Imagine a game with gorgeous visuals, sakura trees dripping their petals, pinecones scattered across the ground, and critters running around while also being able to run around as your favorite characters. That’s Genshin Impact. Genshin Impact is a very broad game, with a large storyline and vast terrain. There are different regions that represent different countries in real life, and each one has its own storyline and visuals. There are also events that happen every patch and new characters coming every few months through a gacha system. But is Genshin Impact all it’s cracked up to be?

Visuals: The terrain within Genshin Impact is very vast and beautiful, with different visuals and game mechanics within each region to make them unique. The regions we have so far are Mondstadt (Germany), Liyue (Ancient China), Inazuma (Japan), Sumeru (Egypt), Fontaine (France), Natlan (South America), Nod Krai (Nordic countries like Finland), and upcoming Snezhnaya (Russia). Each region has its own visuals that make it unique and interesting, like how Liyue is filled with lanterns and Chinese-styled architecture or how Inazuma is filled with sakura trees and ancient Japanese-styled architecture. I really enjoy these visuals since they make every region feel unique, and I feel that the architecture and nature themes within each region are amazing representations of the countries they are based on, even though many people could argue that the terrain in some regions makes exploration harder than others.

Co-op: Genshin Impact is amazing when it comes to its co-op feature, allowing people to join each other’s worlds in order to either get rewards they aren’t strong enough to get themselves, help newer players, or just hang out and have fun! I personally enjoy the co-op feature very, very much, as I have made MANY friends within Genshin that I have now known for years, and it offers an amazing opportunity for people to make new friends or be random without feeling judged for it. In co-op, you can fight bosses with your friends and utilize the abilities of characters you don’t own if your friend has that character, since they can use it to your advantage! It’s an amazing way to clear content while also promoting friendships and social interaction.

Storyline: The storyline within Genshin is incredibly vast and powerful, with some of them having brought me to tears with how real and relatable they felt, watching some of the characters I have grown to love get put in tough situations. The main story is that you are an alien-like being/traveler who is traveling the stars with your sibling when you come across this planet known as Teyvat. You are stopped by an unknown god, and your sibling is cast away while you are sent down on land. You must travel through the story and all these regions searching for your lost sibling while also learning about the dark history of the land and the chaos hidden underneath. On top of the Archon quests, which are the main quests for each region, there is a vast majority of world quests and event quests, which can give rewards based on how long the quest is. While the questlines are amazing, I personally have trouble sitting still for most of the quests, since over the past few regions, there have been many more archon quests added, and each one is longer and longer, with some having multiple hours per act and multiple acts per archon quest! Each one is getting longer and longer with more acts and more hours, some even locking you into the quest by not allowing you to use co-op or forcing you through 20-minute cutscenes. Personally, with my ADHD, those quests are incredibly hard for me to sit through, but many people love doing quests and learning about the lore. Many people have also complained that there is no skip button for the quests, meaning you have to sit through the entire thing just to get the rewards. Personally, I would like a skip button, but I get that the developers want people to interact with the quests and make sure to pay attention to the lore they put so much thought into. If you are fine sitting through quests, you won’t mind the multitude of quests in Genshin.

In-Game Rewards: The in-game rewards in Genshin Impact are way less than most of the other gacha games out there right now, with many people complaining that there are not enough chests to grab for exploration, and there are not enough rewards in events to even be able to get the characters you want. In Genshin, the currency system is known as Primogems, and the gacha system consists of Fates that you use to wish for characters. It takes 160 primogems to get one fate, and you need roughly 80 of them to guarantee a 5-star character and 10 to guarantee a 4-star character. The luxurious and precious chests both give 10 primogems but are way rarer; the exquisite chests and remarkable chests give 5 primogems, and the common chests only give 2 primogems! On top of that, if you go to explore regions where you have already completed the archon quests, chests give significantly fewer primogems, with the common chests not even giving you anything at all! The events, quests, and exploration rewards are just not enough, forcing many people to skip character banners they really wanted in order to focus on better units if they want to keep playing for free, or forcing people to pay money if they really want to get a character. In order to get 80 fates in Genshin money-wise, it takes $200 if you don’t have the first-time top-up bonus! It is absolutely ridiculous, but if you are either fine paying money or fine being minimalist when it comes to the characters you have, then you won’t mind the gacha system.

Gacha System: The gacha system within Genshin Impact seems complex at first glance but is actually very simple when you learn about it. You need 80 fates to guarantee a 5-star character but can get one earlier than that. The number of wishes you’ve done without a 5-star is called your pity. Seventy-five pity is considered soft pity, when you start getting higher chances to get a 5-star, and 80 pity is called hard pity, when you have an extremely higher chance every pull after to get a 5-star. There is a thing called a 50/50 system, where you have a chance to get the limited character/weapon on the banner or one of the standard options. If you win, you get the character/weapon you wanted, but if you lose, you get a standard character/weapon, and your next 5-star is guaranteed to be the one on-banner. Personally, I find this system engaging and fun, since it is a very universal system within gacha games. However, with Genshin specifically, it feels very pay-to-win, making free-to-play players feel the pain of losing 10 times harder since they will have to fend for scraps just to get the guarantee. I wish they added either an earlier pity system or more in-game rewards. The system can also be considered gambling in the United States, which actually ended up with American users having to verify that they are over 16 in order to keep their accounts. While it is fun to get a character, it is also very easy to want to pay if you don’t get it, and I feel saddened to know that my free-to-play friends might not be able to get characters they want because they ran out of resources.

Characters and Constellations: The characters within Genshin Impact are my favorite part about the entire game, since each one is just so different appearance-wise and personality-wise. When you gain a new character from the gacha system, you can hear their voicelines, level up their abilities, build them with artifacts that give them amazing stats, and get them amazing weapons and constellations. Character constellations are gained when you get more copies of a character after already unlocking them, each constellation adding permanent buffs to the character to boost their overall damage. The maximum number of constellations you can get per character is 6, which means getting that character 7 times. With the gacha system, it makes it hard to get a C6 (constellation 6) 5-star, which makes it all the more rewarding when you do. I have become really attached to a handful of characters, those characters being Flins, Varka, Alhaitham, Wriothesley, Kinich, and Arataki Itto! Each character is incredibly different, and that’s what I love about them. They are unique in their own ways, having different personalities, appearances, and playstyles! I personally think that any gacha game with amazing characters will go very far, and that is definitely part of why Genshin is still being played!

Relevance: Genshin Impact started in 2020 and peaked in 2022, which was when it got the most engagement it had ever had. Ever since then, however, Genshin has been slowly dwindling out when it comes to relevance and advertisements/sponsorships. I have been playing since December, 2023, and joined after learning about it from a paid sponsorship with a YouTuber I watched. However, in late 2024, I noticed that Genshin Impact sponsorships had mainly dwindled out, with only ads on YouTube being available when watching gaming content. Its name, however, still remains very popular, with an extremely large player base. Personally, I think that Genshin Impact is somewhat still relevant; however, better gacha game alternatives have since been released that are far superior, like Wuthering Waves or Honkai Star Rail, and there are far more to come. All in all, though, I think Genshin is still relevant in the sense of being well known and in its player base.

Review: A recent review on YouTube about Genshin Impact called “Is Genshin Impact Still Worth Playing in 2026?” by a content creator named Slick is pretty spot-on when it comes to everything I have listed, talking about how as a new player, you will pretty much never run out of new things to do or new content to clear. Slick goes further in depth about the newer region in his 8-minute review, rather than focusing on older content. He speaks about how if you join now, there are many major events you have missed and will not be able to play. You will have to watch a playthrough. I very much agree with his opinion on the new archon quests in Nod Krai. While I have not played the Archon quest entirely, I have watched playthroughs, and I wholeheartedly agree with how good the story is getting. He also talks about the voice-actor strike going on during Natlan, which I will not be speaking on since I don’t have enough information on the subject. He speaks about how large the file size for the game is and how this is an issue for people without much storage space, which I fully agree with. I disagree with his love for the new addition to Genshin, however. It is called Miliastra Wonderland and is basically Roblox within Genshin, but with character customization locked behind a paywall. I think this was entirely a cash grab and was not made with the users in mind as much as their wallets. Overall, I still think his review is amazing.

Would I recommend it? Yes! I very much recommend Genshin Impact to people who love a deep storyline and broad character selection while also not minding the very pay-to-win gacha style. If you wish to play a nice game with your friends, collect characters, and enjoy a deep storyline while also having much time on your hands, Genshin might be for you! As long as you are financially responsible, that is. While many people have complained about things over the years, like Miliastra, the events, and the rewards, I think Genshin Impact is still such an amazing game that you should definitely give it a chance!