The Impact Of Genshin Impact

Another ‘Anime’ Game, But With Gambling

I didn’t really want to write about this game. I have a deeply mixed opinion about Gacha games and having to take on this subject isn’t quite what I had in mind. I don’t think Gachas are a good way to play games. No one will ever convince me otherwise. I also can’t advocate for banning them either. People are adults. They should be able gamble and play a free to play game if they want to. Still, I think it’s important I put my line in the sand before reviewing Genshin Impact for what it is.

Gachas are predatory and just as bad as lootbox games.

So to start, I have just completed the prologue. Which took me some amount of time to do. There are two reasons for this. One, the story surrounding the prologue is pretty boring. The only interesting character we’re introduced to, Barbatos; isn’t even really a huge proponent during exploration. He is only part of main story missions that you get locked out of if you’re not the right rank. Which is separate from character level. Once you do get to main story missions they are pretty standard fair.

Also, his design is clearly based on shota. Which, if you don’t know what that is, it’s the boy version of lolicon. Which immediately is a red flag. A lot of the designs of unlockable characters are a red flag, but we can save that part for later.

Anyway, the game’s balance for enemy difficulty also hampered my progress to get to chapter one. The game doesn’t reward you with character exp for defeating monsters. Well, it does, but it’s so miniscule it feels like it’s there just to be confetti. Instead you have to collect or buy level up journals for your characters. You can already tell where this is going right? Max level out a character, collect the right things to extend that max level and so forth. It’s a gacha. That’s how they work.

Now, quick aside. I was really enjoying the game up until one singular moment that soured the experience. I was climbing and gliding around and found myself in front of a temple. The game had already introduced these to me and although short and simple they awarded neat things. So naturally I was excited to explore it. Until I was met with a dialogue box telling me I couldn’t enter until I was a certain rank. Keep in mind this has nothing to do with character levels. This is a completely different level system. Which is much harder to level up and get exp for.

This moment ruined the good will I was starting to form for the game. I was viscerally upset because for a good two hours I was starting to buy into the hype. I really thought a free to play game was going to do something really neat and be a well balanced free BOTW, but instead, it’s just a really polished Gacha(with a few bugs but nothing life ruining).

Also the stamina system is awful because it only levels up when you level up statues with items you find around the world. Which would be fine, except everything you do requires stamina except combat, well sometimes, some attacks do take stamina. However, running, gliding, swimming and climbing all take stamina. I can not tell you how bad it feels to run in this game. Trying to get around the world in Genshin Impact feels so damn slow when you have to stop sprinting at top speed because your stamina meter has run out. Which barely takes a minute to do. Your gliding also only has one speed. Slow and not as fun as you’d think. It helps you get to a few places, but it’s just as slow as trying to walk there most of the time.

I don’t really want to go on too long about this game because I don’t really think it warrants a full analysis so instead I am going to rapid fire talk about a few things that should really be addressed.

The first being. There are absolutely no black people in this game. The two unlockable characters with darker skin are white washed in their real models compared to their photos. Kaeya is the worst out of the two. Also, the body types are all basically the same. It’s really disappointing to see considering there are plus sized models among the npcs although not many.

The second thing is , there are several lolicon designs in this game that make me incredibly uncomfortable. Klei and Diona being the worst offenders. I mentioned before but Barbatos(Venti) is also designed like this only he falls under a shotacon. It’s common for gacha to have these designs because they appeal to certain people, but I wish it wasn’t something that was so widely accepted. Also some of the characters are definitely designed to be teenagers. Which means a large part of the roster are children, teenagers and a couple adults.

Thirdly, the game just kind of got some odd choices. The Hilichurls are a sentient enemy in the game that is basically a low intelligence race. It is brought up multiple times how they are used by the antagonist as fodder. They can be killed too. When you defeat a human enemy they smoke-bomb away, but Hilichurls explode into energy. This would be fine inside a vacuum of any other game, but the game itself keeps reminding you that Hilichurls can think and are enslaved by the other creatures(and their human leader). Which is incredibly uncomfortable to think about as you plow through dozens of them.

I find the way the game handled the hilichurls, is.. very uncomfortable to say the VERY least. The portrayal of them of “savages”/”unintelligent” immediately feels very reminiscent of anti-indigenous tropes, and is further made worse by the fact YOU HAVE TO FIGHT THEM ALL THE TIME.. they are portrayed as bad guys but the game still shows that they have a culture, you often stumble upon them in animation where they’re just dancing or chilling, meanwhile the quest tells you to wipe them out and clear they’re camps.. like…WTF -Kelly Greene

Other enemies in the game seem to be just your generic flowers, slimes and such. So why does it seem like Hilichurls are a tribal stereotype? It’s strange and I think it’s worth bringing up.

This is really all I wanted to say about this game. I don’t give scores unless I am uploading to a place that requires them, but if I had to give one to Genshin Impact. I guess I’d give it a 6.5/10. Genshin Impact is like every other Gacha out there. Predominately about collecting the skinny, young, and pale.