Topic: Genshin Impact vs. Immortals Fenyx Rising

@Shadowthrone @NintendoByNature
I agree with both of you. Although I did expect comments like "Both of these are BOTW clones" when this forum was created.

It depends on your flavor: Genshin is more asian (made by chinese after all) and thus its full of anime stuff. Immortals is a western affair. At the moment I look more forward to Immortals. That looks like a actual complete game and is coming rather soon, while with Genshin we have no idea when it will arrive. Genshin looks also pretty cool and is free to play (though that may change on Switch), but is not complete from what I have heard. And there's tons of microtransactions, though that may also be the case with Immortals. And seeing the amount of dlc Immortals will get, some people might argue that that game isn't complete either.

Put shortly: Both look exciting, I ordered Immortals, and if Genshin Switch is good I might try that too!

Thank you guys for the replies. 👍 I wasn't sure if this thread was going to take off, but it's doing better than I expected.
Speaking of replies, I like your response @Henmii. It's detailed, thought-out, weighs in both "sides" (or games in this case), and you also say what game you're interested in and why you are.
So, why do you think that Genshin Impact might change from F2P when it arrives on Switch?

Also, I'm a little surprised that no one has asked me which one I'm interested in more, as I did start this Forum.

@ChaosBadger777 BotW is generic? With so many stuff regarding previous Zelda games? And recreated environments to mirror the desolation of time gone by? I mean come on!

As to Ubisoft games in general, most have a very shallow and empty open world. I tried to seriously play them on a Xbox One S that I bought but oh man they do lack emotion despite their superb graphics. I would prefer immensely to get lost to that “generic” BotW “map” than spend another hour in emotional emptiness.

Now regarding Genshin Impact I have watched multiple YouTube videos explaining its mechanics and read myriads of questions on Reddit about its F2P implementation and I concluded that although its world is beautiful the main gameplay elements and story are completely shallow and has a paywall after a certain level. In other words, it’s a total cash grab. As to the Immortals Fénix Rising, I mean who knows yet? It’s published by Ubisoft whose known for loot boxes and endless DLCs so I would hold my horses until it hits the actual shelves and see proper gameplay video reviews. It seems pretty cool though!

OK, so which are you more interested in, then .... @SM3DASislit ?

@BlissfulCrook I got really bored with BotW, get to a tower and open up a section of the map, look for new shrines, go to it and complete it in 5-15 mins before doing the same thing 120 more times.
It wouldn't be so bad if the Loot from the shrines was actually worth it, there's very little incentive to chase down better gear as it breaks way to quickly for the hassle and you can farm high rank guardian weapons - they respawn after a blood moon.
I'm not a massively fan of the Ubi games for the same reason, I am enjoying Valhalla but its not really open world as the story drives you around the map and its cool going to see and explore the places I've seen in the Last Kingdom.

I've been playing Genshin Impact fairly regularly since it came out, and I'm excited to try out Immortals: Fenyx Rising when it releases. I haven't looked up much information on the latter since I like to remain as spoiler-free as possible, so it'll be difficult to compare the two until I get my hands on Immortals, but I'll give my opinion on Genshin Impact anyway.

Genshin Impact really surprised me with how much I like it. It does have some similar elements to BoTW, like the aesthetics, climbing, and overworld puzzles, but it still does enough to differentiate itself. The world map doesn't feel borrowed at all, and the combat completely different. Honestly I like the combat much more than BoTW. It's all based on elemental reactions and switching between party members, and it's extremely fun to experiment around with different character's playstyles and how they interact with other characters.

Despite the fact that it's a free-to-play gacha game, there still seems to be a lot of care and production value that went into making the game. It has a very nice OST, the main story and side stories are completely voiced acted in English, and some of the dialogue is surprisingly well done. There's also good attention to detail in certain areas that wasn't necessary, but the devs went the extra mile to include which is nice to see. While the main story itself hasn't blown me away yet, there have been a couple really touching side stories.

Despite what some people may think, the game is pretty free-to-play friendly. All the content in the game can be cleared by the free story units, and we've been given a few free 4 star characters through events. On top of that the initial burst of summoning currency through chests and achievements is enough to net you a good batch of characters, plus you do get some summoning currency every day through daily commissions as well as through events. While the rates for 5 stars are pretty low, there is a pity at 90 summons where you're guaranteed to get a 5 star, and that pity carries across banners so if you don't get a 5 star on the current character event banner, you'll be closer to getting one on the next one. On top of that, this game has no competitive elements, so there's no need to "keep up with the meta" like in other free-to-play gacha games. The only thing really enticing you to summon is if you like the character or think they might make your team a bit better, neither of which are necessary, so as long as you can get past that you're fine.

I'm not as quite against free-to-play games as other people, and while I can understand the arguments against it, I still think they have their place in the gaming industry. They're especially great for those who can't afford to buy new games all the time. Having a free game that provides you with daily content for years to come with (at the moment) no hard pay-wall is wonderful for a lot of people. I understand that there is a danger to them, since they do prey on people's gambling addictions, but as long as the people spending thousands on the game have the disposable income to do so, they're essentially paying for others to enjoy the game for free. I don't hope that the free-to-play formula takes over the gaming industry, quite the contrary, for the most part I prefer paid games, but I don't mind there being a few free-to-play games out there. Free-to-play MMORPGs were mostly what I played during high school when I couldn't afford to buy my own games.

I think the main thing going against this game is the daily formula doesn't really lend itself well to the genre. This type of open world game is one where a lot of players will want to binge play, but it tries to be a "play for short bursts every day" type of game due to the resin system and drip-fed content. Logging on every day might also become a bit too cumbersome for some players, since it's not like other free-to-play games where you can typically just auto the daily content.

Regardless, even if you don't want to stick with the game long term, it's still a ton of play through the current available content. Even just exploring the world and finding chests is worth the download I'd say. You just need to not fall prey to the gacha system and recognize you won't get every character in the game.

@BruceCM
Thanks for asking, I wasn't expecting to be asked for a while.
Personally, I'm more interested in Genshin Impact as it’s F2P, so I wouldn’t worry about saving any money when I get the game. (In case I don't like it as much as I thought I would). It also has no weapon durability, a more linear structure (despite it being a open world game), and it just caught my attention first.
EDIT: Also, if you don't mind me asking, which game are you looking forward to more?

@Cynas
You should be a reviewer, because that was really well done and thought-out. 🤔👍
You should ask Nintendo Life if you can review Genshin Impact for them when it arrives on Switch. 🤔😆

Well, I played Genshin on PC for awhile already & it's pretty good, @SM3DASislit .... But I hardly play MMOs & such, just because they become such time-sinks So, the only one to look forward to for me is Fenyx Rising & I pre-purchased that in UPlay back when it was still Gods & Monsters!
Only just finished Watch Dogs Legion & carrying on with AC Valhalla, too

@SM3DASislit,

Thanks for your praise! As why I think Genshin might drop the "free-to-play" model: I don't know, just a possibility I wondered. I think it happened before with other titles on Switch, though I am not sure. I'll wait and see.

@BruceCM
I'm glad that you were able to enjoy Genshin Impact, even if you aren't playing it currently.
I usually don't play MMO's either (or other games that are time sinks), as I feel I don't personally have the time for them as well.
Wow, it seems like you'll be busy for a while with the games you currently have, and are going to get soon.
So, are you planning on going back to Genshin Impact after you've completed the current games you're playing, or are you done playing it overall?
I was a little confused with your reply.

@Henmii

Okay, that makes sense.
I believe you're right, I just can't think of what games have done that.

I probably won't go back to it myself, @SM3DASislit, since there's plenty of big games coming soon & I know they were/ are adding the 1st expansion to Genshin .... I'm sure that'll carry on doing well, though!

Now that the Immortals reviews are out: A reviewer said the graphics have taken a serious hit compared to other versions (in Nintendo's video it looked fine though), the framerate often dips under 30 frames. But whats worse: Crashing. The reviewer said that in his 20 hours of play the game crashed 7 times! That's not good! I really hope my version won't crash that much.

@Henmii Honestly I didn't expect something else from Ubisoft. Another cash grab as usual.

@Cynas Hey, I read your review. Very in-depth and it offers superb perspective regarding the game's mechanics. I also totally agree with you that there are many who don't have the financial power to continuously buy new video games and electronic entertainment and under this light it seems great that F2P games exist and keep getting updated with new content every now and then.

Here a very small update on Immortals: You need to log in with a Ubisoft account to play, otherwise the game can't be played. A real bummer if you don't have internet, and I wonder what happens if your connection breaks off (this should have been mentioned in the review on this site). Anyway, runned around a bit, climbed a bit, defeated some enemies and did 2 shrines. So far its pretty fun and good looking (not as good as on other systems, but that was to be expected). But more importantly the game runs very smooth. And 2 hours in, no crashing so far. I think I will have lots of fun with this game. As for the pre-order dlc: Ubisoft did send me a email that they will send the download-code soon.

The game seems to be more story focused then lets say botw, cutscenes and dialogue. Its also a much smaller game, I heard it can be finished in 30 hours with the majority of stuff done. Wich isn't necesary a bad thing, makes it more focused. Bear in mind that I had the first update installed (1.8 gb). I saw a video on youtube where it runned terrible prior to the update. And I heard next week there is a another update, but as I said it already runs very smooth.

Update: There's now a option to skip the Ubisoft account login. So I guess you only have to login the first time you want to play. Still, if you don't have internet you are in trouble. Oh, and I got the download code for the bonus mission today. It was such a short download that I suspect it was already in the game, but you needed the code to unlock it. You could call it a paywall (a small one anyway).

Update: Immortals just was never able to grab me, but I keep going back to Genshin Impact. Stunning game.