into the reasons behind this phenomenon.

The success of Genshin Impact is based on three components - beauty, anime, and the game formula from the already iconic The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Well, everything is clear with the beauty. Just look at the trailers, streamers, and screenshots to see the obvious - this is one of the most beautiful games you've seen. You want to get from your ordinary life to this bright lush world full of forests, fields and rivers, flowers, different animals, spectacular architecture and sunshine.

And beautiful characters, it should be noted. The game has a bright anime style, so it's full of flashy looking and flashy, fashionably dressed (or half-dressed) girls and guys. What's to hide, it's the presence of lots of pretty-eyed girls in fishnet outfits and stockings that is one of the secrets of the game's popularity. There are far fewer guys, but they also have their own groupies among the girl gamers.

In fact, many originally called Genshin Impact such an anime variation of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The authors have based it on the same principle of free and interested exploration of the large open world, in which adventures are waiting at every step. The adventures mean not only battles, but also solving puzzles, which, among other things, are based on the physics of interaction with the interactive environment and with the various elements. Only the main characters in Genshin Impact are a squad of anime girls and boys, not the lonely Link.

The comparison with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is generally correct, although, of course, there are plenty of differences. In addition to exploring the world, Genshin Impact has its own unique plot. A girl and a boy, brother and sister, find themselves in a completely new, unfamiliar world called Teyvat, which is ruled by archons (lords) of the various elements. As fate willed, they are separated, we choose which one of them we will play for, and go in search of our little brother (or sister).

This journey will be very long, you could say epic. We perform story tasks and meet new colorful characters in one region, achieve certain successes - and we are invited to explore a new territory or take on a new story quest. You can try to go to another region before, but the enemies there will be much higher level. So it's really important to reach a certain rank of adventure - that's what many story missions are limited to. And the rank increases by actively exploring the world, finding secrets, completing a variety of quests, activities and so on.

So the authors force us to explore every corner of the Taivat and look for new adventures. And there really are a lot of them. Full of the usual daily and side quests about "fetch or find, kill so-and-so," but even they are often very interesting. For example, you can meet a scientist who will first ask you to find and write down runes from five tablets in the area, then send you for more records, and in the end all this will not only bring us the usual rewards, but also reveal new information about the world. Or we might accidentally run into two strange people discussing doing some kind of experiment - and it turns out that they're trying to find the perfect way to learn how to cook, so they send us into the kitchen to experiment.

Virtually every side quest (except for the daily routine missions) has its own interesting story and introduces new, often funny characters. They will send you to the mountains to find out what strange ice appeared there, then an extremely cute librarian will ask you to hang the debtors who have not returned the books. A lot of so-called "character quests," which tell great interesting stories related to those characters that may soon appear in your squad. So, in one of them we meet a colorful and noisy girl who is not only a great fighter, but also a great cook - she came here in search of new exotic recipes and ingredients, and we have to help her - to fight, search, cook and even participate in an epic culinary confrontation.

In general, the game has a lot to do with cooking. The companion of the protagonist (or the heroine), cute little fairy by the name of Paimon loves to eat delicious food and reminds us every time. She is very colorful, and there are a lot of funny moments associated with her - Paimon has already become, you can say, the calling card of the game.

The story quests, on the other hand, are all large-scale and interesting. This also attracts many people to Genshin Impact, because often in such freethinking projects little attention is paid to the plot. At the very beginning of the game we have to get rid of the curse of a mighty dragon, which is kind of bad, but actually good - just is under the influence of spells. In the process we meet an amusing young bard, who turns out to be... one of the archons, that is, the lords of this world.

But even beyond the quests in the world of Teiwat there is something to do. It is clear that there are chests scattered at every step, guarded by groups of enemies - we need to defeat them to get to the treasure. Periodically, when you're just running about doing something, random events are activated - you may be asked to defeat a crowd of reinforced enemies or a local boss.

You can also come across test points - here you have to defeat enemies in a certain time or, for example, to fly through checkpoints to a specified point (yes, all heroes are able to fly on glider wings).

Or you can specifically look for the towers of archons - they are equated to the towers in games like Far Cry and Assassin Creed and just as open a part of the map. In addition, you can get blessings, heal and make offerings at the towers to earn useful rewards and increase the overall level of endurance (it is the same for all characters).

The towers belong to the archon of the region and belong to one of the seven elements - Cryo, Hydro, Pyro, Anemo, Electro, Geo or Dendro. Accordingly, the offerings are special artifacts belonging to one or another of the elements. And so finding them is one of the main motivations for exploring the world. They are usually cunningly hidden, located on top of some mountain/high building or, on the contrary, under a bridge. And you always have to figure out how to get to them.

Sometimes special spirits can help in the search - they point the way or lead to some interesting place where something interesting is waiting for us. For example, there will be a riddle, the solution of which will uncover a particularly valuable chest or will lift you into the air so that we can pick up the artifact for the archon's tower.

Every day on the map are updated points of particularly strenuous challenges, where you have to fight with reinforced enemies. And the most intense battles, challenges and bosses await in the locations called Twisted Abyss and Lair of the Storm Terror.

Finally, in each region you can find dungeons where individual special adventures begin. As a rule, they are not just limited to battles - very often you also need to solve puzzles, including using the powers of the elements controlled by certain heroes - for example, to activate something with lightning (the element Electro) or burn obstacles with fire (Pyro). However, in order to be able to descend into one of these dungeons, you need to reach a certain adventure rank. By the way, during your adventures the reputation of the squad achieved by the heroes in this region is also important - it also opens up access to some opportunities and gives useful rewards at each level achieved.

Passing through the dungeons is allowed not only in the proud solitude, but also with other players. Yes, Genshin Impact has co-op - it's the main and only multiplayer mechanic in the game. You can enter another player's world on demand, or let someone into your own, not only to dungeons together, but also to explore the world, open chests, complete world and daily quests, kill bosses, and do other useful things. But, for example, to enter the Twisted Abyss and the Lair of the Storm Terror, as well as perform story quests in co-op. But you can go and visit each other - because in Genshin Impact there's an option to get your own house.

It is the heroes who make up the squad of 4 characters that are the flesh and blood of Genshin Impact. There are no classes and no abstract swordsmen, archers or mages. All characters are unique individuals with their own names and stories, and we discover details about their past gradually as the level of trust grows (the longer we run in a squad with this character, the higher it is). Each has its own branch of passive talents, its own unique fighting style, and two combat skills that use the power of the element to which that character belongs.

Here it should be said that both battles and puzzles are often based on the use of the aforementioned elements. Moreover, these elements react with each other. For example, a young man with a sword and the element Cryo can lure enemies into the water and use his skill to freeze them. A girl in a hat wielding lightning will deal increased damage to enemies who are also in the water. And another anime girl can use the power of fire to burn not only some obstacles, but also the wooden shields of enemies.

There are also more complex elemental reactions - for example, the combination of water (Hydro) and fire (Pyro) creates a steam effect that deals periodic damage. And the amount of this damage depends on the skill level of the elements of a particular character and other modifiers. It's all quite a complicated science, that's why there are whole guides explaining which combinations of heroes and in which situations it's better to use. Let's just say that you are free to experiment and create different fast units with different characters and then test them in action.

In addition, the combination of elements determines the bonuses that the whole squad gets. For example, if a group has two Earth (Geo) characters, the squad will get a bonus to shield strength, and the enemies will be vulnerable to damage from the Earth element. And if there are two Cryo-fighters in the group, it activates an increased chance of critical damage on frozen enemies.

In any case, these elemental mechanics make battles spectacular and interesting. Although they are already good - we fight in real time and at any moment we switch between the characters on the fly (there is always one active one on the screen) to spectacularly, like in the best slashers, martyr enemies and apply skills. Some of the abilities use a separate spectacular animation.

Heroes, of course, can and should be upgraded. However, having reached a certain ceiling (at first it is the 20th level), further development requires the procedure of "elevation" of the hero - with the help of rare materials. Then to open new opportunities need to reach a certain rank of adventures. It is the same with weapon upgrades and opening new talents - there you need to use rare materials, carry out the procedure of elevation and achieve the necessary adventure ranks.

Materials, potions, and other tools for boosting can be created using alchemy, and blacksmithing can help craft new weapons. There is also the already mentioned cooking - it allows you to cook dishes not only to heal or resurrect heroes, but also to get temporary bonuses to attack or protect the whole group.

At the same time, the procedure of cooking is represented by interesting mini-games, and the final result is influenced by who is chosen as a cook - some characters with a certain probability can create a more powerful dish or even cook an additional one. And this is important - healthy dishes are often in short supply (they replace healing potions), so a lot of time is spent collecting all the ingredients, apples, berries, mushrooms, wheat, carrots and so on. And you also need to buy or order in the cities what you rarely meet when exploring the world - for example, flour, salt, sugar.

Gacha or "prayer" is actually the only way to get new heroes in Genshin Impact. At the start we are given one free character of each element, and then "pray" and hope that you will fall not only new weapons and materials, but also a new hero. There are different versions of "prayers", which are constantly updated and require different currencies - some are realistic to earn in the game itself, others are better and faster to buy for real money. That's exactly what the authors make their millions on. In fact, it's such a variant of lootboxes, but more open, honest and well-furnished. That's why no one grumbles - on the contrary, players, eager to get a new pretty girl in their collection, happily open their wallets.

The resin system, especially at first, is a counterpart to the energy that many of the game's activities are tied to. For example, resin is used to get rewards in some trials and dungeons, for killing bosses. The thing is that you can only use a limited amount of it per day, after which it will run out, and after a day or so it will restore itself. The system, of course, is not very convenient, but it is used in many freetupley projects - you just need to accept and understand that it is necessary for the development of the game.

Especially since in everything else Genshin Impact wonders how good. Including when it comes to upgrades. The authors are constantly adding new characters, new story and side quests, challenges and events - in the recent one, for example, gamers can play local soccer analogues and Pokemon together. In addition, knowing the complaints of high-level players about the lack of challenges already difficult for them, they add new powerful bosses.

Genshin Impact is really a unique game in many ways, and it has already spawned a crowd of clones. It's big, beautiful, fascinating, with an interesting elemental system and a huge number of colorful characters. A kind of Legend of Zelda, only in anime style and with a gacha system. But the authors are not trying to get the money out of the players somehow slyly and brazenly. That's why it's so hard to tear yourself away from the game.

Zarium. January 2023