A few hours spent in Genshin Impact are enough to realize that this free-to-play game has everything of a AAA. Starting with a very decent scenario, which features two twins who travel through worlds and find themselves separated by a deity. You play as one of them, boy or girl, and discover the continent of Teyvat, battling with Stormterror, a strange blue dragon. Paimon, the mischievous little fairy, acts as your guide and travel companion. The dialogues regularly give you the choice to make fun of her, and two things are striking for a free game: the writing is generally of good quality and the dialogues of the most important missions are fully dubbed (in Chinese, Japanese, Korean or English). The full French translation is provided, even though the adventure lets us pick up many books, which contain pages and pages of text (reading them is entirely optional, don’t panic). Generally speaking, the finish is absolutely exemplary and the game is extremely clean. I didn’t encounter a single bug, even though some hits from well-known publishers come out in a terrible state and require the application of several patches.

Core Loop/Mechanics:

The core loop of the game is to complete tasks as well as to interact with the open world by collecting resources and items, and gathering experience. Those different elements of the loop are made extremely pleasing to go through and use by making them not only aesthetically pleasing for a mobile game but also very interesting mechanics. Those resources allow you later on the upgrade your character and weapons which, in its turn allow you to defeat more powerful enemies. Upgrading your player also allows you to follow the natural progression of the game by going through the different levels properly.

Dynamics and Systems:

Many elements could be included in the systems of the game such as: Upgrading characters using materials you gather, Gathering materials from dungeons and killing enemies, Story mode to gather XP and objectives, Upgrading weapons as well as the fighting system which appends a lot of diversity to the game as it is constituted of:

• 5 types of weapons: swords, claymores, bows, polearms, and catalysts (all have different upgrades and fighting styles)
• The game revolves around these elements: Pyro (fire), Geo (earth), Dendro (nature), Cryo (ice), Electro (lightning), Anemo (wind), and Hydro (water); Each element affects other elements more or less effectively.
• There is also a system of artifacts that boosts certain abilities such as elemental energy, elemental recharge, ATK damage, HP, etc.