Genshin Impact - Free to Play

[NARMAK]

I know some of you guys love your anime and art style games in that sort of vein and tbh, i LOVE the look of this. It's completely free and you get some bonuses atm it seems for jumping in and playing that are quite cool imo to help you get started and do more damage etc.

It's like an open world RPG that literally i couldn't help but just start exploring the world and deliberately ignore the main quest step and just get lost in the world. Its got RPG like mechanics for HP and attacks but in a complete action based FF15/7 Remake kinda way and multiple team members set up. You can climb pretty much any surface or glide and it's just bloody fantastic so far imo. Apparently it does onljne co-op which i haven't tested yet and so far it seems the F2P mechanics are not egregious or making me feel compelled to buy to play this at all. I would say that being "Online Only" as a result seemed weird but given its F2P, i believe like almost any and all other titles it doesn't require the PS+ subscription to play either. The only slight technical hitching i've seen i can't 100% place on whether it's the massive open world running online via your net or slightly due to my base PS4. The art style definitely gives this a beauty though and reminds me strongly of the Dragon Quest games and the Journey of the Cursed King i specifically played but more leaned towards perhaps Breath of the Wild in look.

So get it and lose yourself in the world!

[Leonidas King]

99% of everyone on my friend list is currently into this.

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by Leonidas King

99% of everyone on my friend list is currently into this.

Honestly, i've literally spent hours just wandering around the world and doing absolutely nothing of substance to the story lol. That's when you know a game looks pretty and makes you want to wander but i have done some stuff like opening up the story to give myself some abilities and stuff so i can more easily do the open world quests and other exploration.

I would say the best part so far for me is how it doesn't tunnel you down the path of "You must do this and then go here to enjoy this game" but let you just take it all in on your own time. I might start making small guides for this game tbh.

[Derb]

I don’t mind the online only aspect.

My only issue is there is 0 options to hide your UID.

[ratandjmt]

I love the art style annd have already gotten around 10 hours into it. Pretty fun game so far but I'm still early on. I have already hit a level/story progression cap though. I'm not really a spender on boost or items in FTP games but I could definitely see the end game ending up as a real money sink for those just trying to get past a certain area quickly.

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by Derb

I don’t mind the online only aspect.

My only issue is there is 0 options to hide your UID.

Yeah, there's quite a few areas for them to improve like the scroll wheel is really hit or miss trying to actually open the map, character screen, quest log etc. So i would love to see them move it to the touchpad and let you use L1 & R1 to navigate around between the sections in addition to keeping the janky scroll wheel. I know you can push options and access the menu blocks but again, it's cumbersome and counter intuitive imo.

There's definitely some QoL improvements to be made in the future hopefully like lock on to enemies as well as what they do atm with an auto targeting the computer mainly hones in on.

Originally Posted by ratandjmt

I love the art style annd have already gotten around 10 hours into it. Pretty fun game so far but I'm still early on. I have already hit a level/story progression cap though. I'm not really a spender on boost or items in FTP games but I could definitely see the end game ending up as a real money sink for those just trying to get past a certain area quickly.

I haven't hit a story/level cap yet but there's a few guides out there i think that do a good job of showing how F2P players can maximise their game times and enjoyment. I think obviously they have a motive to squeeze it a little narrow where they can maybe sell you MTX but so far, for what i've played i'm extremely happy as its just a good lark around a fancy nice anime style world.

[Zivouhr]

Genshin Impact Review - YouTube

I watched some gameplay and the visuals remind me a lot of Immortals Fenyx Rising, though the characters here are definitely anime, and the landscapes here more wide open and distant.

Immortals Fenyx Rising Review - YouTube

Immortals Fenyx Rising is a fun game.

[emailking]

Will you play this Zivouhr?

[Just_Discovered_3D]

Originally Posted by Zivouhr

Genshin Impact Review - YouTube

I watched some gameplay and the visuals remind me a lot of Immortals Fenyx Rising, though the characters here are definitely anime, and the landscapes here more wide open and distant.

Immortals Fenyx Rising Review - YouTube
Immortals Fenyx Rising is a fun game.

Reminds me of an anime-ish take on Elden Ring, though I suppose Elden Ring is almost an old-school take on Genshin since it came later?

Unfortunately, on PS4 the performance of the game is shamefully bad. Weirdly, if you play this on your phone it gives you a whole list of performance options to tweak to your liking, and the ability to run at 30, 45, or 60 FPS. On PS4, you get 2 options: disable V-Sync, and how strong the motion blur is (even if disabled, there's still motion blur)

On PS4, or the forgotten PS4 Pro, it's capped at 30 FPS and frequently dips and drops down into the 20s. If you disable V-Sync, it becomes a mess with constant screen tearing. Load times are long, and then after the load screens you have to wait for all the textures to load; this is significantly improved if your PS4 has a SSD.

Of course, the question is "Is it fun?" and so far as I've played it, it has been. I don't recommend it on PS4 though.