The Genshin Experience
Welcome again to this deserted blog, as I wrote this, the chaotic force known as covid-19 is still wreaking havoc out there. All of that, combined with all the uncertainty in life and depressing real world circumstances, nothing is that pretty anymore. But well, there’s no point in giving up isn’t there? as long as you live, anything can still happen. Dakara ikite, ikite, ikite iru kara~ Saa tonde tonde yume ni mukatteee HITORIII~~~
Alrite that was Goal e Mukatte Hashire from Kamen Rider Black, and now for the next song, oh wait we’re going to talk about Genshin Impact, aren’t we? That game and my cat are two of the very few things that keep me sane these days.
Me watching all the books I haven't finished because too busy playing Genshin
But let's start from the beginning because this blog tends to go ngalor ngidul when mbahas something. And the point of making this blog is for me to write whatever comes to my mind in the way I want it to anyway. In a way, this blog is like a small part of my plane of euthymia kind of thing.
Back in the early days ketika masih AR 30an I actually wrote a draft about Genshin, alas karena satu dan lain hal (baca: males :v) akhirnya draft tersebut tidak pernah menjadi proper post. Tentu saja sekarang di *cough* AR 57 *cough* beberapa poin dalam draft ada yang sudah tidak relevan lagi, tetapi beberapa poin ada yang masih cukup menarik untuk di mention, which I will write here. So the first of this post will be about two things;
- The first is about the general good and bad things I found in Genshin
- The first is about the general good and bad things I found in Genshin
- The second is my impression about the community or player in general
Both are based my experience after playing the game every day for almost a year.
Followed by part two (if I still have the will and mood to write) in which I will write about the country of weeb's dream Inazuma.
Followed by part two (if I still have the will and mood to write) in which I will write about the country of weeb's dream Inazuma.
Ok let's talk about the wow and meh of genshin ACCORDING to my taste. I’m not going to use pros and cons since it feels too technical and the difference between those two things is paper thin when it comes to personal taste. So what makes Genshin that good it makes someone who has not touched any game in years (except for some games ngeklik ngeklik di hp) become too absorbed to the point it becomes part of daily routine? The answer is not just one, it's probably a combination of many things, internal and external, but after I gave it some thought, eventually I came to this one reason that really stands out:
It's that solitary feeling.
Gris. Abzu. Journey. You can say those are my “the big three” of modern games (by modern I mean the game is easy to access for everyone -I mean Xenogears and Suikoden 2 are super amazing but if I recommend it now most people would confuse where to play it-) and interestingly Genshin got the vibe as well. Sure you can enjoy Genshin for other things, in fact I will write about that too below, but for me it's the I walk a lonely road the only one that I have ever known I walk alone, I walk alone I walk alone, I walk a-
Anyway, you get the point. And it's not just the player, in each country you’d find NPC bathed in their own loneliness. Especially in Liyue and Inazuma. But even Mondstadt has its share of melancholy despite its happy go lucky atmosphere and people. And don't get me started with those Inazuma side quests (KAZARIIIEEE!!1 HIBIKIIEEEE!!1) This goes even further with those places with no inhabitants. Deserted ruins, abandoned places, empty villages, old towns, sunken civilization. The passage of times truly is a merciless thing. The feeling of traveling on your own (well technically with paimon) to search for something you have lost is something that resonates within me *menuang OSMANTHUS WINE dari dalam termos ke tutup termos lalu meneguknya- oh wait this is not OSMANTHUS WINE but WEDANG JAHE KALENGAN*. And Mihoyo did a damn good job at creating all those environments. Oh someone has been here before (and they died). Oh you can sit here and watch the sunrise/sunset. Oh look at these scrap travel logs and cooking utensils. Oh this path is obscured by wild vegetation and so on and so on.
And the music omg, the music! It amplifies those feelings. I’ll never forget the feeling of the first time when I arrived at Qingyun peak during sunrise. Or the sad and cold but ironically warm choir of Dragonspine. Or the muted and mellow Stormterror's Lair where even battling there won't change the music. Or the Golden Apple archipelago that's very fitting with the theme of ano koro no natsuyasumi. And of course the cursed and crazy land of Inazuma (dat musoujin gorge bgm was just *chef kiss*). After all, we're all just a lone traveler in this ocean called life. And one day this boat will arrive at the eternal harbor. The Akhirah. But you prefer the worldly life, while the Akhirah is better and more enduring. (QS 87: 16-17)
Alrite before I got drunk with OSMANTHUS WI- let's move on to the next good stuff I like from Genshin.
The good enough scale of things
It's kinda hard to explain this but basically as you (or maybe just me) grow older you start to lose interest in one of the elements that makes Japanese pop culture material tastes so good, which is the over the top ness aka ke-lebhaaee-an. If there’s one thing Japanese artists can do right is taking a concept then crank it up to eleven, some even to twelve and beyond to the point where we’re not sure whether it looks cool or ridiculous. But as time goes by I’m no longer attracted to those over the top tropes (well maybe except JoJo because JoJo is ART, nah just kidding, more like because JoJo is comedy), a battle royale where you have to kill each other? Eh life is painful but not that edgy. A cosmic war between the gods and larger than life entities? A multiple parallel dimension with multiple tragedies spur and intermingle resulting in thousand possibilities? A game where if you died in that game you died in real life? A futuristic cyberpunk where everything is bleak and nihilistic? Well turns out even if life sucks but it's not that sucks. Now let's look at Genshin, sure there are war and conspiracies and some godly being involved but it's not galaxy big or multi dimensional parallel universes scope level. Well at least for now (and I hope that won't happen, leave all that stuff to Honkai, ok Mihoyo?). Just like how those elder archons prefer to step down from the elite throne and walk the streets among the mortals, nowadays I find the scope of Genshin is more preferable. To quote Le Tigre; life is but a compromise, mediocrity rules. Aim for the top and be the very best? Those are just echoes from a distant past, dreams that were never meant to materialize. In the end, what's simple is true.
On the visual aspects, Genshin is also not trying too hard to dress their characters with the oh so grandeur garments and accessories. Sure there are times when I like loli with HUGE ASS weapons and thousand flying funnels and laser beams and intricate frills and bows and ribbons but eh these days I prefer a literal HUGE ASS instead lol. Gone is the era of mecha musume. Even oneesan is kinda underwhelming when you realize your own age now is older than those oneesan chara. So what era is now? Of course its the MILF.
Ok that was quite a distraction. But just look at those characters in Genshin. Even someone refined and classy like Ningguang or Ei doesn't wear flashy dresses. Yes, as some cosplayers said, compared to typical anime outfit its still intricated, but its still not at grandeur level that makes the character looks like final fantasy boss. And you don't have to make your character wear skimpy outfit to show her sex appeal level.
Take a look at Ying'er, she wears casual commoner clothing but damn you can smell all those pheromones oozing from every hole of her body. Ok maybe not, since you can't smell any character in this game, unless you're hallucinating or under the effect of certain drugs. Or maybe too drunk from OSMANTHUS W-
So yeah for the newcomers who haven't tasted all the dishes in the restaurant, Genshin only has few options to satisfy, but for those who have seen one too many, interestingly the good enough mediocrity of Genshin is the flavor that feels home.
Aight, the next good stuff I will point out is one that will trigger some fanbase out there.
Genshin is a 3D game
Yeah personally I always love 3D models, that's why back then I’m into pepakura and now that I have no free time to build them, I collect figures instead (and sells them at Saudagar Waifu, kono postingan wa goran no suponsaa no teikyou de okurishimas). In 3D models you can feel a sense of depth of the character’s volume (I’m talking about the overall appearance of said character not just certain parts of the body like boobies haha just kidding of course I’m also talking about boobies). Hell yeah.
With 3D models you can view them from various angles and pose them and take pictures (this is why I have more than 1000 pictures in my screenshot folders). It has more layers of enjoyment compared to games where its graphics look like wayang or chibis (ooh shieeet I have said it). Personally I don’t like chibi, that's why I’m not into nendoroids. But hol up! Aren’t those kamige PSX JRPG has 2D sprites too just like wayang mobage? Well yes, but in my defense (ngeles mode on) the quality of its stories are so excellent and two, it was a product of its own time, forcing it to 3D with the technical limit of that time would result in blurry model/texture (FF8, Xenogears) or good model/texture but looks awkward af (Suikoden 3). Well maybe those wayang mobage also has great stories but to my knowledge these days writers tend to rely on references its like you have to possess a certain amount of basic knowledge first to enjoy the tropes and parodies in the story. Or maybe I’m just either too lazy or too busy to scroll through thousands of lines of text these days. Well anyway pls dont hit me wayang mobage fans.
Non battle or non competitive content/activities
Insert quote sasuga game dengan krisis identitas here, but yeah another thing I like from Genshin is that there’s always something new, though mostly those are meh like event gebug-gebug or just a little bit different like gliding or shooting arrow, but I have to give credit to the creative team to manage something new out of already existed assets. And it's not like we don't get interesting events as well. Teatrikus makankakus yg bikin genshin jadi arknight kw super, event gofood yg meme, petak umpet jitungan, the sims harvest moon di dalam poci, mancing mania mantap, osu kw super, ping pong lawan tembok, dll. Dan terkadang ada beberapa orang gabut yang kebanyakan creative juice yang bisa ngutak-utik mundane things in genshin atau fitur baru atau event yang cukup bikin ngakak buat ditonton (balapan babi, aesthetic elemental burst, pvp mode bakar-bakaran rumput, genshin with fighting game combo, exploiting weird bugs, and those wholesome serenitea build videos). Now if only we could have boats racing featuring eurobeat. Do it Mihuyo!
The music
This point actually doesn't need to be elaborated and I already wrote about it above so it should go to the small list below but Genshin music is just so damn good it deserves to be mentioned separately. Unfortunately to get the complete feel of a game music you have to play the game because it is part of the experience. Of course I don't mean to say Genshin music is bad if you listen to it without playing the game. I remember in my early days Dvalin battle and Andrius second phase music is sooo goood I was like I bet nothing can top this. But then the Liyue arc kicks in and all that erhu music feels like I was transported to dunia persilatan Jianghu. And then Dragonspine with chillin 'vibe and choir like a symphony of a tragic fairy tale, then the feel good windblume music and then the Azdaha battle that is just so so damn amazing it becomes my favorite track for workout. Then the whole golden archipelago that screams S U M M E R V I B E S and of course we’re now at Inazuma with those shakuhachi and shamisen battle theme that's basically every weebs chuuni melody.
Others
There is more good stuff, of course, but I think these aren’t that worth to elaborate so I’ll just write them down.
- It's free. You’d thought I’d mention this in the first place but noo, just being a mere free item is not that much to win me over, furthermore there’s a downside from this that I will explain later but in general the cons still win, at least for me.
- The game is tailored to suit (almost) every type of gamers, both in playstyle and lifestyle. Genshin is programmed to cater to most people. It's not that hard, but not too easy either. Content wise, it doesn't beg too much of your time. Too busy IRL to play? Just condense those resins or use it to craft crystals for weapon exp. Too no life IRL to play? Well I tell you what, if you feel like there's no more content in Genshin, then it's actually good news too since that means you have more time to play other games.
- The gameplay is actually fun. Let’s be honest, the battle is not boring, stylish even. There are lots of characters, weapons, artifacts and party combinations to try. Some people who accustomed to MMORPG will find Genshin battle too tiring because you have control the character all the time, no click and move or click and attack, but tbh you can't compare Genshin to those, Genshin battle is more of of hack and slash action adventure style like Alundra or maybe even DMC (and for Beidou main its Dark Soul). But doesn't that make the grinding and farming more exhausting? Yes of course, but NOBODY asked you to grind or farm that much. You don't have to make 100 foods or farm 1000 item drops or level up a character from 1 to 90 in a single day. Genshin lets you take your time leisurely. This is your realm. Everyone can give you their voices but YOU are the one who decides what to do and make decisions. And nothing's wrong with making bad decisions. Unlike real life, the consequence of making wrong choices here is not fatal. Laugh at your stupid mistakes. If the game is becoming too hard you can always ask for a friend's help anyway (no, don't say I have no friend unless it just for jokes, even if you have no friend who play this game, literally there are dozens of genshin community or discord channels out there with good, honest people who will help you as long as you know common decency such as not being an asshole, not to mention sometimes stranger will drop by at your world too and you can befriend them).
- It lets you decide when you want to get social and when you want to be left alone. For people who find MMORPG too overwhelmingly noisy but also tend to ragequit easily when playing solo, this is the best middle way solution. And this is not just about asking for help from a friend. Sometimes when my social meter is on a burst, which rarely happens, I’ll even visit stranger’s worlds to play together or just for a chat.
- Eventually you'll get there. Unlike real life, which is full of uncertainty and people constantly asking about your progress in life, Genshin lets you walk with your pace and rewards anyone who keeps playing with solid progress. Eventually you’ll get your first five stars character/weapon. Eventually you’ll max your favorite character, triple crowned him/her if you want to. Eventually you’ll +20 all those artifacts (as for the substats, well, uh, that’s a different matter). Eventually, you can solo that boss/domain. There's no pressure or deadline. But hol up, you said, what about those things I can't eventually clear? That "fck that time challenge", that "fck that abyss floor", that map that hasn't been explored 100%? Well you don't have to do that. Nobody told you to be a completionist. Self challenge? Personal satisfaction? Sure you can use that reason but it shouldn't be your priority in life (I'm sure you have more real life issues to tackle than complaining about this game). Genshin should be a comfort game. If playing it stresses you out, then you're doing it WRONG.
- Those wangy wangy waifus. Nuff said.
I swear I’m playing Genshin for the story.
- Playing any Liyue related stories made me feel like pendekar jianghu. If you're from the same generation as me who grow up watching film silat cino such as The Great Conspiracy, Pendekar Rajawali, Pangeran Menjangan, Hakim Bao, Pendekar Ulat Sutra, Pendekar Harum, Siluman Ular Putih, To Liong To, or reading Tapak Sakti, Tiger Wong, Long Hu Men, you'll feel very familiar feeling when you finally arrive at Liyue. A lot of familiar wuxia tropes also presents. And if you're growing up in an ASIANS family, especially in a village, Liyue's Qingce village will feel like your hometown. Too bad the Indonesian translation doesn't use translasi ala film/komik silat, otherwise instead Moon Carver we would get Pengukir Rembulan or instead Mountain Shaper we'd get Pemahat Gunung. The Indonesian translation for the book is pretty good tho.
- Can be played on a PC. This is important because my poor ass can't afford to buy a game console jaman now. Playing on the phone is also out of the question since playing Genshin on my 4 years old phone will turn it into pyro hypostasis.
Alright now that I have written the good stuff, it's time to point out the bad stuff I encountered while playing this game for one year.
-The story FOR THE MOST PART is not that satisfying. Since the game is tailored for every kind of gamers, the story part also got nerfed. Even the main story only gets interesting after you arrive in Liyue, Mondstadt prologue is kinda meh especially if you're already played so many action fantasy or JRPG. But it is to be expected since there are players that don't give a fck about story and just want to starts gebug-gebug things. Jangankan cerita, tutorial aja banyak yang gak baca.
Paimon ketika player yg cuma pengen gebug-gebug tidak membaca tutorial dengan seksama.
Sure that *layar hitam dengan teks: traveler melakukan sesuatu* is annoying but for people who skip stories that doesn't matter at all. Sometimes there's genuinely good story like Liyue archon's story, Zhongli's salt god story, or Kazari or Hibiki, even Golden Archipelago story is damn good (I cried) but after realizing that Genshin is toned for everyone, I start to lower my expectation in story department. Plus, personally those hangout events and dating sims character stories are not that bad for my taste.
UPDATE: damn they really did Inazuma dirty, the story for Moonchase event is AMAZING.
-The REWARD FOR THE ANNIV- nah I’m not going to talk about this, let's put aside things that already obvious: 1) the fandom which mostly consists of entitled member of partai pengemis freemogems, 2) mihuyo did a bad move for being silent and late damage control, 3) leaker culture that provokes people into hallucinating, etc. Personally rather than primo I’d like a real non gacha related gift, maybe free *4 character or weapon, or some resin or crystalflies (notes: during the writing of this post, the primo and resin gift didn't exist), or maybe a free billet or dream solvent, or a limited time furniture to display in serenitea pot (update: so they give a lyre, while it looks great but it feels like a concert event bonus rather than anniversary).
But enough about that. I’m going to write about the infamous source of chaos: the gacha. In my opinion, the nature of gacha itself is lesser evil. Which is why when you’re playing something that has gacha on it, you SHOULD BE prepared with shitty scenarios of bad pulls. Lots and lots of bad pulls. This is why I said the free aspect in Genshin is not that 100% good. Sure Genshin has pity system, but every time I want to pull I take a look at this so I can be mentally prepared.
Yes I once lucky enough to get *5 in 3 pull but as you can see I LITERALLY spent 161 PULL to get Shogun (at least I got spooked by Mona's delicious ass). Also the weapon banner is a scam. Suffice to say hoping for gacha is just like relying on illusionary things. And primogems is one hell of a drug. No wonder people always beg for it. Sakaw primo is real. And there will be no end to the split opinion about this because by nature there is no clear line where something feels enough. Lets say Mihuyo gave 100 pulls to person X. Those pulls can be a very weak rewards if person X can't get the character in limited banner compared to person Y who didn't got the reward but manage to pull two *5 characters in 10 pull.
But interestingly, this gacha phenomenon also has its pros. The first is, it actually teaches you about self konto- I mean self control. It teaches you about saving and managing primogems. It teaches you about holding back and not giving in to desire to pull (well unless you’re rich then you can do anything you want). And the second, of course, is that it teaches you to syukuri apa yang ada hidup adalah anugerah~ Afterall in the end Genshin is just a game, playing it should make you happy, not the opposite. Personally I think this gacha hell and stuff is not recommended for beginners, yeah I mean you, kids out there. But maybe that's what Mihuyo does, selling drugs to people who aren't mature enough to control their impulse. Because when you get older you will either: 1) have some disposable income to buy primo or 2) already know how to manage priorities (by the way I don’t have both of those). And rather than complaining about gacha in the wish system, personally what annoys me in Genshin is gacha loots. Domain for talent book or weapon ascend material? Gacha. Fighting weekly boss for talent material? Gacha. Weapon billet? Gacha. Dream solvent? Gacha. And of course, EVERYTHING ABOUT ARTIFACT IS GACHA.
-This one looks light but actually more serious than gacha. It begs for your commitment routinely. Though this is very common in gaming, especially mobage, and actually once you finish the event and new maps, Genshin will basically go back to its login-daily-resin-logout ritual, but sometimes the game will occupy my mind and distract my concentration out of nowhere. Ah, I just remember I have that one thing that should be done, ah I almost forgot I haven't done daily and resin today. Ah about that puzzle/challenge over there that keeps bothering me, suddenly I have an idea, what if I... Ah I’m curious if you can use this specific combination of character or weapon or artifact to do X. This kind of thing can suddenly pop up in the middle of activity and it can be quite annoying.
And there’s this thing that really makes me think, if Genshin is supposed to just take a little of your time then why do I have lots of untouched stuff (books I haven't finished reading, anime I haven't finished watching, gunpla I haven’t finished building and so on) since playing this game? Turns out the answer is that even though playing the game itself takes only a few minutes or an hour, the activity related to it is endless. Watching those youtube videos, browsing memes and reddit, talking about it with friends, et cetera. Heck even the reason I finally have the mood and will to write this post is because my monitor got broken and I can’t play Genshin for a while. So yeah this is the second thing that you need to realize about self control after gacha.
That’s all I think, stuff that I want to write in my mind about the game, but of course there’s still one more thing to write, my impression about the players aka fandom.
Applause please
Well, as with other thing that went mainstream, it is to be expected that bigger fandom attracts more stupid people. Personally, I think the community is a mixed bag. On one side we have those awesome creators on youtube, memepact and main subreddit which is full of funny stuff, awesome fanarts and cosplay and those who shed helpful information on building character like people in keqingmain and so on. But on the other side we are also familiar with the stupidity that happens everyday in the group and discord, drama, and trolls.
Also, because most of my games are just solo stuff I didn't think much about this but playing Genshin, watching the people who play and their behavior interestingly mirror some things that happen IRL.
-The first thing that I encounter right after a few weeks playing Genshin is the strong level of FOMO (fear of missing out, in case you don't know). I remember I had a chat with someone and the person said “are you a new player?” I said “no, I’ve been playing this game for xx days”. The person said “how come you are still in AR xx if you’ve been playing for xx days?” Of course that person maybe just asking out of pure confusion, no offense intended. BUT it did sting. It feels to me that that person is implicitly bragging that s/he started at the same time as me but has achieved more progress. And then came this situation.
I don't usually into something popular (elus jenggot hipster) but after playing Genshin I finally know how it feels to play a game that everyone else is playing. And it was at this point I realized that being left out when you’re in the same path with everyone else is more kuyashii than when you’re just walking alone.
KUYASHIII!!
No wonder people who are always trying to keep up with the latest thing (fashion, smartphone, branded stuff) are that prone to FOMO. Another thing that you should pay attention if you want to enjoy Genshin, I guess. But of course, even after knowing about this doesn't mean the FOMO will cease. Even in high AR you will still encounter many similar things. You're a bit busy IRL and can't play the latest event/story? welp you're missing out, now everyone already talk about it on social media. Congratulation you got spoiler. You want to be surprised about the next, upcoming content? too bad leak is everywhere on the internet now you need to make yourself amnesia. You just found a neat trick or strategy? welp turns out everyone already know about it. Congratulation now you have become the laughing stock. Nothing you can do about this, just accept that it can't be helped and move on.
- The next thing about the fandom can be summarized in this quote: Genshin is not a competitive game but its the players that turn it into competition. This is interesting because even though we use game as a mean to escape from real life where people tend to flex to each other but the phenomenon of showing off achievement also appears here, its like as if its ingrained or a natural aspect of humanity.
Showing off how good I have build a character feels like parent showing off how they raise their child and what their child can do.
I guess in the end, the main concern is actually that people should be aware of what they expect when they transport themselves to Teyvat. Especially if you're already a veteran. I expect a more mature take on this game, which actually already proven, seeing most of the player my age usually acts like this whenever drama appear.
- Is just a game, there's need to make it your priority or make pointless drama (if you have point to show there are other mean like writing on in game feedback or questionnaire, even though recently it feels like Mihoyo doesn't seems care reading those).
- Is a casual game, there's no need to git gud or compete (you'll lose to c6 r5 anyway).
- Is a gacha game, there’s no need to disappoint too much, instead learn to manage your primo.
And last, always pick boobs over ass anyday.
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