GRAPHICS: Great, consistent style. Environments are gorgeous, especially the purples and cherry blossoms of Inazuma, and the lakes and architecture of Liyue -- the first sighting of Liyue after leaving Mondstadt for the first time was genuinely breath-taking. Some character designs are great, personal favourites being Kaeya, Candace, Dehya, and Alhaitham. However, character designs are beginning to seem stale, repetitive, and uncreative by this point, and it makes it hard to get excited for new ones.
CHARACTERS: A pretty good variety of personalities and outlooks. The protagonist is basically a void who doesn't speak. Paimon, your ever-present 'helper'/companion, is genuinely infuriating. I don't care for the copy-pasted "sleepy girl" (Sayu, Layla) and "overworked woobie" (Jean, Ganyu) archetypes.
VOICE ACTING/DIALOGUE: Varies, but it's generally pretty great. Paimon's voice is like nails on a chalkboard and I would actively love an option to mute her and her alone.
PLOT: I love the lore and storyline, and I'm genuinely invested in seeing where it goes.
GAMEPLAY: I like it fine. Now that I've had a taste of Honkai: Star Rail's combat I'm not super into going back to Genshin's, but that's just me.
MULTIPLAYER: The four-player co-op is useful and fun for domains and bosses, but there's a ton you can't do in multiplayer that just seems silly. Why can't you do any quests while in multiplayer? Why can't you talk to NPCs?
Overall, I like it. It's gacha, so obviously don't play it if you're prone to gambling, FOMO, or have an addictive personality - if you're able to resist temptation, you should be able to grind for all the currency you need without spending anything. It definitely gets review-bombed and unfairly maligned because of sections of the community and immediate opposition to just the gacha aspect (understandably). If you don't participate in the gacha side of the game, then the amount of free content you get is INSANE and completely worth it.
That said, unless you're really interested in the story, open world, and characters, I'd still recommend Star Rail over Genshin, and that's coming from someone who usually greatly prefers fantasy and real-time combat to sci-fi and turn-based. It's far, far more generous with its currencies, daily tasks are much quicker to get through, and it's much easier to get through without excessive grinding.
Favourite Male Character: Childe, Kaeya, Alhaitham
Favourite Female Character: Sara
First Character I Liked: Kaeya
Favourite Character Design: Kaeya, Candace
Favourite OST: TBA
Favourite Scene: Everyone in Liyue fighting back against Osial
Least Favourite Character: Fanon Lumine irritates me, but none in particular in canon
CHARACTERS: A pretty good variety of personalities and outlooks. The protagonist is basically a void who doesn't speak. Paimon, your ever-present 'helper'/companion, is genuinely infuriating. I don't care for the copy-pasted "sleepy girl" (Sayu, Layla) and "overworked woobie" (Jean, Ganyu) archetypes.
VOICE ACTING/DIALOGUE: Varies, but it's generally pretty great. Paimon's voice is like nails on a chalkboard and I would actively love an option to mute her and her alone.
PLOT: I love the lore and storyline, and I'm genuinely invested in seeing where it goes.
GAMEPLAY: I like it fine. Now that I've had a taste of Honkai: Star Rail's combat I'm not super into going back to Genshin's, but that's just me.
MULTIPLAYER: The four-player co-op is useful and fun for domains and bosses, but there's a ton you can't do in multiplayer that just seems silly. Why can't you do any quests while in multiplayer? Why can't you talk to NPCs?
Overall, I like it. It's gacha, so obviously don't play it if you're prone to gambling, FOMO, or have an addictive personality - if you're able to resist temptation, you should be able to grind for all the currency you need without spending anything. It definitely gets review-bombed and unfairly maligned because of sections of the community and immediate opposition to just the gacha aspect (understandably). If you don't participate in the gacha side of the game, then the amount of free content you get is INSANE and completely worth it.
That said, unless you're really interested in the story, open world, and characters, I'd still recommend Star Rail over Genshin, and that's coming from someone who usually greatly prefers fantasy and real-time combat to sci-fi and turn-based. It's far, far more generous with its currencies, daily tasks are much quicker to get through, and it's much easier to get through without excessive grinding.
Favourite Male Character: Childe, Kaeya, Alhaitham
Favourite Female Character: Sara
First Character I Liked: Kaeya
Favourite Character Design: Kaeya, Candace
Favourite OST: TBA
Favourite Scene: Everyone in Liyue fighting back against Osial
Least Favourite Character: Fanon Lumine irritates me, but none in particular in canon