A couple days ago I got sucked into Tower of Fantasy (I'm still embarrassed to say the name of that game by the way) and talked about how I really should try Genshin Impact since I was enjoying myself. Yesterday I decided to do just that and spent a few hours running around there.
The first difference, obviously, is the lack of global chat. This feels like a solo play experience, and so far I've yet to run into anyone else in the open world. I did a little researching, and, yup, it appears that unlike Tower of Fantasy, Genshin Impact is mostly a solo play experience . . . at least up until Explorer Rank 16. After yesterday, I'm at Explorer Rank 8, so I still have a long way to go to get there.
Unlike Tower of Fantasy, there really wasn't much player avatar customization, you just chose boy or girl and even then "you" can only use a sword. It feels like you're a default skin that's kind of boring. The characters you pick up along the way and have join your party are each proficient in different kinds of weapons and are much more exciting. In this way, Genshin Impact seemed more straight forward about swapping skins as you literally hot swap to a new character and become them.
The similarities between the two games, however, are uncanny. I have no criticism of that other than it's just an easy observation. Oh well. *shrug* As a consumer it matters little to me if I go to McDonald's or Burger King, I know either way I'm going to have a weird aftertaste and regrets later.
It's kind of funny because as I played through Tower of Fantasy and now Genshin Impact, I kept thinking . . . you know . . . these games really are a lot like the Wizard101s of this decade: story-based games in a massive world. Sure it's a little apples and oranges, but is it? Whereas Wizard101 makes its money with microtransactions, pets, and horde packs, these games seem to make their money solely on Gacha. Maybe? I guess I'm not deep enough in gameplay to really make that big of a sweeping statement.
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So what that leaves me with is . . . do I like the story? Is it intriguing enough to keep me playing? Again, I'm not deep enough in gameplay, but I did like the lost sister / lost powers angle. I like the giant dragon you fight. On the other hand, can we talk about this Paimon chibi companion who always refers to herself in the third person? Paimon thinks Paimon can be slightly annoying yet somehow slightly charming? Do . . . y'all . . . like . . . this . . . character?! Does she stick with you through the whole adventure adding commentary all the time? At least in Tower of Fantasy the chibi doesn't do ALL the talking for me. It felt like she literally did 90% of the heavy lifting in the voice over department.
I didn't find the gameplay to be terribly difficult, and at the same time I don't know if leveling and powering up makes that big of a difference yet? So, while I can't say I didn't enjoy myself -- it was fun -- I also can't say that I'm completely in love with the game yet. Alternatively, I think I could go back to Tower of Fantasy and play a bit more as long as I didn't have to read global chat and say the name of the game out loud in the company of my friends.
Happy Dueling!
