This is the fourth in a series of five write ups I produced, detailing my thoughts and experiences with Genshin Impact. In this part, I go in depth on Genshin Impact's fun and varied combat, character, and customization systems, detailing how it ties its many characters and dungeons together, and giving an example of a team I put much thought and fun into.
I said in my previous write up that in the dungeon department, Genshin Impact does not compare to Breath of the Wild. Arguably this is also true in the exploration department, because there is a smaller world to explore and more reason to backtrack and revisit old locations. If Genshin Impact then shines in its story and characters, where else does it shine? I would argue the final big one is its combat and customization systems.
Genshin Impact is much more combat focused than Breath of the Wild. Many of its dungeons are just a series of fights with no puzzles to speak of. However, Genshin Impact has a deep and satisfying combat system that is quite fun to play. Similar to Breath of the Wild, Genshin Impact has five types of weapons characters can use: sword, claymore, spear, tome, and bow. Each character can only use one of each weapon, so you will need a variety of characters to combat enemies high up that require a bow, or enemies with a shield that require a claymore to break. In addition, Genshin Impact has an elemental system to it. There are a total of seven elements in the game (Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Wind, and Grass). Similar to Pokemon, certain elements do really well against others (water is good against fire, which is good against ice, etc.), but when two of these elements collide, it creates an elemental reaction. Each of the many reactions have different effects (water + electric stuns enemies, water + ice freezes enemies, fire + electric creates an explosion that blows enemies away, lighting + ice will reduce enemies’ physical defense, etc.), and what this means is that there are so many different ways you can go about a fight. Not only can you use your surroundings to your advantage, such as if you are fighting near water or a torch is nearby, but it means there is a vast depth of customization to how you go about battling enemies, and seeing the many different strategies players use is just so fun.
But of course, each character in the game specializes in a single element. So if you want to make the most of Genshin’s complex battle system, you will need a party of characters that go well together, in other words, you will need a lot of characters to strategize and do all sorts of team combinations. This is where the game’s many characters come into play, and where the combat system really differentiates itself from Breath of the Wild. Where Link can use all types of weapons (well, save the tome) and no elements, Genshin’s characters can only use one type of weapon, and all specialize in one element. Not only that, but through the characters’ abilities, each character specializes in a different way to help your team. Some are specialized in dealing as much damage as possible, some are specialized in support, by giving attack buffs to your other characters, or creating a shield to protect your other characters, some create allies that will help you in battle even when you switch to a different character, and some are specialized in healing and keeping your team safe. Learning about each character, what element they are, what type of weapon they use, what role they specialize in, and what their abilities let them do, makes every character in the game feel unique and fun to play. I got sucked into Genshin’s combat and character systems so much that I can’t get enough of it. Experimenting and finding the right team of characters that works in a specific situation is just so fun. And then when you’re in a new environment, when enemies are impervious to an element you made essential to your team, you have to change it up and make a new one. The game’s diverse world and challenges constantly require you to change your team and experiment, and it’s led to one of my favorite combat and character systems. It helps you to look forward to every new character, and also see that every new character, even if it’s not one you wanted, can be worthwhile if you put the time and effort into them.
This is a valuable component of Genshin Impact, and what makes it work as a Gacha game. When I first started playing it, I had a few specific characters I wanted, but many that I did not want. After having now played the game for six months, getting sucked into the world and learning about its many characters, understanding the depth of its combat and progression system and what each character can do, I have come to enjoy just about every character I have, and that’s saying a lot because I recently acquired every 4 star character in the game (well save the newest one). Each unit has a special niche they fill and feels like a fun and likable character in their own way. It means that the gambling component of Genshin Impact is a little more bearable, because even if there’s an initial sting at not getting a character I want and getting one I did not want, I have come around to appreciate any character or weapon I roll, and see that while what I get is random, I will always get something that feels worthwhile in some way, and that is an incredible part of what makes Genshin Impact so well designed and balanced. All of its characters feel great in their own unique way.
As an example, I’m going to talk about a team of characters I have assembled over my long period of playing Genshin Impact. Similar to what I did in my Octopath Traveler review, I’d like to show just how fun it can be to create teams and characters, and how diverse they all are.
As a quick explanation of one part of characters I haven’t touched much on: Each character has two special abilities: an elemental skill and an elemental burst. The former can be used whenever you’d like, but then has a cooldown period before it can be used again. The elemental burst is similar, however, you must gather a certain amount of energy to be able to use it. Energy is usually gained through dealing elemental damage and with the elemental skill abilities.
So this is a team I’m quite proud of. The first character is Hu Tao. She is a polearm user that specializes in Pyro, or Fire. She is the main damage dealer on this team. So I’ve given her weapons and artifacts that allow her a high amount of crit rate, crit damage, and HP. Normally that last one would be attack, but Hu Tao is unique in that her elemental skill boosts her attack by a ton for a set amount of time, based on how high her HP is. Her role is to use her elemental skill, buff herself, and then deal massive damage. When her skill runs out and I must wait for its cooldown to end, I switch to another character.
Next we have Xingqiu. He is a sword user that specializes in Hydro, or Water. His main role is to support Hu Tao and increase the amount of damage she deals. This is primarily done using his Elemental Burst. It creates rain swords that will surround whichever character I switch to for a set amount of time. While these swords surround the character, their resistance to attacks is increased, and whenever they attack, rain swords will appear and deal additional damage to the target. This is very helpful in allowing Hu Tao to deal more damage. But in addition, Xingqiu’s rain swords will deal water damage. When this is combined with Hu Tao’s elemental skill, which doesn’t just boost her attack but makes her attacks deal fire damage, then Hu Tao will also constantly trigger the Vaporize elemental reaction by combining Pyro and Hydro. Vaporize is a reaction that simply deals a lot more damage to the target, further increasing Hu Tao’s damage output.
Due to this emphasis on Xingqiu’s elemental burst, his weapons and artifacts specialize in increasing his Energy Recharge value, which allows him to gain the energy needed to activate his burst faster. In addition, I increase his attack to ensure his rain swords do as much damage as they can.
Next on the team is Noelle. She is a claymore user that specializes in Geo, or Earth. Her main role is also as a support, but of a more defensive role then Xingqiu. Noelle’s elemental skill creates a shield that will last for a set amount of time around whichever character I switch to. This helps in protecting Hu Tao and other units from taking damage, but it also has a healing effect. See, whenever Noelle attacks an enemy while protected by this shield, there is a 50%+ chance that she will heal the party based on her defense. This is essential, because Hu Tao’s elemental skill, while being amazing in boosting her attack and giving her the ability to deal pyro damage, has a downside. When used, it decreases her HP by 30%. This makes both Xingqiu’s rain swords and Noelle’s shield essential for minimizing any damage she would take. After using her ability a few times, I will switch to Noelle and have her attack for a bit, both to heal the party, and to wait out the cooldown time before the skills and bursts of my other characters reset.
Because Noelle’s shield and healing are her main role, and both of these increase based on her defense, I have given her weapons and artifacts that seek to boost her defense as high as possible.
Finally, rounding this team out is Chongyun. He is a claymore user who specializes in Cryo, or Ice. He has the smallest role of the four, but it is no less important to the team. Chongyun’s main addition comes from his elemental skill. His skill creates a large area. Within this area, any of your attacking characters will inflict cryo damage on all enemies within. More importantly however, his skill gains a special ability from the fact that I have Chongyun’s second constellation. Constellations are special abilities all characters have, making them stronger. However, the only way to unlock constellations is to roll a character on the wish system after you already have them. So you have to roll Chongyun three times to unlock his second constellation (you can see in the above image that in my six months of playing I have rolled him a total of five times).
Anyways, what Chongyun’s second constellation does, is gives his skill a new ability. This makes it so that when within the area his skill creates, whenever one of your characters uses their elemental skill or burst, the cooldown time required to use them again shrinks. This is crucial to the team, as Xingqiu and Noelle’s elemental skills and bursts have a much larger cool down time then Hu Tao’s elemental skill. By shrinking them all, I can switch between them and use their unique abilities faster to help each other out. Chongyun is the final piece to my team synergy that allows the other three characters to constantly unleash their abilities and make Hu Tao as strong as possible. To make him as effective as can be in this role (which is using his elemental skill as much as possible), I’ve given Chongyun a weapon that has a 50% chance of eliminating the cooldown of his elemental skill when it hits an enemy.
I hope this example illustrated how complex Genshin Impact’s customization can be. You can build characters in all sorts of different ways depending on which stats you focus on for their weapons and artifacts, and finding the ones that compliment each other very well and discovering that synergy makes for a very satisfying customization system, which then leads to a very fun combat system. Even though I’ve been playing this game for six months, I still find the combat system fun, and enjoy switching my characters around and trying out new combinations.
That is my sell and review on Genshin Impact. It is a game similar to Breath of the Wild, but with a larger emphasis on its story and characters, backtracking and collectibles, and combat and customization. If you wanted an open world game with a fun world to explore and learn about, then you may find yourself as addicted to this game as I am. Couple this with the fact that the game is constantly adding new characters and featuring new events throughout the world, and it can be hard to stop playing. It’s a game I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, and I am looking forward to continuing to play it for a long long time.
But, I'm not done yet. There's one more element of Genshin Impact that makes it special to me. This will require me to dive into its world and portrayal of its kingdoms, so look forward to that in the final part of my Genshin Impact write ups!
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