Article by Eryk Katimbang Graphics by Daniela Gubatan
April 20, 2022
Recently, Genshin impact launched its 2.6 update, releasing more content that came with new storylines, new quests, and more importantly: new characters - being the main highlight whenever a new update is released. However, many veterans and new players alike have voiced their discontent with many things that could divide the line of enjoyment for the game.
One such problem pertains to new characters in recent times, as they are now labeled as non-new player friendly content for one sole reason: Their character’s potential is locked by long gameplay progress. This on paper is counter-intuitive to those that play in a casual setting since Genshin’s very gameplay and design is created in such a manner where they should take their time slowly and allow themselves to sink their time in all the jaw-dropping scenery and experience. New players may stray away from the game due to this minor flaw as this creates an involuntary frustrative driving force to rush through the content and finish it as soon as possible to unlock their character’s potential abilities. Locked behind walls of quests, the value of appreciation may decline from the new player’s perspective when this becomes an ongoing trend, creating what may become the worst case scenario: potentially damaging its public reputation in the eyes of those who are willing to give Genshin a go.
A noteworthy problem that new players would encounter for this issue would be the amount of content unlockable only by long inefficient methods. Thus, it’s no surprise that new players may struggle in finishing certain tasks to some degree of efficiency. Whether it be to kill, do certain tasks, or outright do something complex as solving puzzles, limitations are at the mercy of what characters a player owns. A brief example of this is the tediousness of traversing many locations in the new map in the 2.6 update called “The Chasm”, where a small minority of players who does not have movement/environmental altering characters such as Kazuha, Venti, and Zhongli find themselves stretching their patience in doing puzzles that require more forethought. While there are numerous gadgets that could create the same effect these environmental altering characters have, they are by no means reliable on occasions where trial and error is required (Like exploration), and certainly not the fastest to replenish its main resource for them to function better than other gadgets. Oh, did I mention that gadgets are locked behind long gameplay progress too? All these long efforts to finish these content for new characters they pulled is never worth it and will leave a different impression for the player in the long run.
In relation to the point of finishing the game quickly for new players, other content such as events are locked behind walls of progress too. One such example was the Enkanomiya event in patch 2.5, where players are required to be at least Adventure Rank 40 to access. For context, it takes around a month or two of dedicated gameplay on average to reach that rank according to many articles and guides, and by “Dedicated” it means allotting more than eight hours of gameplay a day at least (Which would also depend on how much a player would dedicate themselves in finding the most optimized route to rank up quickly).
As the game continues to progress its content through a series of prerequisites, so too will a steady stream of new players decline their keen interest in partaking in what makes Genshin Impact fun: the content. While it is true that same content may cause frustration for new players that wish to rush it for the sake of many reasons, it should not be taken out of consideration when creating new content since new players are of course still a part of what makes the community whole (Implementing a new system could change this). I mean, can you imagine if there’s a character that needs you to unlock seven countries to unlock their potential? Or there’s an event that needs a player to be Adventure Rank 60 to access? That wouldn’t be so fun to think about now does it?
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