Everything We Know About Genshin Impact So Far
If you want to know more about Genshin Impact, the upcoming Chinese game that's been described as a, quote, "anime Breath of the Wild", then look no further. We've gathered all the information you'll want to know about developer MiHoYo's ambitious open-world action RPG! Genshin Impact is set to launch some time during spring 2020 on PC and mobile platforms.
A PlayStation 4 release was announced in early August 2019, but that won't come out until later. The spring release window puts Genshin Impact in a fairly competitive spot. Nintendo kicks off spring with the long-awaited Animal Crossing: New Horizons on March 20, and just a month later, CD Projekt Red rocks the boat with the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 on April 16.
Square Enix also has May 15 with Marvel's Avengers. And those are just the games that have solid release dates within the same window. Other publishers are looking to put out games in the spring 2020 time frame. Bandai Namco's aiming for early 2020 to release Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, and Dying Light 2 is looking at spring as well.
Atlus announced that Persona 5 Royal will hit Western shelves around then too. In other words, Genshin Impact will need to bring its A game to stand out above the rest. In Genshin Impact, you play as The Traveler, who just awakened after years of slumber.
They don't recognize this new world of Teyvat, but they know that a god has taken their sibling. Now they have to find their long lost kin. They're joined by Paimon, who acts as the mouthpiece of our silent protagonist. "Hey! Wake up! Hello! You said we were gonna watch the sunrise together.
How are you still asleep?" After arriving in Mondstadt, a large city in Teyvat, The Traveler fends off a dragon named Stormterror Dvalin. The people of Mondstadt respect the hero's power, but at the same time, some worry that the power may represent "a new storm", whatever that means.
Stormterror drains power from The Four Winds' Temples to cause destruction, so it's up to The Traveler to prevent the dragon from doing so. What does that mean for our hero? And what's in store for them later down the line? That's something we'll have to find out in the full game.
At its core, Genshin Impact is an open world action game. You can roam around where you please. You can run up any hill, climb up any wall, and glide across any gap. You'll find many enemies scattered throughout the world, of course. Luckily, your characters all have different ways of fighting them, ranging from magic to swords to bows.
Combat takes place in real time, where every button you press immediately corresponds to an action. Furthermore, based on the gameplay trailer, it seems like characters can unleash a special attack in battle that bolsters their strength. Outside of combat, players explore towns and dungeons.
In towns, like Mondstadt, players can rest and interact with NPCs. In dungeons, players can master their control over the seven natural elements in the game, including Pyro and Hydro. These elements are key to solving the various puzzles that litter the dungeons.
Of course, between the puzzles you'll always find enemies to smash. Genshin Impact offers a whole slew of characters for you to play as throughout the game. Although you start with "The Traveler," who you choose the name and gender of, you can find more than 30 other characters to control.
When you find characters you like, you can build a party of up to four people and travel the world with them. MiHoYo promises that each character will have their own personalities and combat styles, and if they deliver, it'll make for a truly varied experience.
And you can also invite your real world friends to join your session. We don't know the full extent of the multiplayer yet or whether there will be any sort of restriction on when you can or can't play with friends. Nonetheless, if you're the kind of person who likes to have friends on their side, Genshin Impact can deliver.
Let's be honest. You probably heard about Genshin Impact because someone online compared it to Breath of the Wild. It's the game's claim to fame, after all. On a cursory glance, someone could mistake any screenshot with Nintendo's franchise. If you replace the player character with Link, you could fool anyone.
Both games even open the same way, more or less. "Open your eyes. Wake up, Link." Even bits of the gameplay that we've seen bear a resemblance to Breath of the Wild. In the initial trailer, we see the player character scale walls and glide through the air, much like Link does.
A stamina gauge determines how much you can climb, and it seems like you can climb any vertical surface. Although it doesn't look like you need to climb towers in Genshin Impact, you still need to interact with certain landmarks to lift the fog from the map, revealing the land surrounding you.
Granted, this mechanic isn't unique to Breath of the Wild, but it doesn't help MiHoYo's case. Even the menu interfaces look strikingly similar. In summer 2019, Genshin Impact wrapped up its first closed beta, where we got to see an early showcase of the game and its mechanics.
We got a glimpse at what the opening cutscene could look like in the final product, with Paimon waking up The Traveler. The beta gave players a portion of the open world to explore, and in it, they could recruit Amber. After inviting Amber to the party, players could freely switch between the two.
Considering The Traveler uses a sword while Amber uses a bow, we got a look at two different systems of combat. The beta's climax featured an epic boss fight with Stormterror Dvalin, and if the gameplay trailer is anything to go by, things are only going to get more intense.
