Genshin Impact

I've progressed a decent bit into the game so I guess it's time for a review since it's not going to end anytime soon:

Combat: (8/10)

Combat system is very simple to learn but a bit difficult to master. There are normal and charged attacks. No dedicated button to dodge but you can jump or sprint from attacks. Parry and shield are only available for certain characters. There are elemental bursts (E and Q in pc) - powerups with cooldowns. And there are elemental reactions which you can use to your advantage (e.g use freeze/cryo near water to freeze enemies, affect them with fire and then use anemo/wind to produce the reaction 'swirl'). Upto midgame in both open world and quests, combat is nothing difficult and you can easily win most battles if you level up your characters and put some effort into building them with proper artifacts.

Open World Aspect: (8/10)

The world is huge, and it has small encounters, treasures, puzzles and challenges, but despite that it feels empty sometimes. The character moves very slowly, there's no mount so it gets a bit tedious. Gliding is only possible if you jump for a higher place.

The combat being fairly simple and there being too many encounters, the game gets a bit repetitive sometimes. But some of the puzzles are really good - for eg, the three mountain puzzles near Mt Aocang is really good.

Quests: (9/10)

The main quests are extremely good. Side quests have a lot of fetch quests and they might get boring. Commissions are okay, though they are mostly 'fight hillichurl' types. There are random events and world quests too if you start exploring the world which is fun.

Characters and Interactions: (5/10)

This is probably the worst part of the game for me. The dialogues are terrible and repetitive. Voice acting is okay for the chinese version. But I don't get why Paimon keeps repeating the same words? Is that supposed to be cute? It's annoying. And her English voice is downright garbage.

Most of the time I don't really care about what the characters are saying because of this repetition. I enjoy getting the characters and using them in combat though.

Music: (10/10)

The best part of the game. I love how the exploration theme and battle themes mix together. It's extremely good. Stormterror Lair is one of the most beautiful ost I've heard.

Graphics is okay as it is to be expected in this kind of game. Co-op is fun. Gacha aspect is annoying, but can't complain when it's a gacha game to begin with. Overall, it's a good game if you can tolerate annoying dialogues. Solid 8/10 game from me.

I'll try to make this simple: 1. Its free fantasy anime styled game 2. It has a great main story 3. Visually is stunning 4. Open world is huge, and I mean huge (and diverse) 5. Combat is good enough, it requires some practice and knowledge of reactions 6. Number of playable characters is over the top, something for everyone 7. If you want a fast paced game, this is not for you, if you are in for characters and want them all; it will cost you real money, but it is really not necessary, game gives you for free everything you need to play it and experience everything that it has to offer, rest are cosmetics hidden behind gacha system, nothing more 8. Even that "evil" gacha in this game is kind a ok, by playing the game you will for sure earn and get few more characters and weapons without paying anything, or let me put it this way: F2P is really good in this game, F2P friendly 9. The game it self is in constant development, expanding world, new stories, new things are coming every month, so there is always something new to do, see, find, get,.. 10. There are some repetitive things in it, like grinding for experience and materials, but its rewarding, its like, they gave you this beautiful world for free and now you must earn your way to stay there, how is that a bad thing?

11. Did I mention its free?? For all that complains about gacha cosmetics and their rant how its not fair; why would anyone do anything this good for free??! Did devs hid anything from ones that are not paying? No, so let me repeat once more: its free and you actually dont need anything, but if you want something like a spoiled child and rant like: why they dont give it for free, its not their fault, its yours!

12. I played games since 80's, so many titles, so many types of games, thousands, thrust me, please, when I say: there are only few game titles that are memorable: Genshin Impact is one of them...

It's a great game and reminds me a lot of Legend of Zelda, I just wish you were able to change your appearance.

U can play only 30 minutes for day without recharge resin or primo ... * RIP tryhards *

I play for one character only: Albedo. His lore is locked behind limited event dialogue, and that's the main complaint I have.

The combat system is easy to learn, but I only got the proper gist of most efficient rotations/teams/elemental reactions a couple of years in, as I'm generally a casual player. You can't really beat endgame battle content with the free characters they give you, and younger people are likely to gain a gambling addiction, which is given as a free feature but it is gambling, so spending real money is more "effective". I should know, spending the same amount of money you'd spend on Persona 5 at discount trying to get a character... only to not get them.

The women are pretty. The men are pretty. I swing both ways, and the Natlan (disagree with me all you want...) and the Fontaine quests are extremely compelling. Everything beforehand is kind of forgettable.

It's a roll and grind game. You have to grind.

I've been playing since the first anniversary, and sure, I take breaks, but I always come back. I love this game, while it has its flaws, which other reviews phrase better.