Genshin Impact, have you heard of it? No... ? Well, you should... And for good reason, this multiplatform free-to-play video game, released on September 28, 2020, is breaking all records with, among other things, over 23 million downloads on mobile in just one short week, according to our confreres at La Provence. An ambitious"Gatcha Free-to-PlayRPG " (an open-world RPG featuring loot boxes whose contents you draw lots for when you buy them), with a sizeable budget ($100 million invested), which is as fascinating as it is controversial.
But what is this game all about? Genshin Impact is an RPG, as mentioned above, developed by Chinese studios MiHoYo. It plunges you into the heart of a most curious adventure, following in the footsteps of a traveler (or traveler, depending on the character you choose at the outset) and a passage into another reality. Accompanied by Paimon, a kind of fairy/girl (we're not sure...), you must carry out various missions for various guilds in the four corners of the country you've landed in.
Why is this game so appealing? For a number of reasons: its colorful, graphically magnificent open-world, its gameplay combining exploration, role-playing and combat... but perhaps the most appealing and eye-catching feature at first glance is its similarity to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild ( and even some heavy borrowings). A blatant resemblance - a little too blatant, in fact - that is as seductive as it is controversial. And with good reason: the game borders on plagiarism, with a graphically polished gameplay that's almost identical to Nintendo's software, and an endurance system for climbing, swimming and gliding that's identical in every way, as is the cooking and food-gathering system (cuckoo for apple-picking in the trees...). And the enemy camps, built entirely of wood, aren't going to help make the difference...
A very strong inspiration, certainly, but a game that also stands out, even emancipates itself, with various simplified gameplay aspects (dungeons, cooking or even the durability of weapons, which don't exist here), but also through the system of playable and easily accessible multi-characters or the presence of Waifu (transcription of the word Wife in Japanese), a kind of fantasy object for hardened gamers, and which should attract fans of the genre. The fact remains that Genshin Impact is set to become THE must-have game of the year.
