PC Gamer Annual - UK (2022)

5454 M AY 2 02 1

Genshin Impact

COVER FEATURE

JRPGs. MiHoYo also studied

The Elder Scrolls for how to design

good open-world quests, while it’s

melee combat clearly took lessons

from Nier: Automata.

But at the heart of Genshin

Impact’s genius is its eclectic and

ever-growing cast of characters.

Drawing upon all the lessons learned

from its previous games, Genshin’s

anime roster is immediately lovable

and surprisingly family friendly when

you consider the company’s original

mission to cater to horny boys. Cai

explains that the process of designing

these new characters is extremely

intensive, each one taking about nine

months, “The most challenging part

of making a character comes down to

one question in the end: how do we

create a character that players will

like? No one can guarantee that the

character you create will be popular,

but what we can do is improve

through a constant process of

creation, experimentation, feedback,

absorption and then creation again.”

GROWING STRONGER

It’s a loop that MiHoYo has been

practising since its very first game,

and it’s hard to overstate how good

it’s become at making lovable anime

goofs. But Genshin Impact’s appeal

isn’t just its characters. It’s due to

how so many of its strengths fit

together to create a game that feels

like it should cost $60 but is instead

completely free. That I can play it on

my PC and then jump over to playing

on my phone seamlessly makes

Genshin Impact astounding. Even its

microtransactions, though sometimes

annoying, are entirely optional.

“It’s more based around paying for

things that you want as opposed to

paying for things that you need,”

Daniel Ahmad explains. “What that

means is that you can essentially play

Genshin Impact for free for a really

long time. There’s no real pressure, at

least in the first 30 hours of the game,

to pay for anything.”

In hindsight, it’s no wonder that

Genshin Impact has become as

popular as it is. But the ace up

MiHoYo’s sleeve is that it’s just

getting started.

ONLY THE BEGINNING

Since Genshin Impact launched, it has

already had a string of major updates

adding new characters, limited-time

events, quests, bosses and even new

regions. And all of that has come at a

rapid pace that puts many other

live-service games to shame. Previous

updates, for example, have added a

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