Is Genshin Impact Worth Playing in 2023? (An Honest F2P Perspective)

Is Genshin Impact worth it? In this review, I go deep into Genshin Impact's gameplay, open world exploration, combat and gacha mechanics, so you can decide whether it's worth playing in 2023.

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0:00 Introduction
1:14 Exploration in the Open World
3:35 Combat
7:00 Progression
10:15 Questing
12:43 Gacha

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[SuperMolando]

Ok, a few comments for people who are on the fence about playing.

During the review he mentioned world level.
As you get more overall experience, there are stages when you can move the world level forward. Each time you do, it becomes harder.
Or to put it another way, the game is easier at lower levels, so you can go many places and the mobs are scaled down to your level.

As your characters progress (their level, their weapons level and refinement, their talents, their artefacts), they become stronger.
There are a couple of times, where if you progress the world level with badly equipped characters, it can be a bit of a challenge.
So you hold the world level back, until you have a better team.

At high levels the overland content becomes trivial.
The fun (at high levels) comes from beating bosses, progressing characters, weapons, artefacts and skills, trying out new combinations of characters, enjoying the story and events, and beating your own times.

As there is no PVP in the game, it makes absolutely no difference if your characters are not as well equipped as somebody else.
The only time you even see others is during some co-op events, and nobody cares if you are stronger or weaker.

The pity system means that there is about a 1% chance per pull of a 5* character. On the 90th pull after your last 5* there is a 50% chance you will get the character on the banner. If you do not, then your next 5* will be the character on the banner.
This pity carries over from banner to banner.
I.e. I am five pulls for a guaranteed banner 5* character.

Most characters have a preferred weapon, but there are many other weapons they can use.
You may not be in the top 10% without that weapon, but as no PvP it makes absolutely no difference.

Some of the best characters in the game are 4* characters.
I have nearly every character in the game, and my best team (national team) is made up for three four stars, and one five star.

You can enjoy the game free to play easily, if anything, I wish I had not have whaled on it, as nothing is a challenge now.
As long as you can beat the content, it is pointless spending (apart from getting new characters to try) as there is no PVP, so you are never compared against others.

[Noschool]

God, microtransactions are the worst thing to happen to gaming

[GhostEmblem]

I'm really curious to see your part 2 on the regions they built when they had raked in the money and put it back into the game. The parts you've reviewed are what the game released with but it was an enlightening experience to hear a fresh perspective on the release regions after playing so long in the new regions.
Subbed.

[edenrav]

This review is kinda bad if you ask me, alot of your points kinda fall flat if you just continue the game. I wont explain myself because I cant be bothered to type it to a guy that blatently ignores critasism (reading comments).

For the people watching feel free to find other f2p reviews as this one is pretty misinformed.

[kurolie]

I"ve been playing as an f2p since the launch back in 2020. I still absolutely love the game: the characters are nice, the story/lore is fantastic and the exploration brings me joy (not all the time but especially when a new region is out, summer at this moment more specifically). As far as saving up goes: depending on how active/grindy i'm playing at the moment (say: events, new archon quests, etc.) it may take as long as a few months to save up for characters. I don't mind it as much as most of the characters that i like are four stars anyway.
For the combat: it's true that elemental reaction based teams are more favorable, considering the last physical focused 5star was Eula from Mondstadt, and deal more damage. It's also easier to do a quick-swap team that focus on elemental reactions rather than physical damage.



My bottom line is: there's no need to actually pay money for characters but it's true that staying active in the game such as completing all your dailies, the events and the archon quests all the time is necessary to collect enough primogems (excluding the occasional livestream codes that appear before major updates). But that's just my opinion at the end :)

[GSIndonesia]

The enemy variety will increase as you unlock new region. There will be new types of enemies in Inazuma, and there will be new type of enemies in Sumeru. And more region will be released in the future, which means, more variety of enemy. As the HP bar, you need to put on artifact and upgrade them to boost your damage and increase your talent. Level character and weapon alone wont be enough to deal with higher level mobs

[ayukuro]

I think if you get over the beginning hump of the tutorial under AR7 then you have a chance to get hooked in, and then if you make it past moondstadt then you might easily get addicted. Some of my friends quit the game early on, but after convincing them to try it again they became massive fans. Big obstacle is also the daily grind, however after you just get your basic team of 4 characters that can take you through the overworld, which is really fast you can just relax and play it as a constantly updated single player RPG.

The combat can feel lackluster or tedious at times, but honestly that is usually remedied by getting new characters which you can combine and it switches up the gameplay, that is the biggest negative for me probably. A lot of people are fine with playing the same team for years, but for me i just need all the characters. The health bars are obviously tuned for a good team composition or just characters at higher level, in the early game the balance is a bit off for sure.

[aerohydra]

Hmm this review is interesting but like others have said I think you need to play a lot more before talking about the game in depth, right now it's like playing the first 10 hours of a 100+ hour game.

Case and point, enemy variety: you said there wasn't a lot of enemy variety, but Genshin actually has a huge amount of enemy variety, it's just that a lot of it was added later on and as such are in later zones and later game content. You have Hillichurls, Mitachurls, Lawachurls, Slimes, Abyss Mages, and Ruin Guards, yes, in the first few hours of gameplay. But later on you get fatui, Abyss Heralds and Lectors, All types of ruin enemies like doritos and graders, wolfhounds, vishaps, specters, Samurai, mushrooms, automatrons, and much more. Not to mention a large amount of bosses.

[DOOMSDAY]

Wow was not expecting this review but imo I think the game is really fun, been playing it since 2020 release and yes it can be confusing or feel a bit to grindy and the enemies can be really tanky. Building you character is a lot more difficult because it’s not just about the level or weapon u also need to get artifact sets that match your team synergy and upgrade your characters talents. I highly recommend to all new players to look up some guides for new players and character/ team builds for characters u have. The game opens up a lot more there’s so much more content right now than the 1st 2 areas and alot more enemy variety. It’s good not to over play and stress yourself out take breaks. I took a few months off and now I’m having so much fun in 2 new areas named The Chasm and Sumeru the new region. The game is very grindy to get to end game but I think it’s worth it. Oh and there is so many ways to get premogems in game my friend is free to play aside from buying 2 battle passes and he has so many good 4/5 star characters and weapons. When u explore and open chest and do certain quest u get a lot of premogems like a lot over time and another big way is through limited time events but sadly most are for higher level people so start grinding. Hope new players enjoy this game and don’t take it to serious please be cautious on spending money the only things I would ever recommend if u get into game is BATTLEPASS and or welcon moon which is $5 US (you get primogems for 30 days every time u log on). Thanks for anyone who read this and enjoy ur day/ night

[lukebarroso]

Impressive very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's mobile game.

*Raid Shadow Legends*

[ben-taobeneton]

I'm surprised, You as Mass Effect _connoisseur_ made a review of Genshin Impact. I guess the game is affecting us all. But I'm glad you did! The games are massive now! 😌

My experience with the game is just POSITIVE. No complaints. It's really beautiful, and the music is absolutely gorgeous, shout out to Yu Peng and his crew for making masterpieces for this game. I would even say that music carries the game by 70%+. I can get immersed in it and forget about world problems for a long time. The story is amazing, yes, it might not be perfect in every aspect of It, but I will say the story is really complex, so mistakes happen in telling the whole story that the audience appreciates but personally, I love it all the way. Talking about combat and endgame content, for those who want to start the game, *THE GAME IS CLEARABLE WITHOUT SPENDING A SINGLE PENNY!* Just don't be dumb, don't waste your maths and resources which are not mandatory at the moment for you if you intend to beat the endgame for example The Abyss. There are tons of guides on Youtube which can help you like Sekapoko, Zajef, Xlice etc. But that's just my opinion and suggestion but you can play the game how you want and in your own way. Any character and their combinations (Teams) are possible to clear any content in the game if you do it properly. A lot of people blame the gacha system because "I have to whale for Constellations to make my characters stronger, this games dogshit, I can't do it." No, whaling is optional in this game, the most power will derive from *ARTIFACTS*. Yes, it's sadly RNG with 4+ layers on each artefact, that's true. It could get grindy, but if you put the time into doing it like daily commissions you'll eventually get a good artefact, not perfect, but good enough to clear most of the content.

Lastly, I think the only negative side of the game is it might be harder for new players to come to play since a lot of events in the game are time limited. If you make it you make it, if not you lose it all. I have no idea it's possible to fix it that - if you come late, you lose touch with some parts of the story and its characters because a lot of the ingame content is not permanent, it's time limited.

Well I play since day one and haven't skipped any event I can't complain but for new players, it might be hard to hold them in.

In conclusion, play the game in your own way and play it smart. You don't have to spend money if you don't want to. It could give you extra power but it's not mandatory. 🙏

[navalhabr]

This is a "early game" review, because almost everything you said, is solved lategame:

Until now (patch 3.0)
- Enemy variety: You named 4 factions -> Elemental lifeforms (slimes), Hilichurls, Automatons (ruin guard), Other human factions (treasure hoarders).
- The game has 7 main factions + (15 subfactions): Elemental lifeforms (Slimes, Specters, hypostasis), Hilichurls, The abyss (Mages, Heralds, Rifthounds, Shadowy husks), Fatui, Automatons, Other human factions (Treasure hoarders, Nobushi, Kairagi, Eremite), Mystical beasts (Whoppeflowers, Vishaps, Cicins, Fungi).

Some of them are World bosses (Like the elemental flowers, Cubes and manifestations).

- We also have 6 Weekly bosses: (Stormterror, Dominator of the wolves, 11 Fatui harbinger, Azhdaha, 8 Fatui harbinger, Magatsu mitake narukami no mikoto).
- 2 story only bosses (Overlord of the vortex, Avenger of the vortex).

Progression:
- Adventure rank is not only to unlock quests...but also to increase difficulty (world lvl) and rewards.
You'll get better drops from enemies/bosses and domains.

The dungeons you are fighting are just "tutorials", the true Dungeons are Artifacts/Talent domains.

Lvl up Characters and Weapons is only the beggining.
The true power is: Talents + Artifacts that you'll only start to farm at AR 35-45.

Gatcha:
- You don't need to care. They'll give us enough resources to get a few characters and maybe a premium character/weapon each patch.
- If you spend 5$ per month, you can get at lest 1 premium character per patch, if not... in 2 is garanteed.
- If you didn't get the premium character of the banner, the next premium WILL BE the featured character.
- Weapons banner is a scam... don't pull there.

- A bunch of 3* weapons are GREAT for normal gameplay. The 4 and 5* weapons will be better ONLY on Endgame (Abyss). Most of the 3* will have better passives for casual players.
- 4* Characters/weapons ARE NOT GARBAGE!!! Are you insane? WTF!!!!

Premium characters (5*) will have better animations/Story quests and better stats... but THEY ARE NOT BETTER THAN 4*.
Some 4* are TOP META.

Most of the 5* weapons are maded for specific 5* characters. You DON'T NEED IT! (All my dps are using 4* weapons).

You didn't talk about Exploration and Puzzles, the best thing in Genshin.

Also, some Sidequests are Bigger and WAY BETTER than the mainquests (sadly, no Voice acting).

Sorry for my bad english.

[ayukuro]

10:45 this does drastically change and will change even more as the game goes later on. Same goes for Honkai Impact 3rd, for some reason Mihoyo likes to start their game really cozy and slow, which makes them kinda feel boring at the start to be honest, but then the story gets way darker and more interesting.

[TheZhodster]

I disagree about enemy variety. Have you actually left Mondstadt? Also as an ar 60 with a 266 crit damage ayaka I one shot everything so enemies need more hp...

[fola]

Very Organized and straight to the point, thank you :)

[AzzyQu]

I have to disagree on the enemy variety…there’s already a lot, at this point, I feel like if I had to remember any more enemy types and weaknesses I might actuslly cry 😂 the region bosses are also really fun to re-fight too😅

[theunderachiever]

if u r f2p u get around 8000 primos each update (around 40days). which means around 50 wishes. and that is events only and dailies. if u add that 5 bucks welkin to it it would be around 11000. no exploration included. each region has around 100-200 wishes worth of primo just from exploration

[DatAsuna]

I'm a little surprised there's no mentions of the puzzles. It would be fun to see what he thinks of the expansion regions and how they shake up the content.

[DGSHoshiro]

I don't know if someone pointed that out, but when you are talking about de progression system, there is one thing that you don't talked about, in the talents of each character can be upgraded, this is most likely the reason that you are feeling that the enemies have too much health...

[nauscakes]

Oh hey, Big Dan did a Genshin video, awesome!

I love your Cyberpunk videos, and Genshin has been getting hyped, so now I want to learn more about it