Is Genshin Impact a game changer for free-to-play gacha games?

miss me with the gacha

@howmakewood: yeah it’s not a big deal now and the game doesn’t even force you to pull in the beginning unlike other games. Also there isn’t any pvp which is a big factor in pressure for people to pull. game gives you viable characters for free but I doubt some of these things will stay the same over the life course of this game.

What’s gacha?

How is this game free? I’m only about a hour in and amount of content is pretty overwhelming lol.

I tried it yesterday and I got to say that game looks pretty cool.

@fileman3: I think “gacha” typically refers to the “gotta catch em all” nature of a game or the “I gotcha” in a negative sense the devs pulled you in and has you addicted to the game.

Many free-to-play games pull people in the beginning because they give the players plenty of resources at first but over time as you continue playing your progress will slow down or stop completely unless you obtain super rare items that are usually blocked behind a pay wall or rnjesus.

@fileman3: Gacha are those machines that have toys in which you put a coin, roll the handle and get a random toy from them; In videogames It's basically the same as loot boxes.

@lebanese_boy: I’m Adventure rank 17 right now which took me maybe over 12 hours but a very fun 12 hours as exploring is quite fun because you hardly ever do the same thing 2 times in a row going from point to point. You’ll find challenges to do, you’ll mine, gather, do glider challenges, come across ruin puzzles, get ambushed, see a treasure chest in a hard to reach spot. come across mid bosses.

Compared to Ni no Kuni 2 or Breath of the wild Genshin easily can match volume of content.

@Zidaneski: I'm a sucker for open-world games so I know I'll be spending hours on this. Did you try the co-op mode? This one has me intrigued a little.

I checked out gameplay footage of it. All the characters looked hentai AF... I'll pass.

@lebanese_boy: barely touched the co-op. Chat function Is garbage on PS4 I even had a keyboard and it still takes time to send a text. I should be able to join with my friend tonight if he gets to ar16 and then I’ll have a better understanding. There is matchmaking and you can join other people’s world though there are specific rules for co-op. I imagine co-op won’t be necessary until you get to tougher content.

My lvl 16 average team managed to beat an intense lvl 40 optional side Quest boss. It took some time and patience but It was thankfully doable. So tough content will probably be reserved for endgame.

@eoten: Definitely taking a cue from Japanese games. You can play withwhich characters you want so if you have enough male characters you can play as just the guys. Also I’m pretty sure they’ll add optional outfits so there is CHANCE there will be more tame outfits.

@Zidaneski: Sounds great, looking forward to playing more of it.

It is probably the best gacha game ever made.

Still hate the business model though.

It took me all night to download it on my PC, I haven't played it yet, I've played the beta but the monetization wasn't in full effect when I played it. Mechanically its a pretty solid game.

Not familiar with this game. I suppose it's a heavily anime-style Breath of the Wild clone?

Hell yeah, checking it out now. That along with Van Helsing should keep me busy for awhile.

Its gacha is not even p2w, cos no PVP. Yet. I'm liking it so far, but it's no BOTW.

Looks like one of those sexist weebo games pervs play. Hard pass for me too.

It's a solid game. Enjoying it.

I hope not a single person playing this weeb shit was trashing TLOU2. Cuz if you're into this garbage but was saying how TLOU2 is woke, etc, you're messed up, broo.

Cool. Thanks for your opinion.

No problems. Hope it helped a bit 😎

Idk if its crossplay with mobile but I am very sure on PS4 there is a day one $20 or $30 item bundle. Unfair advantage from start? Who knows but game is actually quite fun. Really hope they consider packing the game into a full fledged $60 game.

Played it a bit, experienced a lot of frame drops.
Not typically a game I would play but I'll give it a chance maybe it wins me over.

I personally haven't played it yet. But I've seen a few streamers playing it. Honestly, for a f2p game, and besides the opinions of the anime style characters; It seems like the game's quality, and attention to detail really puts even some AAA games to shame. Also, I didn't see them shoving microtransactions down your throat each screen either (looking at you EA & Ubisoft).

Maybe this can potentially spark a change in how microtransactions are handled in other games? Who knows

Very bizarre comparison. They have almost nothing in common. Not sure what kind of hypocrisy you're trying to call out here? Genshin does not look like a "woke" kind of game.

I'm guessing they are referring to how women are portrayed. So if you're someone who was upset that Abby wasn't feminine enough and then have no problem with this where it veers in the other direction of "unrealistic' women then that would make you a hypocrite. I'm just guessing here.

After some playing time with the game I can easily say it's better than a lot of $60 games. I'll be putting some money on it. A lot to do and collect, I'm actually enjoying it more than Breath of the Wild so far.

Okay, that makes more sense. But it's still an odd comparison, since TLOU2 is a fairly realistic game, whereas Genshin is a cartoony fantasy game that isn't trying to be realistic at all.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-10-01-genshin-impact-becomes-biggest-international-launch-for-a-chinese-game

Crazy profits. Will this mean it'll be supported just as much as Fortnite? Or is this more of a bad thing? Could this mean our traditional rpgs will be turned into gachas?

I lost all interest in continue playing the game... for now.

The idea is great, and the visuals are beautiful. The sense of scope in the game inspires a lot of wonder. But the balancing right now isnt there, and I dont think the game does quite enough to take advantage of its excellent concept. Here is to hoping these issues get fixed later down the line.

Its balancing so far results in combat being a slog. Some enemies take too long to kill, it feels like I am slowly just whittling them down. Meanwhile, their attacks are so easy to dodge, I never felt threatened at any point. Even if I was low on HP, I would just swap to my maid (whom I gacha'd a really nice weapon for), activate her geo shield, and whittle on the enemies, while my entire team gets fully restored.

Likewise, the game feels too much like I am just combining debuffs on the enemy Xenoblade Chronicles style. Granted, Genshin Impact is more indepth there, with far more combos, but in the end, I still found combat far too rote, and simplistic. Sme encounters were a lot more interesting, where there were more ways to manipulate the environment to your advantage.

Even with that said though, I would recommend that you play it, it is objectively speaking a very good game. Just needs a bit more ironing before I will enjoy it to its fullest :)

@Maroxad: I have to disagree on the combat. Sure the encounters early game are minimal in scope but the game is not afraid to start throwing way more stuff at you. World bosses marked on maps are no pushovers and their attacks become more difficult to dodge the higher your world level is.

The game doesn't sync specifically to your stats for better or for worse so for normal casual players it's typical to steam roll through stuff if you power level a couple of your characters' stats and weapons. Stamina management becomes very important when facing formidable opponents because attacks will be coming at you non-stop.

Nope

I was taking on level 25-30 stuff. I stopped playing at around adventure rank 10, was about to hit level 11. But I just wasnt having any fun. So I didnt see a need to bother and continue.

@Maroxad: In early game I also felt combat was odd. Damage numbers when you get hit are small so many times i didnt even realize I was getting hit so much. So i doubt you're only when it comes to feeling combat was bland but as far as these types of games go it is an extremely slow burn especially if one goes free to play. When you Ascend characters they dont just get a damage boost they can get other passives as well. For the MC their normal combo can do elemental effects so already you can move away from relying on abilities to apply those elemental debuffs.

@Zidaneski: I was taking on mid game enemies with level 10 characters (I assume 30 is midgame). A single hit often took out half the HP bar, if not more. But it didnt matter when every attack was so easy to avoid. The only thing my low power level meant was that I spent a lot of time whittling down every HP bar.

But the problem wasnt the difficulty, the problem was the pace of combat. Enemies in general took far too long to kill, and fights usually ended up overstaying their welcome.

@Maroxad: Enemies at lvl 30 is still extremely early game. You are still at world level zero. Best way I can put is if you’ve played an mmo you’re still at the point where you’re fighting the basic enemies on the map. Again, it’s a slow burn game, difficulty ramps up and there are plenty of challenges to put you to the test and make you pay for upgrades.

I'm amazed at the size of this game, and I haven't even seen everything. Also, it seems there are a lot of people that don't understand what this game is. Same could be said for lots of games this gen, like Destiny 2, Splatoon 2, Monster Hunter World, Animal Crossing: New Horizons etc.

I only just realized it's a Chinese game... I was thinking it's a Japanese RPG this whole time. Everything from the anime-style characters to the Zelda-style world and gacha mechanics looks so Japanese.

Been playing non stop. Can’t believe this is free.

Yeah, but how long till I get to the potentially good part?

Why spend hours playing a dull game, that has a CHANCE of getting good later, when I can play a good game now. Since you brought up MMOs. At this point in WoW or FF14 I would be doing dungeons, in Eve Online I would be entering low or Null Sec territory.

It is the same excuse for FF11. The early game is super dull, why would I continue playing more in the hopes it ever gets good. Especially when I already see a lot of bad signs, that wont magically disappear.

I dont need games to be instant gratification, hell, I do like Dwarf Fortress and other similar games. But this game is just wasting my time, for the sake of wasting my time (or making me gamble real life money as if this was Battlefront 2).

Edit: Bad signs being

• Stiff movement and controls
• Obnoxious Gacha
• Battles that stay past their welcome
• 4 button combat (yes you can swap characters, but when you are playing with 3 other people, your options become extremely limited). While I get that the focus is more on the interaction of elements, the elemental interplay is pretty lackluster so far from my experience. Especially compared to BotW or Divinity Original Sin.

It is a beautiful game, but the combat and pacing could use some work.

This game gives me hope we see more Chinese games hit the west. These devs do have talent. And I am sure with a country with a population of 1.4 billion there is a lot more untapped talent in china.

Makes me hopeful for the gaming future.

I felt the same way about the combat as you at first. I changed my mind when I actually did face a formidable opponent. I was average lvl 20 and I did the secret island quest line. The recommended lvl for it was maybe 30-35 or something but the boss was lvl 40. I knew there was a boss But since nothing really gave me a hard time up to that point was hoping it would mop the floor with me. It was a big Wind elemental which you wouldn’t think were that hard but it was basically a suped up one meaning it was throwing out tornados left and right. Basically the first fight I was getting punished for using up my stamina because the tornados would pull you in if werent sprinting. The boss also enclosed the fighting area so you had to make sure you were aware of your surroundings and to top it off the boss would summon adds. Very intense fight and I’ve encountered plenty of tough fights since then even in the open world.

I agree the controls aren’t good, ticked me off a lot, still does. But how many buttons are used in combat doesn’t make it good or not.

I remember fighting an open world boss as well, it basically sounds like what you just described. But when the boss died, I had no feeling of satisfactoin. I was just glad it was finally over.

I agree, Quake has great combat and all you do is jump and shoot (and swap weapons). But the issue is that the skills themselves are not all that fun to use. Which is why a low number of buttons becomes a problem. I got the lightning archer, so I get an idea. What if I shoot the water the enemy is standing in and electrocute everyone? Nope. How about I set the grass on fire, to turn every arrow I launch into a makeshift fire arrow? Nope. In fact, the lightning archer girl's lightning arrows didnt even seem to be affected by the fact that her target was standing in something that conducts electricity. An attention to detail even The Sims 1 had. The only really fun thing you can do is combine the tornado with fire. to create a fire tornado, but even that feels like mostly an aesthetic thing.

"While I get that the focus is more on the interaction of elements, the elemental interplay is pretty lackluster so far from my experience. Especially compared to BotW or Divinity Original Sin."

Sure as long as they're all free to play that way I have the option to not spend a single dime on the game and not support the piece of shit CCP.

Black Myth: Wukong looks promising too. China has quite a few talented devs that are only starting to get noticed in the West. China probably might end up taking Japan's place as the center of Asian game development.

But I have mixed feelings about the rise of Chinese gaming. On the one hand, I'd love to support smaller Chinese studios. But on the other hand, the CCP government is a POS and I wouldn't really want them to benefit from it.

I share those sentiments.

I love supporting talent, no matter where it comes from. But it is hard to support a game like this knowing that my money might in turn be used to help fund oppression.

@Maroxad: I have the same archer girl and if the enemy is standing in water (and they have the hydro symbol) and you shoot them with lightning (fully charged arrow) it should cause the hydro-electric reaction. If the enemy is standing in fire and you shoot a Lightning arrow at them it should also cause an overload explosion. Basically your Lightning units become op when fighting in the rain too. These reactions have a small cooldown. If you shoot the water directly it will electrify the water but the area that it does is rather small so the enemy would have to be right next to where you hit.