The scale of the game’s world does not accommodate for anything other than sprinting from one place to next, assuming you don’t have an option to glide somewhere. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if your default speed was at least a little spritely, but it’s not. On top of that, the regeneration of stamina takes an eternity. You can run for a total of 13 seconds, and then you're out of breath. I never liked the stamina system in Breath of the Wild, so it’s subsequently wild to me that Mihoyo looked at that game’s stamina and said, “hmm, how about we do that, but worse?” With a maxed out stamina bar in Genshin Impact, obtained by finding little shards in the game world, you are allowed to sprint for thirteen seconds. And at least I can get a snake while I’m at the supermarket. And none of that matters because navigating it is more of a chore than picking up my meds from the supermarket. Every frame could easily be a computer wallpaper. Its aesthetic is colorful, its landscapes meditative. Genshin Impact’s world is immensely beautiful. This isn’t more clear in any other aspect of its design than how it handles movement and exploration. It’s clear that Genshin Impact wanted to crib from Breath of the Wild, and that’s fine: Fenyx Rising did the same thing very well, to an extent. It feels like it goes out of its way to spite me with its design, a rube goldberg machine of interlocking systems that are all done poorly. Genshin Impact actively spits at my Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain.
As I’ve mentioned before, I have Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain syndrome, and if your game doesn’t play well in whatever genre it’s taking place in, it could have a story on par with East of Eden and I wouldn’t care. When I play games the thing that matters most to me is Gameplay. This critique completely revolves around all of the things I deeply dislike about Genshin Impact's game design. Everyone and their momma knows that Genshin Impact’s gacha mechanics are bad, even for most gacha games that aren’t named FGO, so we don’t need to delve into that, barring one point I make later on. In the words of Jarvis Johnson: ~Let 'Em Know Where Your Heart is At! Before You Roast Their Faves~Īll that said, it’s time to talk about how terrible Genshin Impact is!įirst thing’s first: I’m not talking about the Gacha. This is impossible because paying rent is the literal worst thing on planet earth. But I don't actually think Genshin Impact or Kingdom Hearts or Overwatch or whatever are the literal worst things on planet earth. That same personality is why I'm able to write about media critically in the first place - it's a blessing and a curse. I use hyperbole a lot, and I can get spicy, I admit to this. I am fully aware of how I do critique and it can be abrasive, especially for things I dislike. The following is not an attack on you as a person or the things you enjoy. Okay, so this piece is a bit of a doozy and I fully admit to that.