Genshin Impact. Wait, didn’t I already do this? Despite believing I had properly moved
past this monstrosity of a video game, I seem to have developed a
small… malevolent spirit problem. AMBER: Morning! Wanna go on a jog? Opinions. I have ‘em, you have ‘em, we
all have ‘em! On the Genshin Impact video, there are currently 2,549 of them. So, at the
potential expense of shamelessly amassing views through drama and clickbait, I wanted to respond
to some of the comments on said Genshin Impact video. Both the people that raise interesting
points, and the people that vehemently attempt to defend a billion dollar corporation selling
anime gambling to children. Mostly the second one. With that being said, please don’t harass anyone
that left any comments like these. I mean, that should go WITHOUT saying, but considering
the discourse around these types of games, I’m not looking to start a war in my
comments section. God knows I learned not to make a light-hearted capitalism joke in the
comments section of a League of Legends video… “if u can’t keep urself in control then I
recommend do not play… like it is a gacha game and it’s known but people blame their uncontrollable
behaviour on the game that what ticks them off” Right off the bat, I wanna talk about Breath
of the Wild, because I definitely got more than a few comments about it. In previous
videos, I’ve talked about the dangers of over-comparing games to one another, so I will
admit that I was a bit overzealous. However, I think some people put too much weight on
the sheer mention of it, despite me quickly dropping the idea after mentioning that the game
really isn't that similar. I mostly brought it up because the game DID attract a lot of comparisons
upon release, and going into it, Breath of the Wild was fresh in my mind. It’s true that for
the first ten or twenty hours of my experience, I did feel those comparisons weighing rather
heavily, but as Genshin transitioned from its early open-world to a dungeon-centric RPG
formula, the similarities began to fade. Sure, Breath of the Wild didn't invent
climbing and gliding mechanics, but it's clear that Genshin’s implementation wasn't
inspired by fuckin, Pilotwings or something. "It takes a lot of people to make these games,
and they have to be able to make a living too. If you don't like it, don't play it. It's
that simple. No one is forcing you to play." Yes, game development is incredibly difficult,
people should be paid for their work, and the estimated production cost of Genshin
was around a hundred million dollars - but that doesn’t defend the manipulative aspects of
the game. The video game industry is so massive nowadays that it is indeed possible to sell a
game without this type of business model, but it’s become the norm because WITH it, they made
their development costs back in less than a month. When it comes to the second part of the comment,
attempting to be a game critic and analyzing the mechanics I believe make games engaging
without being manipulative means I gotta talk about things I don't like sometimes. If
I only made videos about games I 100% adore, it'd be harder to explain my frame of reference,
or see where some games succeed and others fail. I definitely hear the "if you don't like it
then leave" argument in a LOT of areas of life, but critically engaging with something is
much more interesting and impactful to me than believing Genshin will somehow disappear
or the video game industry will magically fix itself if one person just starts
"voting with their wallet." Also, it's just fun to rant about how companies
sell unregulated gambling to kids, y'know? "The game is amazing. Sure
it's designed to make money, but it's no one's fault but the spenders if they
spend too much and can't control themselves." Someone’s gotta defend the
casinos from those greedy… individuals with mental health problems?
Yeah, lookin' out for the little guys… "The whales get the short end of the
stick with how easy the game is and how unnecessary the gacha characters and weapons are." Even though I specifically mentioned that it's
not about the characters being "better,” a lot of people still wanted to chime in with "you can play
the whole game with the free characters!” But my argument was never about optimization. Dropping a
hail-launching skating rink seems way cooler than spawning some tiny icicles, and throwing
a giant meteor that turns enemies to stone looks a little more impactful than spawning
an awkward rock arena. Yes, with enough game knowledge and grinding, you can clear all
of the Spiral Abyss without spending money, but the game is more than successful enough
to show that people want to be overpowered AND have fun. That’s like… the whole
thing with action combat games. For the “main” part of the game, which I think some late-game players tend
to ignore, I had a lot more fun with Yanfei, Diluc and Hu Tao when I needed a fire option
than I did with Amber in the beginning. I can explain… I also received a handful of comments disagreeing
with my criticism of the strategy and difficulty overall, and while my thoughts come from the
position of someone who only spent two months with the game - which is plenty of time, in my eyes -
I just don't think Genshin offered an interesting challenge. Team composition was often brought up,
but what I think certain people don’t take into account is that you have to engage over a long
period of time with the gacha system to experience some of the “true strategy” the element system
holds. If every character was freely unlockable and it was necessary to figure out which ones to
use for each battle, then it might’ve piqued my interest, but the game clearly isn’t looking to
do that - except for the neat limited-time event that lets you try every character with a full
build. Bet that doesn’t have any ulterior motives… Instead, the world level system puts the responsibility of balancing the
game into the hands of the player, reinforcing Genshin as a numbers game instead
of being anything intrinsically difficult. Plus, there’s also the issue of time investment -
since I’m not a fan of wasting hundreds of hours mindlessly grinding artifacts and experience,
I ran the same one or two teams for almost every piece of content, as getting a new
character and grinding them to level 70 or 80 or 90 takes upwards of five to 10 to
20 hours. In my 100+ hours with the game, I didn’t even get close to
maxing out a single one. YAKKO: Nice.
JULIAN: Alright, garbage… "Genshin has one of the lowest amounts of
NECESSARY grinding amongst mobile games that have grinding mechanics at all, it's just
that you are too used to playing without them." Yeah. Man, these arguments are gonna turn me
into Cranky Kong for real this time, dude… I get that plenty of people like mindless
gameplay and grinding - I’ve played my fair share of Final Fantasy XIV, and I do like
poppin’ some balloons - but most of the time, when I play games, I'm lookin' to have
some fun, not work a fuckin 9 to 5. Recently, I've been thinking a lot about the value
many gamers place on the concept of "time." Games are often discussed and reviewed with hour counts
at the forefront, and sure, it makes sense for a game that actually uses its time wisely,
like, oh, I don’t know, Breath of the Wild- But in general, the concept of “getting my money’s
worth” has never really been a concern for me. Honestly, I would've paid more for Sayonara Wild
Hearts and I beat that shit in like two hours. I think people are willing to put up with a lot
of mediocrity if it means they can "get more time" out of something, especially if the game is
free. My playtime easily exceeded a hundred hours and I didn't even max out a single character
or finish an artifact build. And while yes, end game players have managed to get upwards of
five hundred to a thousand hours out of Genshin, some without spending a penny, I doubt
every moment was exciting and engaging. When games get to that length, I often
feel as if they’re wasting my time. “As an amateur poker player and a libertaria-” "Too much negativity. This
video is almost a total mess!" No, no, that's my other video,
Open-World Games Are A Mess… Where I also talked shit on Genshin- "You make some good points,” Oh, thanks! “but sorry you are outrageously
wrong about other points.” Aw, I shoulda known… “You don't get to talk about bad game
design when you don't even understand why you can't simply freely unlock some
areas in the map that are tied to lore." Oh, I get that it's all lore related,
I just... don't like it. The concept of a fully explorable world is frustrating
when the correct way to explore said world is to accept every blue side quest you see and
start completing them one-by-one until you find a way to walk through the island shrouded in
fog, or get into that secret cavern you saw, or finally disable the invisible walls
and constant damage in the center of a giant mountain. Just kinda limits the idea
of "hey look, there's stuff everywhere, go find it at your own pace!" We won’t strike
you down if you try to cross the ocean! "Gacha is bad, but act like your precious $60
price tag is some kind of holy grail is just hypocritical, 80% of the population
on earth won’t be able to touch that, are they “lower life” than your kind?” what? “Developed countries are built upon
blood and tears of the 3rd world. If you are not sympathizing, you are oppressing." *Breath of the Wild theme plays* "I will never understand how people bash
Mihoyo for even the tiniest screwup, yet other companies get the biggest
of passes. Activision, a legitimately greedy company that makes the exact same
game year after year still gets praise" I don’t know if you’ve seen
any of the news lately, but… “Nintendo, a company that has an atrocious
history of mistreating its fanbase still gets praise. Meanwhile Mihoyo donates a
large sum of money to a goddamn school, and not even announcing it to the
public, is still taken as a PR stunt and is seen as manipulative,
shady and disgraceful by so many.” Ok, I know this is just blatant deflecting to
say "oh, but this thing is infinitely worse!" Yeah, that, definitely knew
that was a term before today. But the video was never about Activision,
or Nintendo, or Mihoyo’s charity work - it's about Genshin Impact. I’ve made a video on
Nintendo’s shitty copyright practices already! Plus, just because other gacha games do it worse
doesn't mean Genshin gets a pass for looking pretty, nor does donating to charity absolve a
multi-billion dollar corporation of all guilt, otherwise I’d be bowing down to
every lottery company in the U.S. “But legitimately saying “Genshin Impact
is not a game and should not be marketed as such” is such an exaggeration
of you just not liking the game.” I don’t think this is quite what I was going for
- I just find it depressing that games made for players of all ages can contain gambling as a
core mechanic, and all they have to do is slap a “warning: you can spend real money” on the
front of the game. The laws and regulations surrounding microtransactions and in-game
purchases differ from country to country, but in the United States, they’re basically
nonexistent. Abuse of these systems has been seen time and time again from Roblox’s stock
markets to CS:GO skin trading to casino and slot machine apps to recently, the new
wave of play-to-earn schemes that make it really hard not to reply to every
business email with “NFT these nuts.” The mindset that it’s not the casino’s fault, it’s
the gambler’s, is spilling over even further into video games, a realm of entertainment that
I care about a lot, and I’m still constantly put-off hearing the caveat: “yeah, you should
try this really fun game as long as you’re not weak-willed.” Just ignore that entire sub-section
of the game… you financially unstable piece of sh- “Love your videos and I’ll keep watching.” Oh… I hope you… uh... thanks. "What to do after a low performing video??" Damn, this guy's out the gate
swingin' for my kneecaps, I just wanted to make a review on SMT V, man… "Yeah shit talk a popular thing to get clicks
- I've seen a lot of vids like this about Genshin even in the most critical view of the game
they were never biased towards it, no reviews has ever complained about the exploration part of the
game and you've clearly started playing the game with preconceived bias, not everyone is a gamer
should be the first principal before a review-" I got nothing. That one’s
just, this one’s just funny. “In short u didn’t know how to enjoy the game and
i declare this creator is just one of the cringe-” I can’t do man, I can’t… “I declare this creator is just one of the
cringe guys in the world. He’s not a pro gamer or head of gaming community that
u believe him. I and 85% of the Genshin community recommends this game which
yells how good it is and thise awards and revenue data is proof that is
the best game in the whole world.” I so desperately want to believe this is satire, but then I remember that
Genshin Impact fans exist. “So many of your points are blanket
statements on your preferred gameplay loop or system and you never really
explain WHY you feel the way you feel.” I dunno, I think I made enough references
to skinner boxes and rats pressing levers. "[Blanket statement] #4, story is boring:
story enjoyment is so subjective that, why even bring it up? do you love the
STORY in every single game you like? no." I mean, not ALWAYS, but if a narrative-driven RPG isn't gonna let me skip any dialogue or cutscenes
then the story better be worth my fuckin’ time- "#5, copying only bad parts of other games: Yeah the BOTW weapon system is so fun god I
love picking up a weapon that breaks after use." Well, do I have some news for you. They also went on about how Breath of the
Wild’s combat is “comparatively shit” because it’s linear instead of Genshin’s
dynamic elemental combat system, but I think I’ve made enough of my point here. "ever bought cheap clothes? some child
labor factory probably made that." I’m sorry, what? "Ever owned any tech ever? most
likely made in really shitty work conditions and pay in a Chinese owned factory. At least Genshin doesn't ACTIVELY stop you from
playing the game to tell you about the shop." Uh, except for that one time when it does… Just when I think Activision
is gonna be the worst example, I get hit with "there is no ethical
consumption under capitalism." "They even let you playtest the
characters, playtest the game, and hide nothing regarding gacha rates." That’s the bare minimum. "Having seen an ACTUAL critique of the game, and actually having played the game
myself, there's a lot of red flags here.” What is this, a bad relationship? “So far you only point out the negatives
(which most are actually nitpicks) but fail to mention the actual positives
like for example the lore, the world, the actual characters, heck even the combat." Alright, despite the fact that I complemented the
world, the lore, the characters, AND the music, this person is so confident in their opinion that
they have decided positivity is the standard, with any negativity being a "nitpick," and that a
review is too biased or poorly made if it doesn't "correctly" rain praise on every feature
they like. I said it already in the video, I totally understand that people love gameplay
features I hate. I just don't write "I think" before every sentence because it’d probably
activate the fight or flight response of my middle school English teacher. Start
crossing out sections of my video in red pen. “If you want an actual critique of Genshin-” There it is again! What does actual critique mean? “I recommend NeverKnowsBest’s
critique of Genshin Impact. It’s way less negative for nothing and
doesn’t fucking compare it to an actual AAA game like Zelda and not from the
eyes of a nintendo tainted individual.” Ok, ignoring the fact that
Genshin Impact is absolutely a AAA game AND may’ve had a higher
development cost than Breath of the Wild, I’ve watched some of the review he mentioned, and
it heavily analyzes the initial story playthrough and artistic facets of the game - but since I
also noticed many Genshin reviews don’t discuss end-game grinding or the gacha aspects in as
much detail, I wanted to give my thoughts on those parts of the exper-wait, did he
call me a nintendo tainted individual? I could continue to grab countless comments
like this one, but so many of them boil down to “bias” and “subjectivity,” which just feels
exhausting to cover when it comes to video essays. If I get something completely, factually wrong, or
make assumptions without experiencing something, then I understand where comments are coming
from - but saying that critiques are somehow supposed to be "objective" is just absurd. This
is single-handedly the most common argument I see in response to any of my negative reviews.
On just Genshin alone, there are probably over a hundred comments that claim my review is
too "subjective" or "nitpicky" because a lot of people enjoy certain features like the story or
the grind or the gameplay or the gacha and that's just my opinion, man... and uh, I have nothing
to say to that.That's... that's what reviews are. I understand that I can come
off as extremely jaded at times, and I’m sure a few of my points get lost in
the exaggeration I use to make things funnier, but I feel like many Genshin reviews come
from those unfamiliar with the genre, analyzing it from the perspective of a new,
regular video game…. or they’re sponsored- But to me, the mobile game mechanics I spent several years unhealthily addicted to
just soured the experience too much. "As someone who has always used the self-control
argument, I can concede that Genshin and most gacha games obviously take a lot of the
innocence of playing video games out of the medium and the fact that such obvious
gambling is not regulated or monitored like traditional gambling is a very valid concern.
Everyone wants your money in one way or another, with some being honest and others being a scam,
but as an adult I have to make smart financial decisions despite the deceitful attempts
of others to entice me to spend my money, and if I fail to do so (and I have)
that's my fault and I have to do better." “this is a good comment.” Y’know what, I’m gonna import confetti
cannon 4k 60fps.mp4 just for you! At the end of the day, I know I'm just a tiny
little YouTuber that can't affect much when it comes to the multi-billion dollar gaming industry,
but that’s never been my goal. I’m not trying to somehow shut down the giant that is Mihoyo with
a scathing exposé, but I can at least yell into the void and have a few people listen, and maybe
give 'em a laugh or a new outlook on something. My Adventurer Rank ended in the low forties, but
there are a hefty number of comments from those in the high fifties, that have been playing from the
start or maxed out all of their characters, and many of them share the sentiment that they loved
Genshin in the beginning, but now just feel like they're sticking around, waiting to rekindle that
magic. Some even created entirely new accounts to do the story and exploration all over again, and
that feels kinda unfortunate. Genshin entices players with an initial burst of excitement,
bestowing upon them a massive open world with tons of things to discover, but then turns the majority
of the experience into a repetitive grind to keep them around. I get that it's going to take Mihoyo
a lot of time to develop each major expansion, but I just hate the concept of feeling the need
to "stick around" every day to be ready for when that next big moment drops - it means that there
isn’t truly valuable, replayable content anymore. A game I’ve been enjoying a lot recently that
doesn’t run into these issues as much is Final Fantasy XIV. There is a metric fuck-ton of fun
stuff to do in the time between major updates. Plus, it doesn’t trick you into sticking
around every day if you don’t want to. Because it’s built on a subscription model,
you can cancel until there’s something new, or you have the money to comfortably subscribe
again, and you won’t miss out on a banner, or a limited-time event that gives you
a few crumbs of primogems. I know that it’s not completely free, but it feels like a much
better trade-off than being manipulated by design. With that, I feel as if I’ve almost
entirely exhausted my current thoughts on Genshin Impact, so if you enjoyed this video, hit that subscribe button to help me out. And,
if you’d like to support the videos I make, the best way to do that is over at my
Patreon, which is linked in the description. I wanna close this video out by saying that
I enjoyed reading a majority of the comments, even if plenty of people don't agree with
me. As long as I’m not being senselessly yelled at by anime fans, I like hearing about
the reasons people find enjoyment in Genshin, or seeing players say they find our
difference in opinions interesting, even if I hate it for the reasons they love it.
That's the cool part about opinions! We can all discuss what we enjoy or don't enjoy,
learn things from one another, and, uh, point out malicious practices by corporations
to better influence the future of entertainment! Yeah, that’s a good one. Well, is that enough for you? AMBER: Hey, there’s something strange over there… "Some agreeable points but your argument mostly
boils down to subjectivity and nitpicks." Are you serious?
