My Complicated Relationship with Genshin Impact | A Video Essay
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- Опубликовано: 12 июн 2024
- Genshin Impact is many things, good & bad. This video aims to explore how I developed a weird relationship with the game throughout the almost 2 years it took for me to functionally "complete" it.
Twitter: / seppocj
Twitch: / seppo_x
Portfolio: www.cjoheany.com/
Script: docs.google.com/document/d/1m...
Special Thanks to Mya
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Chapters:
00:00 What this video is
04:52 My Complicated Relationship With Genshin Impact
11:52 The Content Well
33:32 The Routine
44:28 A Look-Back
49:05 Conclusion + Channel Updates 
Игры
“Genshin is an amazing game that I cannot recommend to anyone”. By far the hardest one liner I’ve EVER heard. This one line gave me chills and gave you a mf subscriber
A true mic drop moment :D
🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖
@@fonexei6750yup. The most obvious bot comment ever
🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓
They want to pull you in then push you away, forcing you to come back then the cycle repeats . The thing is that the early game doesn't push you away until you go to the late game where systems will force you take some time off the game but still end up playing the game at least once a day
TRUE THO
Best review on Genshin, you deserve way more views. As a concept artist working in video game industry Genshin is the first game I have stuck around playing longer than a month, their art departments are just so insane, from music to animation to character & environment design, each region has completely different and distinguishable cultures, fashions, architectures, landscapes - which is so hard to do especially if you want to fit them all into an overall artstyle. I never get tired of watching the same Ult, like how Raiden assertively raises her head a lil bit and pulls her sword, or how Yae smugly gives an evil naughty stare at the camera, they are just all so unique and full of personalities.
I think Hoyo figured out how to solve the mental fatigue of looking at the same repetitive skill animation over and over again in video games - the solution is facial expressions, usually in video games when characters use skills players are mostly focused on movements and SFX, the novelty and "coolness" fade after a few dozen times. But in Genshin each character has their unique facial expressions when they ult, and Hoyo makes sure camera angles are fixed so you observe those emotions, players are not just staring at particles, they are experiencing that character's personalities over and over again.
Also I don't understand how they managed the rigorous 6 weeks update schedule with livestream shows coordinated in different languages, to the point they only delayed one update in two years yet still trying to make it up by shorten the update timeline, the logistics involved is borderline insane, as much as ppl complain about the lack of content, I dont think any other game updates as regular as Genshin.
I think the main problem of Hoyo is they are too cautious, their general attitude is "dont try to fix what aint broken", hence no new endgame modes, half measured events that have been trying to add new things but never quite enough, the slowness of adding new skins, the never changing Battlepass, same old 4 star characters in Exchange Shop etc.
Burnout is real tho XD I took a few months off too, I used to hate dailies, now I find doing dailies in the morning while sipping coffee listening to Twitch/RUclips is oddly a great way to wake up, my brain is too mushy to do anything else, it must be what ppl in the olden days feel like when they wake up and read newspapers everyday.
Wow! Thanks so much for commenting! I think you hit the nail on the head with character expressiveness being a key factor to the incredibly tantalizing appeal Genshin has over its contemporaries. Love your comment! Thanks for watching!
I think this sums up my experience exactly...
I love the game and totally understand where you’re coming from. I think a big reason I love the game so much is because I really don’t care about the spiral abyss and my resin capping. I personally love the story and lore so I like to play in the overworld way more than domains and abyss.
That's awesome! It's good to hear that not everyone is deranged as I am!
As someone who has become utterly strong I think I may have seen the folly of getting too much into the resin system. If you use the resin all the time you will become far too strong. So strong the game will become effortless and boring. I can barely use my main dps characters because my supports already crush the enemies before my dps character can even take the field. Let alone using things like bursts which is horrible overkill. I am literally dishing out a million damage in a few seconds against enemies who have hp in the thousands. If you actually whale and spend money it probably gets even worse.
I guess this is how One Punch Man feels.
At around 1.3 I actually felt that my characters would get too strong and that'd be a problem if I planned on playing the game for a while so I decided to not worry about things like artifacts.
I play the game for the story that I love. The archon quests are amazing with my favorite being the "morn a thousand roses brings" archon quest or the sabzeruz festival and I'm having a great time.
Even after almost 2 YEARS of playing genshin I still can't beat spiral abyss (though that's only because I don't build up characters I don't really like)
What really sucks is that my hu tao is still super built and destroys everything in a couple hits.
What truly sucks is that the developers won't add in endgame because "tHe PlAyErS wOuLd GeT nErVoUs"
The developers don't plan on listening to the players.
I love this game.
But honestly it seems like the opposite isn't true.
I'm only sticking because I love the characters and story.
I've also decided to only spend money on a character I really want like nahida or kokomi.
I agree, I don't care about abyss, resin, etc. either. I just like to immerse into the world, I love the characters and story, and that's all that matters to me.
So basically you're not playing the game as it's intended to be played... which is good! Because the way the developers designed this game to be played is awful.
A worthy companion to the legendary ''A Serious Critique of Genshin Impact" by NeverKnowsBest.
2 years apart, both video essays are arguably mandatory viewing for any existing and would-be Genshin player.
Ultimately, much in genshin comes down to: ''could be better, but isn't, and we wonder why." We inevitably start speculating - is it malicious design, incompetence, insufficient devtime, or some combination of it all? Doubtless some will just say live service gacha, hur dur, and leave it at that. The answers are numerous, and the pace of content is unbelievably slow. The gacha system potentially lures you into bad monetary decisions. Yet, this game has its moments, is potentially free to play, and continues to foster a vibrant community. This essay does a good job to explain this love-hate relationship many genshin players eventually arrive at sooner or later. Let this be a warning to anyone considering picking up this game. It's an unfinished, live-service, gacha game, and that bears repeating. Look before you leap.
A comprehensive video, would only suggest adding chapter timestamps. Would be easier to follow for those who've never played genshin. Excellent effort!
Funnily enough, I watched that Genshin Critique when it aired and thought to myself "Eh, well, guess I don't need to make one", but my thoughts changed over the following 2 years and I used the video as a cross-reference to make sure we weren't harping on about the same points.
Also, I'll be adding chapter timestamps like.... right now! I entirely forgot that was a feature! Thanks for the advice :)
Tells me you never played a live service game before without telling me you never played a live service game before.
It could be better and we do know why. It's because the company that made the game is blinded by greed.
Are you kidding? We know exactly why. Because it is a gacha and has the gacha mindset of "as long you're pulling we're not changing". This was told to the entire community day 1. "This is how Chinese gachas work, they do NOT care about your feedback, concerns, opinions or sentiment, they care about you pulling". Downvoted to hell. Now 2 years in and several new hoyo projects that will be the same bait and switch "generous early game into daily slog" are announced confirming the money grubbers in the company and will AGAIN have people telling the community how at works and being downvoted. "Its still a new game bro"
"There is plenty to do just dont rush"
"Not everyone wants things to do"
"Better than nothing"
@@hellfire6714 TRUE THO
I'd like be friends with you.
This is an amazing summary of your experience as a player. You wrote and delivered this script like a pro RUclipsr and it was engaging all the way through. Really well done
Thanks so much! I hoped I was able to capture my jumbled 2-year building ramblings well enough!
"Genshin is an amazing game that I can't recommend to anyone "
Im literally watching this again.... And I forgot to comment about this...... This sums up my entire almost two years tenure of playing genshin so well!
Thank you for the kind words :)
just got home from a long and tiring day, and clicked on this video expecting it to have millions of views and for you to have a lot of subscribers with comments. to see how small your fame is with this level of packed in content is unbelievable. i'm not even halfway into the video and i'm already submerged into how descriptive and accurate this is. i wish you the best in your youtube career and i hope that everything goes well, and that you have a happy and healthy relationship with your girlfriend. lets hope mihoyo can fix all of our problems, but at the same time enjoy the content they've given us and appreciate the community as a whole. people like you are the ones who make genshin impact great and i'm proud to say that this is the first time i've ever spent time thinking and writing in someone's comment section, thank you for this very well composed and edited video and keep doing what you're doing.
You just made my week. Thanks so much for watching, I truly truly appreciate it!!!
Starting a game, playing it for a while, and then leaving it for something else is perfectly natural progress. Happened to me with multiple games already and I still have fond memories of each of them, sometimes think about returning to them but I just lack the time for it. One game at a time is my limit. I have no doubts it will happen with Genshin eventually and I have no doubts it won't be any different. But at the time, I keep playing it because I find it to be fun and entertaining way of spending my free time. And while I can see and recognize all the little bits developers put into the game to keep me playing, I actually enjoy it.
One of things that keep me playing is sense of devotion and love the developers put into the game. I don't see a corporation that's making profit behind the game, what I see are hundreds of people, artists, designers, musicians, and all kinds of other professions, who spend all their working days making something to make my free time enjoyable. And just like I go to work every day to feed myself and my family, so do they.
Yeah, I think it's natural for a game to wane out of people's favor, what was so weird for me is that it kept my attention for so very long. I agree that the game is built by passionate and dedicated people, I definitely don't think I'd have spent 2 years of my life playing without that!
Y’know, when I think about it, the only thing that gives me corporate vibes is the Gacha system. The Gacha system, pulling, character builds and stuff are such a HUGE focus for the community, it’s no wonder why people get lots of corporate vibes from Genshin. It’s real sad tbh, because once you stop to smell the roses, it feels like it’s on the complete opposite spectrum. Nothing tells me of the passion and effort put into this game more than the music, it’s simply breathtaking.
Sorry to bring it up but, it’s one of the things I think I miss when compared to BOTW. BOTW has this ambient piano that isn’t bad in anyway, but the music of Genshin is just _so GOOD_ I can’t help but sway or hum as I explore, it’s euphoric.
Genshin's design is GENIUS... and it ultimately sucks. And hoyo taking all the complaints and putting them into their new game and not fixing Genshin is insulting.
EDIT: Well put and narrated.
I’m burnt out from farming artifacts. That’s the one thing that will drive me away from this game I’m so over building characters
...and they're not adding more end-game/challenging content anymore :(
admittedly i'm not a big fan of video essays when it comes to genshin, since i find that a lot of them tend to point out the obvious. but this was a very insightful and analytical video that was easy to listen to and understand. conveniently enough i was playing genshin while listening lol
i feel like you hit a lot of points on the head. as someone who only started playing at the beginning of this august, having just graduated high school this past summer with literally almost nothing else to do, genshin impact became an obsession of mine. i'm already AR 52, nearing AR 53, so you can see that this game has really captured me. i enjoy the lore (though not necessarily the way the story is told through what feels like endless amounts of dialogue and telling the audience rather than showing), the characters, the music, the exploration, and of course the rewards. as you said, endless content is what keeps me hooked. still though ... being so late to the game, i've missed out on a lot of content. the limited events are definitely FOMO-inducing and it doesn't feel good when i can't go through as much of them as i can in the moment they're available to me. there's so much anxiety i feel when playing this game because i am also somewhat of a completionist. but that's what makes the rewards all the more enticing, because it 'pays off' in the end. even if i only get like, 40 primogems or whatever.
and YES thank you for speaking on the co-op aspect of the game... there's so many issues it's so sad. i know nothing about game design or development so i can't speak on how easy or difficult it'd be to improve it, but it's unfortunate that all i can do in my friend's worlds or with them in mine is fight bosses and collect materials and do artifact/material farming. it would be SO much better if you could co-op in the abyss. one would argue that defeats the purpose of the rewards but like... i don't see how? maybe so, but even then, playing with friends and receiving rewards together would probably draw people in a lot more. this is especially relevant due to the article that swam around the community about endgame content. another good idea would be pvp! it'd be so fun to duke it out with friends and showcase skills and builds and whatnot, i don't see why that isn't a thing. co-op just feels sort of meaningless as of right now
i think, genshin impact is a dangerous game as you say. it's a great game, but not one that should be easily recommended. it's so good that it's addicting. not just for the gacha aspects, but for the (or what feels like a) need for completion and/or progression. i know i'm just paraphrasing what was said in the video but really i cannot agree more.
okay sorry i rambled a bit but all in all this was!!! a very very good video, i hope it does well because i think it's very worthy of being heard. there's so much Nuance to the many many parts and systems this game has, and the benefits and downsides, and so on, i really like that you addressed everything with care and understanding that everything has multiple layers to it. tldr thank you for this video it was very good
For someone who isn't a big fan of Genshin essays, you're sure good at writing them! In all seriousness, thanks so much for the comment! I really appreciate you giving it the time :)
@Lu M yeah pvp in a gacha game is never a good idea, whales will always have an advantage
As a whale, i could never recommend PVP in genshin. Some of the abilities are lowkey broken and actively change the way a character can play, ontop of just raising DPS caps to some insane degrees (18% in the case of Cyno's C2)
I do believe something needs to change, but Hoyo is definitely afraid of shaking things up. We might not see much change in the next few years.
"Genshin is an amazing game that I can't recommend to anyone"
SO TRUE, I used to nag my friends to play this game but now I wouldn't recommend it to ANYONE.
If I'm good at anything, it's catchy one liners ;D
I've always opined that video essays critiquing Genshin were a moot endeavour because, generally speaking, all the criticisms of the game are by enlarge shared by its core audience. However, I think this style of video, something that tackles the game from a more personal angle works really well because it foregoes the simple "nod your head and agree" response from the viewer and instead taps into more of an empathetic response. It certainly did for me. Especially the closing sentence: "Genshin is an amazing game that I can't recommend to anyone" really just sums up the feeling at the core of my experience with the game. I say this as someone who has been playing since Day 1 and will likely continue to play until the end of its service. I hope that Hoyoverse will follow through on all the amazing potential the game has one day, but in reality I think that, from their perspective, Genshin is somewhat akin to a gateway drug to Hoyoverse's other games like Honkai Impact 3rd, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero. Still, I will keep playing in the hopes that one day they prove me wrong.
I felt the same! I had written a more analytical essay originally wherein I discuss and critique the gameplay elements more in-depth which in an online medium, starts to just sound like whining. Delivering my thoughts from a personal lens allows me to describe HOW these systems work rather than trying to create a reason why they don't.
I’ve only been playing Genshin for a little over 1/2 year now and I realized very quickly the trap that quest/level locked events and FOMO brings.
The game incentivized you to speedrun through the requirements to get event rewards, which is so senseless.
I at least had the foresight that I would hate it and feel lost if I didn’t pay attention to the story/lore. So I still read every line of it and quite enjoyed it. Once events were unlocked for me, I slowed down to what my usual pace in games would be and enjoyed it even more.
I still have not completely finished any nation although I’m fairly close for two of them. Barely touched Sumeru as well.
Now compare this to my friends who started playing only about 2 months ago. They hit my world level less than a month into gaming. One of them obsessively did every single quest for primos barely reading a word of the dialogue or doing anything else …I know they will burn out and probably stop playing long before I have. Genshin is most fun played at a leisurely pace and I expect to be playing it for a long time.
Good on ya for keeping the game at arms length. It sucked me in like a Hoover 9000 haha!
Thanks for watching :)
i listened to the whole thing! while playing genshin lol
This is an excellent video! it was randomly recommended in my home page and the youtube RNG algorithm gods gave me a real gem :D the commentary was stellar and I resonated with what you said. This is content is better than other youtubers i've seen who have 100x the subscriber count. just 50 mins of high quality video essay, loved the listenability
Personally, I think my experience was different because i procrastinated and took a lax approach doing all the open world challenges and story quests when i was of lower AR. while it doesn't fix the fundamental problems of the game, I'll always have something to do because of being lazy in the beginning.
you have 100% earned my sub :D
You're too kind!
I like your term "default game", it's actually relatable to me.
I'm glad you mentioned the wasted potential of the battle pass, it updated once, after adding the teapot, and hasn't been touched since.
I remember that change! I thought that was going to be the precedent going forward, but it just stayed stagnant. How disappointing!
I truly understand where you are coming from. There was a point where I could pinpoint exactly how much resin my account or my friends accounts had just by asking roughly how much resin they had before they logged out. I would sometimes be off by 1-3 points of resin but I would consistently be spot on.
I started the game the day after global launch and I reached the same conclusion you did. I played the game out of necessity of trying to min max everything in my account.
I love this game, I really do, yet the company doesn’t seem to care about making the game better, just trying to get new players and not caring for the older players.
And that's likely your problem.
The game isn't made for people playing 5-8hrs a day, it's made for people who work 8hrs a day and have maybe 20-30min to relax, and more time to play on weekends.
You need to understand what YOU want doesn't make the game better, but worse. Or you will be playing the heavy powercreep MMOs on the market already.
@@maxstone6117 well playing for 10-15 min in a day is more than enough to reach her stage of the game
as a worker I kinda agree with her
@@maxstone6117 Yeah yeah we get it, it's either or. There's never any middle ground in any conversation. Surely there's no solution for the people burnt out on Genshin with it's plethora of billion dollar "content".
lmao making the game require more hours to play per day to play isn't gonna make the game "better".
@@jonathan4554 'lmao making the game require more hours to play per day to play isn't gonna make the game "better".'
I mean... isn't that obvious? Even with the game trying to encourage people to play daily, it starts to cause burnout with the repetitive cycle; if anything it would be better with no dailies, resin, or temporary events, but instead allowing you to leave the game for as long as you want and return without missing out on so much content.
And to Max Stone, I have a job, I work 8 hours a day, and I completely disagree with you. I'd like to unlock Yae in the upcoming banner, but doing so requires the boring grind of playing everyday, which is far less enjoyable than playing simply when I want to. I'd be happy to buy the DLC characters at a reasonable price, but you can easily spend over $100 on a banner without getting what you want, which is not reasonable.
Any sensible person could see that this game is not flawless, it wants you to play it on its own terms as opposed to your own. I recently hit 36 stars for the first time, and just like the creator of this video, I'm also becoming burnt out. The gameplay is fun, but the focus is on gimmicky events with new gameplay, dialogue-heavy quests, and new concepts entirely like the upcoming card game. The developers aren't focusing on Genshin's strengths with its core gameplay, but instead throwing in new ideas constantly only to delete them after the 3 week event ends; if you like this, good for you, but personally I agree with the original commenter.
this game is what definition of 50-50 feelings, yes u can love the game but also hate it the same time.. the graphic, world, backgrounds lore (not main story tho) is epic but the systems (wishing, artifacts, FOMO based events) are sucks
very well put. I feel like i'm reaching the end of my time on the game too, but I've been playing for so long it's feels bittersweet
That bitter taste the game leaves with you is the REASON I made this video. It was hard to describe, but I'm glad you got something out of it :)
I have watched multiple video essay and commentary on genshin impact but I believe that your video is the one that really called out to me in regards to the gameplay loop and how it becomes more of a chore. I very often think of things i will do in genshin, and things i am missing to the same extent i am thinking about "oh i don't have enough salt so i should get some before i cook next time" same way with genshin i think "oh i don't have enough hilichurl masks so i should farm some before i try to upgrade this xingqiu talent". I don't know at what particular point i play genshin impact not for pure enjoyment but for the chore but i feel like you have expressed it very well. While i have different experiences with things like abyss i can understand why someone may have your experience. All in all i think your video is great and very underrated
I really liked what you said about the game. I'd have to agree with the type of relationship we ended up having with this game. It's like being in a relationship with a shitty partner who starts by being so charming and incredible, then slowly moves in with you, but is never home. And when they are home, they are there for few mins a day.
We're doomed to never be satisfied, and yet we're reliving the perfect yet empty world, every single day.
Great way of putting it! Couldn't agree more!
Honestly I’ve grown rather jaded with genshin especially after the interview.
I used to be heavily invested in the lore especially for inazuma and I would play just about every day but soon things just started to get rather boring as I kept hoping for there to be something else to do.
I used to enjoy going around hunting for chest and things of the like but compared to the 1.0 patch cycle exploration has started to become less and less rewarding. What used to be cool quest that could lead to u getting a 5 star artifact even if it was trash to the cool stuff you got from random npcs if you talked to them or even that one mini game in mondstat where you gotta walk on a railing perfectly and getting nice rewards to just run around a new region solve puzzles and be rewarded with a few chest that don’t even add up to a 3rd of a single. It just doesn’t feel the same.
The characters honestly do very little if anything for me too. I used to be so hyped for cyno but when I started hearing about him being a dad joke telling trading card junkie my hype vanished in an instant hell I feel absolutely nothing for any of the sumeru cast except for dehya and it’s all because of how little I get to really see most of these characters.
Events relegate a lot of characters to just 5 min cameos and events that do give us this characters for longer like the razor event and the golden apple event just feel lack luster because these characters just repeat the same things over and over.
Xinyan spent most of the golden apple and every event she’s in talk bout nothing but music
Fischl is fischl and god forbid we can’t just havre her acting like Amy.
The razor event was the worst offender because it spends a much time hyping up the idea of razor learning about his parents but gives us nothing of value and then tells the player to not worry about it.
It’s like every time genshin introduces something their so quick to give you a reason not care as fast as possible.
New artifacts sets and weapons: don’t matter because there’s never going to be constant that really needs them.
New characters: it’s hard to care since they’ve been recycling playstyles but slightly flashier of late since kazuha and it’s hard to care bout 4 stars because they’ve just keep getting progressively worse but making them as niche as possible but give us mo content for this to matter. Hell a lot of characters specifically 4 stars don’t even get proper screen time and are just thrown into patches given a hang out quest and that’s all they ever get and it just feels sad how little care they give to them.
Lore hardly reels me in because the game rarely dies anything it and only brings up things out of absolutely nowhere like all their festival events.
For as pretty as the game looks and how unique they make the areas and while I can appreciate this I can’t help but feel like it’s just empty because there’s hardly anything that’s really worth doing like there was in the past and it’s sad for all that hype to just die and further be killed by how scummy that interview was.
There there, let it all out!
@@SeppoCJ legit everything you’ve said and done minus play the game on 2 accounts perfectly describes how this games been fire me especially after that interview
My stance on Genshin Impact is similar: I liked it but won't recommend it. But with different reasons that I a unable to articulate as well as you
But after a year and obtaining my 36 starts consistently, i have also started to take a more and more casual approach to the game. Just in time since i also recently graduated and started working and devoting more time to learn adulting
I think this an interesting, high-quality video, and I think it’s fascinating that we can have similar experiences and come to wildly different conclusions, although there are differences that of course could explain that too. I also have de facto custody of my partner’s account, and I play for both him and myself. Yet when I heard you mention co-op was what drew you to the game, I immediately knew there would be problems. For me, I skipped the co-op event in 2.8, despite the primos, because I don’t want to engage with co-op whatsoever; even Windtrace was a stretch, and that was only acceptable to me because it lacked combat. The story is by far one of my favorite parts of the game and definitely one of the things that makes it easy for me to recommend to people, alongside the exploration and the music. It’s incredibly well-written (usually), the music is always a banger, and there’s nothing quite like that feeling of exploring the world. Of course, whether I recommend the game depends primarily on the audience; there’s nothing intrinsic in the game that makes it hard for me to recommend, rather, it’s the type of player I’d recommend or not recommend it to.
I also find it interesting that you feel like you lost opportunities for other games; I’ve found Genshin to be immensely respectful of my time by not demanding I play too much of it - in fact, all but prohibiting me from doing so - so that I could enjoy other games if I so desired.
Ultimately though, I think what saved this video for me was that you did turn in into a personal reflection about your personal experiences with the game as opposed to trying to make a bigger argument about how it should or shouldn’t be and pretending that doing so wasn’t personal. Because of course people experience things differently, and that’s something that can only be shared, not fought about.
I just happened upon your video and I must say, I very much like it!
Personally I play Genshin since day 1 and am still loving it, even though most of what you described is also how I feel about it. What keeps me going is all the stuff hidden in the story, design, practically everything lore related and the music (the boss themes are a banger, Fontaine's waltz OSTs are soo beautiful).
I am in awe seeing how a game with this quality still grows with new characters that all can receive a several page analysis of their designs, who have an individual story and hint at how thought through this fantasy world is.
The character quests aren't that great for the most part, some story chaps feel rushed or way too slow, the rewards for special occasions are mediocre to be generous and in the end game, where I am now, there's not much left to do. But: I still stick with it, cause I love this game for everything else!
Most of the critique is totally justified, but even if most characters are designed to appeal to the game's asian market, even if the game doesn't revolve around its end game, there must be so much work and thought behind other parts, that at least to me(!!!!), that justifies or outweighs what's lacking!
Interestingly, maybe because of being a different type of player, I developed a different perspective on the game. In the beginning months achieving 36 stars was also the end goal for me, but I successfully did it comparatively early, around the time of the first Ganyu banner. Thus my goal of getting my account stronger became more intrinsic, and I also wanted to experience the variety of gameplay that the new units would offer.
In the end, I stopped obsessing over resin pretty early, and even a lost day of dailies never bothered me. It still feels like I play it every day because I want to, I never consciously think that I have to log in to do stuff to not miss out. Maybe I would try to complete the abyss with some type of restrictions or clear it especially fast, or go explore the new region or other stuff. Dendro was especially cool in my eyes, making my first favorite unit, Keqing, become strong felt great.
Still, I do have a friend who, that also like you, obsessively commits to a game until he completes it. I can see Genshin not being the right type of game to recommend in that case, but there are also people who do not feel the pressure to hyper-optimize their time or complete everything. As I also have a friend that plays Genshin a lot every day, but he did not bother to complete the main Sumeru event during the 3.0 and did not feel bothered by missing out.
I think Genshin is the type of game to recommend to people whose life would not be consumed by it.
Your last sentence is so strong. 🙏
Your channel deserves a lot more subscribers, the video quality and editing is very good, this video looks like it's from a video essay channel with millions of subscribers that gets millions of views but I was surprised when clicking on this video to see under 1k views and only 200 subscribers. I hope your channel grows massively, your content is very high quality and interesting. It's honestly a tragedy that a video and channel of this depth and quality is not known by more people.
Thank you for the kind words! I really appreciate it!
A little correction: Not all of the 4 star artifact sets are useless. In particular the Instructor set is actually very strong and can surpass 5 star artifact sets despite the large growth difference simply because the passive is so strong. This is more apparent with the 3 star weapons which can surpass some 5 star weapons in usefulness.
Anyway I think I can see your point. What I wish for in this game is harder content to challenge me. Otherwise it seems pointless to get strong. I wish there was more variety in difficult content. I do not even care about the rewards that much. I stopped putting money into the game because there is no point. I do not need new characters. I have many characters already and no reason to use many of them. Why would I wish for more characters I will not use? You could say the gameplay is why you want new characters but you will not even get to do that because you will be too strong to enjoy their gameplay. I do not even get to use their bursts or team combinations because my supports are enough to kill most enemies before I even get to use my dps.
I am not even a whale. I have spent maybe $85 total in over two years and this is enough to make you overwhelmingly strong with some 51,000 primos. The only people who will maintain a challenge are those that do not engage in the resin system. I feel this is a flaw in the game design because all these systems are meant for character growth. If you do not participate in all this character growth content then you get even less content to do in the game.
I am not sure I agree, but I'm also not one to argue in comments sections haha! If I were able to choose any 5-star Weapon or Artifact or any other 3/4-star Weapon or Artifact, I think I would opt for the 5-star alternative every time. The Instructor & some weapons are arguably easier to acquire alternatives, but in most if not all cases, I would warrant that characters would benefit more from their best-in-slot 5-star (if there is one applicable).
Nonetheless, I agree, the game stopped being a challenge and I found myself struggling to find justification to optimize and build teams. It just wasn't appealing anymore! Thanks so much for watching, and I appreciate the comment! :)
@@SeppoCJ Well, if you could pick a 5 star weapon on Kokomi or Barbara would it be better than Thrilling Tales? How about Albedo? I would take Harbinger of Dawn over any 5 star weapon on him. For Bennett and Dendri Traveler one their best artifact sets is Instructor even beating Noblesse Oblige as their best set because 120 EM to the team can be better than 20% attack. Basically characters that do not scale with attack stats work very well with some 3 or 4 star items because their low attack stat does not matter. Only their passive or secondary stat.
@@AzureDrag0n1 I'll leave the hardcore analysis to those who have the time to care about that now. I did caveat that 4-star weapons are exceptions to the 5*>4* rule in the video, because I agree, certain weapons outperform their numerical values. I don't have the perfect knowledge of the artifact builds but also no interest nowadays of optimizing any further! I appreciate the criticism!
the annoying part about artifacts outside of resin cost and extreme time gateing ... the intrinsic value of an artifact unless its like blizzard strayer or thunder set with something that like stands out as a mechanical or overpowered stat advantage means very little compared to the rng stats that you need to roll on it
And all the cascading layers of RNG each artifact is subject to is simply insane!
This was a pretty good vid, and it does somewhat resonate with me in some parts. I kinda want to just share my experience with genshin here.
I'm a player that can 36* abyss with relative ease while being a very low spender. Part of the reason is that I did fall into the daily grind mindset of optimizing my resin usage, playing every content for the scraps of rewards, etc, to the point where my account is very well invested. It got to the point where I did actually burn out on genshin and I just stopped playing for two weeks. A lot of the time, the content in genshin just... isn't fun for me, especially since I'm a combat-oriented player.
But another reason I can 36* abyss consistently is because I consume a lot of theorycrafting content for genshin. (Theorycrafting is basically the nerd side of genshin that calculates everything on spreadsheets). The reason I theorycraft in genshin is because of it's incredible combat system that offers insane depth when you realize just how simple the game appears. I pride myself in knowing every nook and cranny of the combat system as well as knowing how to optimize my gameplay.
My main gripe with genshin is just how willing it is to waste its combat system, the best thing in the entire game. As you may or may not know, there was a dev interview from gamespot that explicitly said that they had no intentions on adding in another form of combat-oriented combat content like the spiral abyss. This stung hard, partly because spiral abyss is repetitive and too easy for me (not a knock on your 36* clear, a very small portion of the playerbase actually plays abyss, and a lot less can 36* it), but more because Hoyo is so very clearly laying out their intention that Genshin was never meant to be theorycrafted for. It kind of felt like a lot of my time spent on learning genshin's inner mechanics was wasted. It also doesn't help that a vast majority of genshin's community leans casual, and some of them are aggresively casual to the point where "you should just play genshin for the story, and don't bother with the combat" is a very common sentiment.
That being said, I still love genshin. There's just nothing in the market with the same elemental reaction system, and I've spent way too much time learning genshin to bail out. Even though I'm exposed to a lot of gacha games due to being on the deep end of weeb communities, none of them scratches the same itch that genshin does for me. I did start playing League, though. Only time will tell if I can develop a League addiction strong enough to beat Genshin addiction.
I definitely got into the hardcore character optimization crowd during the leadup to my initial 36*-ing, so I know where you're coming from there! The article just so happened to be released around the conclusion of my edits with the video, so I didn't get the chance to mention it, however, I think that the article further disenfranchised the hardcore gamers in the community. It's awesome to hear how my experiences were resonant with so many others!
@@lum3516 the devs admitted that around 1.1-11.2 and that's when the 10yr run rumor began. The game story isn't that good to even run 10 years
I was shocked to find that you only have 702 subscribers. I was under the impression this video was made by a larger channel until midway in. This video essay was wonderfully made; I found your script super enjoyable and satisfying to listen to. You've articulated yourself and your thoughts very well. It felt as if I was only 10 minutes in until I checked back on the video and I was already 30 minutes in. Really didn't feel like it. I have never seen a 50 minute video essay pass by so quickly before, which I find to be a testament to how well it was made, so congratulations.
Onto the actual topic of the video though, this whole ordeal with it was probably the exact reason why I felt so burnt out from Genshin eventually. I used to play it every day throughout 2020 but eventually I just got really tired of it. This might just be a normal thing for me, because like you mentioned with your girlfriend's case, I also don't tend to have the drive to dedicate so much to games. I get tired of any game easily, and Gacha games are a genre in which this happens to me the most frequently. But with Genshin it was strange, because I really did enjoy it. My motivation just burnt out really quickly, likely due to the inefficiency of some of the systems you mentioned.
The straw that broke the camel's back was that I really wanted Hu Tao but never managed to get her. I was already struggling to log in every day by that point and then when the opportunity to get her passed I just felt really fucking tired and unmotivated. I even tried to hang on just a little longer and kept playing for a bit but then I found myself struggling so much to level up my other characters and I just gave up. I played it again in rare occasions ever since then but not much. I guess I'm at a point where I have the opposite problem you had of finishing everything. Now it feels like there's just so much to do and so much I haven't caught up on yet that even opening it feels daunting. Last thing I saw was Inazuma which i made a little progress in but that was about it.
This video kind of made me want to play it again, funnily enough. I might just make it a thing where I play it when I have absolutely nothing to do, and during the week so I don't burn through the entire day exclusively playing it. I think that would benefit me. I feel like this game can be enjoyed the most when you do regulate how much time you dedicate to it and don't rush through everything. I feel like doing that is what sours things for most people. But given that making people spend as much time as possible on the game is the goal, regulating your time on it ends up being really hard, and goes against its nature.
Thank you so much for the kind words! I genuinely appreciate it! I think your conclusion of taking the game at your own pace seems to be the most healthy engagement with the game. Disregarding the time-sensitive resource management systems and just enjoying the game for the actual GAME just makes your experience better. This is precisely why I made this video in the first place. Those systems became the game and overshadowed the elements of the game I actually enjoyed in the first place.
Nevertheless, I sincerely appreciate the comment, and thank you for watching!
as an ex genshin player you just put my feelings about the game that i couldnt explain into words lol great video!
This video was really well structured and I found myself agreeing with many of the point made
Artifact farming is such an über nonsense. So many layers of RNGesus. I feel mad
Now that I vented it out, great essay! I found your Co-op experience description interesting
Bro you do realise the entire reason genshin impact is the way it is is because literally everything from the top to the bottom is designed to get you addicted and push you to wish, all the arbitrary restrictions on everything from co-op being bad to artifact rng to events to character designs the resin system even the game being free, literally everything is to push the player to wish or buy primos to refresh resin or mats from the shop, genshin impact is the biggest money making game in the world right now multiple billions in what just over 2 years now, you can't just say I kept the wishing system at arms length because it is fundamentally what drives every single decision hoyoverse makes in it's design and the root cause of every single problem you or any other genshin player has with the game including myself
Well... I actually CAN say "I kept the wishing system at arms length" because I did. Irrespective of how Hoyoverse pushes its wishing system, if you straight up removed wishing and Primogems from all facets of gameplay (obviously substituting some sort of alternative character + weapon acquisition system), you would have a very similar game to what we have now. I can't see how Co-ops restrictiveness or artifacts heavy RNG mechanics "push" players into spending money or wishing because they aren't directly tied to it.
Of course Hoyoverse is trying to get people to wish. I do think a lot of the design of Genshin is made specifically to hook players, I even say as much in the video. However, if Hoyoverse was so desperate for players to wish at all costs, they could be infinitely more predatory and direct with their monetization systems too.
All in all, this video was simply me talking through my subjective experience with the game. I'm not even hiding this fact, the word 'My' is in the title. If the wishing system was impacting your time and enjoyment of the game to such a degree that it stained the rest of your experience with Genshin, I'm sorry to hear that! Even so, thank you for watching, and I do appreciate the comment!
TRUE THO
i love this video! well structured and it explains your experience amazingly. i hope this vid reaches more people
You're right, my gosh you are so right! I need to stop caring about resin! I'm AR58, I 36 starred the Spiral Abyss for the first time a few months ago and have never failed to do it again since then. Why do I care about spending my resin anymore?! Why do I care about getting primogems anymore?! My favorite parts of the game are the same as yours: the permanent non-repeatable content. Exploration and quests are the best! This really is eye opening. Thank you so much.
Y-youre welcome :D
The big reason genshin doesn't have "more interesting Battle Pass", or any "missed potential" that you mentioned is because they always prioritize casual players. Those hard stuff might induce "anxiety" to the players, they said. If you complete abyss, or heck play abyss at all, you're no longer the casual that they focus their content for, and as the minority we will never get what we really wanted - stuffs like more endgame content, Spiral Abyss but co-op, permanent hyakunin ikki, etc...
The recent endgame interview pretty much breaks my hope for such content. I have come to acceptance now, "Fine I'll just collect some more waifus if I like them." And then just play as usual but no rush on anything. As long as I have fun, I'll keep playing~
I totally get that. That's why I kind of just had to separate my "wants" of Genshin from the reality of the situation. The content isn't going to change, so why am I investing all my time into it?
Anyways, thanks for the comment! I appreciate the watch :)
Im an day 1 player and it took me a whole yeah to finally 36* abyss and I’m a dolphin. That alone would tell you that characters alone won’t help you with abyss it’s all about how good is your artifact are
As a resident dolphin too, I can agree. There was probably a way to 36* the Abyss earlier than I did, but it would still require a lot of artifact optimizing to make the team comps do the proper damage.
This was so well put. Thank you for all the effort you put into this!
I really liked this video and also agree with your points. Looking forward to an upload in the future whenever that may be
Whenever it may be, indeed!
Tbf the story is the only reason I'm still here, even if exploring is really fun
You’ve encapsulated all of my thoughts. This is an amazing video and I know when I check back tomorrow it’s going to have hundreds of thousands of views
This video was a masterpiece, and I am not normally shocked or blown away by essay typed videos but damn this was an amazing video. I loved every part of it, and your voice is so soothing and easy to comprehend and listen to. Please continue to make more videos because you have talent in video creation(as evident from this video), I can't wait to see you get the attention you deserve
You're too nice!!! Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate it!
The story/lore and the new characters is what's mostly keeping me logging in everyday.
Thank you for sharing your experience with the game. Very insightful!
While artifacts are extremelly important, from what I've seen of the gameplay I feel you could have 36* the Abyss a long time ago. All you needed to do was build Xiangling, change Kazuha to an EM build, and then play Childe national on one side and Eula/Raiden or an actual Itto team on the other. You have the characters, just needed to play them where and how they are best.
Playing 2 accounts is asking to get burnt out. I do log in on a friend's account to get him some log in rewards here and there, but I wouldn't go through the trouble of getting a stash of materials like I have on my account.
So far the best video of these kind I've seen. Most people just complain about systems because they don't even understand how they work and make hyperbolic statements to help their narrative. This was a thorough and fair analysis.
I appreciate the criticism! I felt the need to explain how my unique experiences may have impacted my likes/dislikes pertaining to the game. I didn't feel like I was burning myself out until I was actually burnt out, so it was a bit of a hindsight is 20/20 moment.
Thanks for watching :)
@@SeppoCJ I almost got myself in that burn out hole once. I was actively playing that friend's account brcause I got Keqing there, the character I wanted the most. It was all fine until I got to the 70+ ascension point. Then I noticed how many materials I was missing that I normally have a stockpile of. I had forgotten the grind, lol. I decided to stop playing on his account at that point since I had gotten my fill of Keqing too (now I have her on my account, so no need to play there anymore anyway =p).
@@AndresLionheart My rule of thumb with my girlfriend is that I will get all Resin materials, but you're gonna go hunting around the world for resources. I ain't got time for that! (especially when she wanted to build Itto, bug hunting is a nightmare)
So nice to see Joseph Anderson's children are now grown up and making their own video analysis. Jokes aside, great video.
I'm committed to making a Joseph Anderson reference in every video I make. (and thank you
There are multiple times I had to take a break from Genshin. I think the one key aspect I realize is when following genshin content on social media, it'll make you want to go as fast as you can to catch up with the other thousands of players finishing quickly. I did that on the first part of Sumeru. I finished the quest line (World story and Archon) in one week and the burn out was so real that when I look at the Genshin icon in my desktop I want to delete it. I resulted in halting for probably a month and after that just occasionally go back and do dailies. When the Desert part came, I could care less about the world quest because the navigation was so frustrating, I quit again for 2-3 weeks. I have since been back again (just a little over two weeks from now) and casually doing the dailies and slowly finishing the desert quests.
Though I still have a love and hate on this game. From the technical aspect to some certain community white knights. It's not wrong to critique a game you like to play and yet people mob you over saying some issues you don't like.
Your approach on this is very welcoming. I appreciate at how professional you put out your thoughts and glad someone finally make a video like this.
Everyone seems to have their own way of coping with content burnout! It's a shame it exists in the first place, but, I guess that's how it is! Thanks for watching :)
This video coupled with the devs basically saying that no more end-game content will be made got me to back off of genshin, now logging on for the story and new regions to explore / take interesting photos of
I've heard a lot about this dev article and it definitely turned a lot of people off of the game. So weird how Hoyoverse seems so blind to the desires of a large chunk of their community.
@@SeppoCJ the article wasn't actually an interview with a dev from hoyoverse, but a set of questions answered by a community service staff member or a PR agent, since the questions were sent by mail. it's common for devs to not reveal much of the game development because as genshin has a huge community, some statements would result in expectations and if those weren't going to be fulfilled, then... yeah. (i know this from atsu's video on this topic - @/AsianGuyStream)
@@SeppoCJ Except large chunk of their playerbase are casuals. Hardcore wanters are actually in the minority.
@@jonathan4554 yeah yeah, because progression in this game is in any way casual.
I liked your analysis a lot and found it very relatable. My main gripe with this game is indeed that it demands daily attention and if you don't have that much free time, it may dominate your other leisure activities. Maybe the answer is to just forget resin and treat the game completely casually.
You can erase the "maybe", that IS the answer! I guess I, and many others, just didn't want to play the game like that. I enjoy devoting myself fully to games and had held out hope that Genshin would be one to reward that dedication, but it clearly isn't meant for that. So it's honestly just not the game for me! Even so, if you, or others DO enjoy the game, for whatever reason that may be, so be it, and more power to them!
Amazing video excited to see the future of your channel
I also reached AR 60 just before sumeru came out and decided this was a good time to start a 2nd account, mostly so I could play with my EU IRL friends. For me a lot of this rings true aswell genshin just is "the game" now that I play and I barely play much else nowadays. But ever since that interview I have gone back to taking it slow and not caring too much if my resin gets capped from time to time. Overall a great game, just know what not to do and what to expect
It's a bit of a shame I was already finalizing most of the edits around when that fateful interview came out. Guess it was lucky timing!
The monetization system cannot be separated from overall experience of the game. The only reason most players even explore is to obtain primogems which are used to get characters which affect gameplay. Gameplay-affecting elements should not be behind a paywall. To do so is scummy.
I disagree! Though the systems are linked through Primogems, stripping away that element doesn't change or worsen the exploratory content. I, and many others, found immense joy in simply exploring just for the sake of doing so. Wishing and by extension, the monetization as a whole is entirely opt-in by the player. Genshin just does a damn good job of making these new units FEEL like they're necessary when they 100% are not.
@@SeppoCJ Sheesh, the psychologically manipulative tactics are really doing a number on you. They want you to think exploration is fun, which leads you to see that you're getting primogems, which makes you wonder what they are for, which makes you look at the wish system, which makes you pull, which makes it so you potentially spend, and once you spend once, you're more likely to spend again.
The two are intrinsically linked by primogems and you actually can't honestly say what you have unless you've never wished and never spent, essentially being proof for your own assertion. To my knowledge, you've done both.
It's even better for them in your case because you thinking exploring is inherently fun is actually good for their reputation since it also makes you have a positive opinion of the game. This could lead others to play it and fall into the same trap you did, with varying degrees of severity, despite the fact that you don't recommend the game. They may ignore your warning because of your positive opinion. To truly prevent people from playing the game, it's better to express a negative opinion and be actively against it. Of course there will always be rebels that will do the opposite of what you say, but you can't really do anything about that.
I also really don't think you'd feel the same way if you didn't have access to most of the characters... They are large part of content in the game and they're behind a paywall.
I get that you have this all-encompasing hatred for the games' monetization system, but your argument is predicated on a shaky pretense, namely the statement; "They want you to think exploration is fun". They may want me to think that, but I also think that entirely on the games own merits which I outline for almost 15 minutes. I stand by my claim that Genshin's exploratory systems would remain phenomenal even if we remove Primogems from the equation. My proof, though anecdotal, is that I didn't even realize I was getting Primos from exploring until around 6 months into my tenure, and that fact didn't change my love of exploring the game either.
It feels like you're framing this video as an appraisal of the game when it's far from that. The final sentence prior to the conclusion is that "Genshin is a great game that I can't recommend to anyone.". Part of the reason I can't recommend it is because of the Gacha elements, however, I encourage and trust people to behave responsibly with their finances. Yes, I have wished & spent money on the game, however, if I didn't get what I wanted from wishing, I always had the agency to stop. That's not an appraisal of the gambling systems, just an observation.
I appreciate your tenacity in commenting throughout the comments' section, though I still disagree, I think you have some interesting perspectives to share! Thanks for watching :)
@@SeppoCJ You're not using the word appraisal correctly. The word you're looking for is "endorsement".
i absolutely love video essays like these. you've done a great job! i'm honestly flabbergasted by how smooth the commentary was and the script well-written. i hope this reaches many more people
This video essay was incredible! My experience and views when it comes to the game are a strong contrast to yours, this made your video even more interesting to me. I love how clearly you delivered your experience, and how well you explained the game's mechanics and flaws. This was a very well executed video, and really helped me to view Genshin from a different perspective.
Despite me disagreeing with some of your major complaints, still a well made video. While I can understand the sentiment of saying "I completed genshin because I beat the hardest content and reached the max level", I find it a bit disingenuous to say that when majority of the development undoubtedly goes into the world and story. Exploration and story are 2 major facets of the game.
Genshin is a single player game trapped in a gacha. It feels obligated to have a content loop due to being a gacha, but the devs are clearly not interested in putting a lot of effort into improving that content loop.
That's an interesting take! I found the story to be incredibly unappealing not due to the quality of the content, rather, it's scarcely interspersed distribution. I agree that exploring is a major aspect of the game's design, one I tout as phenomenal throughout the video, but the story just never really appealed.
Nevertheless, thanks for the comment and for watching! I really appreciate it!
Damn amazing essay on genshin. You captured my attention for the whole video, explanations and flow of the essay were rlly clear and no awkward pauses. Most genshin essays usually discuss the same things. But you talked about other stuff that’s equally as important. I always a wondered why I preferred single person exploration in genshin but your essay explained why. You also had an actual essay format and writing style, unlike some of the other genshin “essays” out there which are a bunch of people speaking their mind.”
I'm happy you liked it! I hope to post more in the future! Thanks for watching :)
You deserve more attention! I never thought that I could see this type of content be underappreciated or underrated. This was worth my time and more. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much for the kind words!!!
It's actually crazy how you don't have millions of views and 100k+ subs, such a well written and executed video deserves so much more attention than it's got.
dude... i can relate to ur entire story. There's nothing for me to do after daily coms as an F2p. Only here to pull a character I'm interested in lore wise and fun utility... My endpoint is when the story ends. Yes i can hear people walk a summary about it, but no.. i wanna experience it on my own. Genshin was my first game after pvz, truly a scope above to a 3 dimentional level content when it's not with pre-built plants, but with characters who i have to build. Right now, i try helping players who need any help covering content in their world for fun, give them advices for whoever they wanna main without any bias because this game truly is wonderful.... (apart from the problems we all know).
So yeah.. the thing I'm proud of achieving is reaching ar60, beating abyss 36* and making people understand that being free to play still can get you to the peak if you don't wanna worry about specific characters as it's easy to beat musk reef with any character with enough investment.
reason 2, community... this community is toxic and also wholesome.. the toxic ones are least but they too loud. Genshin fanbase are the most creative people who can inspire any creator as the game itself is also really beautiful in scenery and character visual designs in general
Hope Genshin keeps prioritizing single player experience, I dont play this game so I would rely on other players. If you want Coop game just play MMO like ToF
i have 36* the abyss long time ago, and already 100% all the explorations, having 740+ achievement, now my only goal is to reach AR 60 and waiting for the genshin's story come to an end
You will be waiting a long time my friend. Good luck to ya!
@@SeppoCJ yes, all's well that ends well
Here is how I feel currently. Genshin is easy enough, that completing a character is not really necessary. Especially if you don't go for spiral abyss and just do the dailies. Slowly over time I've managed to "100%" every area and do almost every quest so far. Team: Ayaka, Focalors, (wild card), Nahida. Parts I enjoyed most in the game were the long story quests like the Aranara ones, that hit hard towards the end, and limited time summer events that feel like a holiday. It is also really nice to have something to look forward to too. New events, characters, story. It is like a perfect game for me, who wants to go with their own pace.
Ironically, that 4 star only "worse result" was functionally better than both of the characters in the "better" result
I should have caveated the term "better". As the game and its meta progressed, Fischl definitely outclassed Diluc, but this was 1.0 prior to these team compositions having been realized and common logic claimed Diluc to be one of, if not THE strongest unit in early Genshin.
It is wild to see how the meta has progressed through the years though! Thanks for watching!
Looks like this video is favored by the RUclips algorithm
WTF THIS VIDEO QUALITY IS INSANE, listen while I play genshin later !!
Hope I don't mess up the Genshin session, but thanks so much!!!
I've been stuck at AR 57 and I stopped playing for awhile and your video just summarized everything I feel for Genshin. I hope to reach AR 60 soon and I also hope for a better Battlepass experience. Thank you for this creation.
Nobody mentions the battlepass! It's so BORING!!!!
Though I'm sure that your experience of Genshin's balance is exactly as you portrayed it in your video, I think a lot of your comments were wrong on balance. Lots of 4* units are either on par with or completely outpower many 5* units, and lots of those have been given away for free. Lots of 4* weapons are really good (especailly favonius weapons) and can easily max clear abyss. I've cleared most abysses without using any 5*s at all.
I think your comments on artifacts, though, are basically accurate. Farming Severed Fate can help your resin efficiency, but tbh artifact grinding is pure hell
I made sure to caveat my statements on balance to be primarily directed at the artifacts making special accommodations for 4* weapons and characters. Trust me, I'm the biggest Bennett/Xingqiu/Diona abuser, I know how strong 4*s can be, but artifacts in almost every case are 5* or bust with only a few hypothesized exceptions! Thanks for the comment, I hope you enjoyed!
Babies first gacha basically, it’s funny seeing a lot of people reach this point and deal with it differently. Honestly none of what you said is new, it just simply isn’t for everyone.
Genshin definitely was a lot of peoples' first Gacha game, mine definitely included. It may not have been new to veterans of the genre, but it was something I'd never experienced before in a game, and I was a League of Legends nerd. Thanks for the comment :)
my first standard 10 pull got me jean and my second limited ten pull got me venti so i rly thought that gold was not rare until i was informed much later on lol
This video is a masterpiece, I really enjoyed it!
BIG THANK YOU! I appreciate the watch :)
Thank you so much for your open and honest insight. I can relate to this in all points. Thanks.
THIS IS SO GOOD THIS NEEDS TO BE SEEN BY SO MANY MORE PEOPLE!
This was a great video! It was really interesting seeing how our experiences where the same/different, im also a recent game dev grad (from the animation and art side), who had this game come out in the 2nd to last year of university. I found the way you described how the game fit into that stuck alone on a computer all day during the pandemic very true. When Genshin came out i was alone trapped in a lease for an apartment across the street from my school but doing class online, so genshin was somthing to do while stuck inside hopefully with friends. The co-op in genshin has a ton of missed potential, not being able to do anything but gather resources really diminishes the ejoyment of that feature. I also agree with the feeling on combat and exploration design both are extremely fun to do and get lost in.
I did find it interesting how our experiences differed tho, I found myself not really paying any attention to alot of the more min/max opprotunities with resin, artifacts, and abyss. I still would spend hours in the game, but instead I would just wander around the world not really doing anything, but just looking at the world design. I would follow around the animals using Aloy and just watch what the animations did, or look at how the textures and and models meshed together to create everything. I found just looking at the art at work is what drew me in most and what has kept me getting on. So I found the differences to be really interesting and shows how different aspects can appeal to different people.
Absolutly loved the video! Am im definitly subscribing :)
I didn't mention it in the video, but I distinctly remember on a boring friday afternoon, I walked from Mondstadt all the way to Liyue just to admire the scenery. It was a memorable experience purely for how long it took and pointless it was, but still just fun to do. Genshin is a weird game in that way.
Thanks so much for watching! I appreciate the support! (AND GOOD LUCK IN THE INDUSTRY
FORBIDDEN TECHNIQUE for people who need their efficiency fix, but don't want to burn out:
Do an Event and the Abyss at the start or 15th of a month, then take a break for 2 - 3.5 weeks
You'll get the Stellar Reunion event, for 500 primos, 5 fragile resins, 21 doubled rewards for leylines and domains and a Billet (best way to get billets is not playing the game lol) in addition to a bunch of upgrade mats.
You will be back in time to do the next Abyss cycle and most likely the next event too.
You can do this every 45days.
You will progress your account at a reasonable pace. You will never run out of story and event content.
Let me go back in time and teach myself this... would have saved me a lot of stress!
Don't disclose the secret arts lmao
This was an amazing video bro
This is a game that you Love and Hate at the same time
TRUE THO
A comment for the Algorithm also in my opinion I also lost big interest in this game after they said no more endgame which means for me that daily logins are useless spending resin is meaningless as well
Great video! You earned a new subscriber
Really well done video. Hope it blows up! Happy YT recommended it to me.
I initially wrote a very long comment but I'm just gonna say that the video really resonated with me. I used to be a pretty hardcore player (and a whale) but nowadays I'm trying to be less invested overall. Which honestly is kinda sad as Genshin used to be my comfort game, but seemingly this is the intended way to play it.
I completely agree with the ending line. I love Genshin Impact but I would never recommend it.
Started playing for the first time this year, and everything you've said resonates with me so well. I -love- this game, but I can't help but be sad about everything holding it back. I'd love to talk about it with friends, but I can't in good conscience suggest anyone play it. Great vid.
i resonated with this video in every way. i felt the same sort of compelling allure of ar60 and hit it months ago. i felt the same way about when i first 36stared the abyss over a year ago now. and i hold the same sentiment toward the gatcha system.
Great video essay bro it was a very engaging hour of my life :D
Im happy my hour of content was pleasant! Thanks so much for watching! :)
Damn I feel you. I have 3 accounts all above AR50 that i use to maintain. I spent over $1500 on the game for characters and weapons since launch and I don't regret the money spent (at least for now lol). I cleared the Spiral Abyss at AR50 so there wasn't anything else to do but the mundane commissions. I have now "quit" for over a year and only do the commissions/resin tasks daily in under 20min. I don't play the events or have even started the new stories released in Inazuma/Sumeru. I haven't explored Inazuma/Sumeru and I don't plan to for a while or maybe not at all.
Similar to you, I used to min/max everything as well. I use to practice the optimal rotations for big ppdmg (~800k for me). I use to have set daily farming paths for materials. Looking back I have to admit that I was very obsessed. I use to practice no damage runs against boss' because s are broken. All in all, this game is a little too brain dead for me. As someone who played many games growing up, especially fighting games with my brothers, I was always someone who wanted to perfect a mechanic or learn the game mechanics at the highest level. Spiral Abyss became a DPS check because who cares if you have Characters that Scale off Def or a character that has a unique playstyle when you have to finish the floor under a certain amount of time lol. Maybe its the burnout? Or maybe this is just like all other games, where it is meant to be only but a distant memory you can look back to. Again, cool art and character designs. Story is very meh as someone who played many RPG's in the past (Chrono Trigger, BOF, FF), the story is just ok... Fluid combat which I agree with you on. All in all 5/10.
Jeez, you were way more into it than I was, and I thought I was into it. I agree with you though. The game has so many systems that are just teasing you to master them, but once you do, there isn't any further reward or satisfaction. It all falls flat.
Thanks for watching though! :)
Don’t have much to say, really appreciated this video and it was nice to hear your experience
This has to be the Most Phenomenal Piece of Content I've Ever Seen/Heard, as a Person who's also AR 60 and Have 36 Star'ed the Abyss as I've been Playing Since Day 1, This Video felt just too Fuckin Personal. I in a Million Years Could have never put it into Such Masterful Script/Words. In the end its as you said Brother "Genshin is an amazing game which I can't Recommend to Anyone"
You're too kind! Thanks so much for watching :)
Will Desperately be Waiting for your Next Masterpiece.
Really nice video. you sir just earned a sub.
This was an awesome discussion. Looking forward for more. Genshin or not. This level of gaming discussion is one of my favorite things to listen to.
Amazing video!
If you're into puzzle games, I'd love to hear your thoughts on The Witness. I think it has really interesting game design, and that you'd really like it
Well Made Video 👍
My relationship with Genshin is a strange one but it also fits very well into the complex relationship a lot of others have. I started playing around a year after I got a new job working in a hospital (I got the job only a few months before COVID would become a household name) and after I had broken up with my long-time significant other. I was pretty depressed and filled the emotional gap in my heart with buying crap from Amazon and ordering out fairly often. Genshin gave me a single thing to focus on after work in order to relax and the money I was spending in the game helped me reign in spending in other aspects of my life. I started bringing my lunch to work and stopped buying stuff I didn't need. I even felt compelled to really start contributing to my IRA, which I'd had for years but never really put money into.
Nowadays I still play Genshin but I feel like I'm ready to "graduate" from it and move on to other things, while hopefully also keeping all the better eating and financial habits it helped me develop.
A great summary describing about how many of us feel about the game! I to started playing Genshin during covid times and It was a very enjoyable experience; It was everything I was looking for In a game at the time. To this day, I still enjoy playing Genshin but It doesn't give me that feeling of dopamine anymore then when I first started. I remember my first 5 stars were Venti and Diluc which further heightened my experience at the time. I sometimes wish I could go back to that feeling I had when I first started playing the game. I don't think I'm going to be full on quitting the game any time soon; however I know that I will be playing the game less and less as time goes on. I've completed what would be so called "End Game Content" therefore completing my goal. I also feel like I'm at the point where I can finally slow down due to my account state being good enough; I won't lose out much If I took long breaks. Anyways, amazing video! I hope more people see this video because you've perfectly described how many of us feel.
I'm glad you resonated with the message! Those early days of Genshin were truly something special! Thanks for watching :)
Really solid, fair and informed take on the game in my opinion.
I does sound like you grinded particularly hard during the times I took breaks from the game to wait for content and play other games, so out different opinions do make sense.
There seemed to be an all encompasing "wrongness" to quitting the game when I was playing. I've been happy to see the abundance of people mentioning how they had much healthier relations with the game then I did! Thanks for watching :)
I personally hate this game. I hate it's predatory systems and how it made me it's hostage for so many months of my life. I hate how i woke up everyday thinking about how i had to spend my resin as soon as possible for max efficiency. I also hate how it made me feel inferior to the people who simply had more luck than me and got more good characters, even though i was better at combat than them and didn't have any trouble beating anything in the game. I hate that i spent weeks grinding for a single artifact several times. I hate that i have to aggressively mash the spacebar to skip insanely long and absurdly uninteresting dialogue for 15 minutes at a time. I hate how empty it's open world is, exploration is a chore 99% of the time.
I used to love this game, but i simply cannot play it anymore. It makes me sick.
Wow! It really seems like you have some vitriol brewing against Genshin! I think it's all for the best that you have distanced yourself if it's actually making you sick! I appreciate you watching my video on this, clearly, anger-inducing game though! I really appreciate it!
I pretty much relate to everything described here. I also run multiple accounts (actually 4; one "main", one "sort of main" where i'd get the other 5☆ characters that i couldn't on my main, and 2 "challenge" accounts where i complete challenges with severe restrictions), and it basically multiplied my enjoyment of the game, which was initially made to satisfy my craving for more gameplay, thanks to the resin system, which i deeply resent. Of course this pretty quickly made me burn out, because of multiple issues; other than just dailies being chores, i can't even skip dialogues on my alt which i've already seen on my main, making me spend sometimes hours of active skipping, which actually turned me to try to glitch and sequence-break things on my other account, as a sort of added challenge. But, you described accurately how i feel about the game. The company behind it may have made a quality game, but there's so much wasted potential (and lack of communication from them), which in turn kinda made me think of my time with genshin as wasted, too.
I love the music, and this game has arguably one of the best combat systems, it made me to theorycraft even to maximize my teams and to help people spend their resources more efficiently, but all the negatives are really trying their best to outweigh all the good things...
Today, i pretty much only complete daily commissions on my main, and keep up with the archon quest, while sometimes logging into my other accounts when i feel like it.
(for reference, my account levels rn are:
Main 60,
Sort of main 58,
Challenge accounts 50 and 43)
As a casual genshin player i remember the first time hearing about genshin i legit thought its one of those p2w games that have ads that are just too good to be true, so it slipped my mind then a friend of mine recommended it to me and was blown away by the story,world and characters, you can see that the devs put in the effort to make it fascinating, however its gacha system is dangerous for those who love to gamble, it tries to make you wanna get a certain op character or item even if they're not needed for whatever quest you're given, sure some are necessary in the long run but for the humble beginnings its very easy since you can complete the main story with the first party members you're given.
If Hoyoverse wasn't so greedy, they'd realize that Resin is the singular source of player burnout in this game. If you HAVE to interact with certain activities a certain amount of times per day (you actually want to spend at least ~180 Resin per day to my knowledge) in order to make what is merely an extremely limited amount of progress on your characters each day, then you're not progressing your characters because you want to, but because you're being coerced into the grind and are being forced to come back to do more grinding. THAT is the main cause of burnout for endgame players, and it is completely malicious in nature on part of the developers.
All they'd have to do to fix this problem (if they actually cared about it) is remove Resin entirely, so that way players like me who do legitimately care about making their characters stronger (because it's an RPG) can do so at their own pace whenever they feel like it, instead of being required to do it every day, even if they don't want to. They'll still have insidious systems to make the player come back and play every day like Daily Commissions, limited time events and the Battle Pass, so it's not like they'll be reducing player investment long term if they allow players to progress their characters at their own pace. The only "harm" in allowing players to do that is to the company's bottom line, which is why the problem, that being Resin, will never be fixed. They'd rather charge you as much money as possible to be allowed to experience Genshin Impact like it's any other Action RPG with an infinite grind such as Diablo 3 or the original Borderlands, instead of letting you have a good experience where you can play at your own pace. At which point, they might as well have just abandoned the idea of Genshin Impact being a F2P game and just charged us full price for it with 20 dollar expansion packs. There was no reason other than greed for Genshin Impact to be a mobile game, and all aspects of Genshin Impact that make it an actual game instead of just being more shovelware is completely squandered by its mobile and gacha aspects.
Genshin certainly had potential as a console/PC game, but Hoyoverse was and still is only interested in making the most amount of money possible in the short term, then embezzling that money that people are spending BECAUSE they want Genshin Impact to be even better by using it for projects that nobody care about like Honkai Star Rail, instead of funneling that money back into Genshin Impact, and the quality of Genshin Impact overall is appropriately low as a result. Yes, I think the people who believe Genshin Impact is a good, high quality game have extremely low standards and/or haven't played enough video games, and I think the people who spends tons of money on Genshin Impact and/or spend some degree of money on the game specifically because they want the game to be better are foolish because they're never going to get their money's worth.
I would've totally paid full price for the game purely from the hours I've put into it. I agree, trying to upkeep a F2P model lends itself to predatory monetization systems. It's such a shame :(
Just thought I'd share my take on 2 matters (purely my own assumptions and opinions):
1) The reason why Hoyoverse doesn't focus on coop is because when people communicate, 2 issues are bred - toxicity and necessity for moderation.
Take a look at all the coop games and you realise that toxicity is bred when people get the chance to speak with each other. Look at LoL or Overwatch and you get the idea. In contrast, look at Hearthstone (where you can only emote and not chat with your opponent) and you will feel that toxicity is at the bare minimum (if any).
In addition, CN game developers are required by the state to self moderate (or some might call censorship). This is why every tech company there has their own censorship teams. Allowing people to communicate will also mean that incidents like the pro HK protests movement may appear (in the case of Animal Crossing). This is just additional resources that the company might not want to dedicate to. Not to forget that it runs the risk of running foul of the authorities if not removed fast enough. There have been instances where Hoyoverse locked stuff like not allowing people to edit the profile message during sensitive periods (just in case people attempt to promote anti CN sentiments).
2) The reason for events being time limited (and then removed) might be because they want to prevent someone from developing a private server. This is not to say that private servers don't exist, but more to avoid a replica version happening. That is because if the event objects / quests / NPCs aren't permanent, no private server will be able to always be accurate. In fact, some events that overlap some of the objects might even crash a private server. This will also mean that private servers will need to invest in a proper team to maintain the adjustments, which makes it very difficult.
Anyways, these are just my take on the 2 matters that you brought up. I have no way to verify them other than the fact that the CN government has been starting to be more harsh on game developers (they published a set of regulations during the time of Inazuma, which I feel is the reason why the storyline felt rushed or incomplete).
Wow! This is a super unique take!
For the co-op stuff, I already think that the overabundant censorship currently imposed in the chat is enough to make the game fine for co-op functionality. I don't really think communicative issues is the reason for why Hoyoverse doesn't focus on Co-op, that being said, I don't have an objective answer of what the "real" reason is either (Other than money). In respect to the remote servers, I also can't really speak to that, but it seems super interesting and if true, I wouldn't be surprised! Thanks so much for watching! I really appreciate it!