Article by Serenety Graphics by Gabriel Angeles
March 1, 2022
Genshin Impact’s newest addition to its permanent gameplay, TCG, is already losing all its hype and luster. With little to no update, and somewhat insignificant changes to its system, its name and legacy continue to decline into becoming almost obsolete. While its gameplay did show a promising variation of fun within the realm of Genshin Impact, the fun it had wasn’t bound to last more than one patch.
This, in turn, made the TCG a one-hit wonder, waiting for a significant leg-up for it to become more enticing as a looping game feature once again. While that is the case for this feature, there are plenty more problems than what’s on the surface.
To put into scale on how this feature should be treated, we will delve into another aspect in the game that has been added way back in patch 1.5, with almost similar functionalities as the TCG within the game: Housing. At the surface level, both are features that deviate far from the initial gameplay, it adds experimentation outside of their core gameplay, and the resources they gave are minuscule at best. Like its TCG counterpart, housing found itself to be unimportant after it was released, as it offered nothing but a few significant resources and nothing much else.
However, a new set of patches changed its state from being almost useless to becoming an excellent second resource-gathering feature next to events. These resources ranged from resin to mora and exp books, which are arguably the three most important items in all of Genshin Impact. Comparing this to TCG which offers the same amount of primogems as its housing simulator counterpart, TCG would inevitably become an unnecessary chore that players need to tend to once a week which yields little to no rewards other than unlocking other cards in addition to the daily commissions they already need to tend to.
Although there are still a select few players who still find the feature of having to play a card game inside Genshin Impact still amazing, perfecting the realm of elements within the world of Genshin but in card form still requires an unnecessary layer of complexion already shown before. In addition, updates about new cards to alterations of gameplay and mechanics can only be speculated as a lack of development that may remain as a problem of Genshin’s TCG, which offers rewards that are lacking in significant value. However, that may or may not change in the future.
While it is certainly true that the TCG itself is an amazing concept that was integrated into Genshin, it only shows but a fraction of its potential for the game as a whole. Countless renditions and improvisations can be done in order to make the game seamless to the current game structure. Examples include making TCG have its own bounty system, adding a shop designated for selling real-world items, etc. But at the end of the day, one can only hope that its days of hype can go back as a necessary feature with repeating rewards for players. All in all, the TCG feature did show its promise when it came out, and it certainly held a vibe that no other feature has despite having a lesser rewarding system.
Comments