Pinning this comment to address a few frequent questions and such in comments:

1) There was no AI involved in any part of this video's production. Every word written is my own, the voiceover is my own, and the (bad) editing is my own.

2) The most common sentiment seems to be "Just don't get all the characters" or "just save primogems" or "just ignore endgame". These might work for you, but if that's the case, the section cautioning gacha doesn't apply to you as heavily. There are plenty of people it does apply to, however. I have the control and sense not to spend, but I want nothing more than to own every character and complete every bit of endgame. And then there are people with those desires who lack that control. Those are the victims of gacha.

3) In regards to the powercreep section, I definitely think I cut out too much and summarized it poorly. I’m sitting on a fully scripted 25m video that goes in depth on my thoughts and addresses a lot of concerns people have. One thing to note is that when I say all content, I mean ALL CONTENT. This means Dire 60s. Another thing that I said is “with relative ease”. I’m okay with difficult endgame content, but Genshin does not have endgame content that is difficult. It has endgame content that checks if you have the appropriate team for a new, hyper specific challenge, and punishes you if you don’t. Again, I have so much more to say on powercreep, both in Genshin and in games as a whole. So stay tuned.

4) I appear to be wrong about how capturing radiance odds work. Notably, we don’t have official data on it, and can only go on community statistics. This really just proves my point that wishing odds are maliciously obfuscated. Ggs.

5) This August, I did actually get my playtime from customer support. Forgot to include in the video, but I’ve spent over 3000 hours in genshin. 😵‍💫

6) I am NOT free to play. I’ve paid $5/mo for the Welkin pack since ~2.3. I also have bought battle passes, but don’t anymore. I bought crystals directly one time, to get a couple character skins. I think $5/mo is a reasonable price for the difference between getting every character that I am likely to want versus having to skip some. $60/yr is the same amount I’d be spending if I was playing a yearly release game like Call of Duty, so I personally don’t find it to be an exorbitant spend. The rate for Welkin is so much better than buying crystals directly, but of course can only be bought every month and requires daily logins to claim.

7) A comment noted the very obvious hypocrisy of this video. Despite the conclusion I come to, I am obviously giving the game a lot of praise and positivity, and am therefore likely to convince some people to try the game through that praise. I considered this many times while writing the video, and it's a big part of the reason I didn't finish and release it sooner. This was my response to that comment, and my statement on the matter: This is something I knew going in, and is part of why I spent so long rewriting this script again and again. The video's existence is hypocritical, yes. The target audience is people who have uninformed, yet generally negative opinions on the game. I wanted to make a video where I could shed light on what the game is beyond it's reputation, while reinforcing the very valid and common criticism those people hold in regards to the game's monetization. There are people who will try Genshin after watching this video, surely. But I ultimately gave those people a fair review of the game. This video is my story, and my review. I think the game is good, but seriously financially dangerous. I repeatedly stated that danger, but will not let it compromise the rest of my review. My overall verdict was that people should not try the game. Sole exception I could give would be for people exposed to gacha games in the past that haven't had an unhealthy relationship with spending on them. As for people who had a negative opinion of the game and came to either see it validated or challenged, they are unlikely to change their final verdict, as I agree with their presumptions in my conclusion to not recommend the game.

8) I recently gave Wuthering Waves a second try because half the comments section is people begging for it. I just find the magic isn't there. It's still a gacha game, which I hate, and the rest of the content just isn't up to par. The map design is not nearly up to the standards of its contemporaries, with the objectives feeling randomly placed. After clearing any given puzzle or enemy group, there's a solid chance I look around to see... nothing. The voice acting is awful. Flat out. Better than launch for sure, but takes so much away from the game. The setting isn't really my cup of tea either. Doesn't take away from the game per say, but doesn't add anything for me either. So much of the game's design just feels like they tried to emulate Genshin's success and make a "better" game by making a lot of small changes to small gripes people have about Genshin. Unfortunately, the game's fundamentals just aren't as good. A parry system can only be as good as the attacks you're parrying and the reward you get. I find it too strong here at a baseline. The story didn't captivate me in the 4 hours of it I played. The art direction feels... directionless. It feels like that Triple-A Mario meme but for Genshin. Soulless. That's the word I'd use to describe it.
You can argue all you want about how it's gacha is better, or it's resin isn't as bad, or how it has a skip button. But having bad systems that are "not as bad" isn't worth crediting. If somebody robs me for my whole backpack, and somebody else just takes my wallet, is the wallet-thief a good person? No.

It's refreshing to see a video that sits somewhere between "genshin is the best" and "here's why I'm quitting genshin. This is exactly the type of video I would like to make

Mihoyo will never beat the allegations that they are a music company that makes video games

The key here is that you have to be ok with working towards something for almost a month (a limited 5* character) that you want to get, and that the whole community is obsessing over and seems to have, only to end up not getting that character.

If you are ok with that, then go for it, if you would be tempted to spend real money at some point out of desperation then DONT.

Bro said "first project" and I rush to this channel to see it's his first video????? Bro god damn. For a FIRST video this was amazing.

I had a 0.6% chance of pulling this video, and a subsequent 50% chance of liking it or not and I won both. I love gambling, I love genshin and I love you!

In a survey, the developers asked players much disposable income they had for the game. It was multiple choice. The smallest bracket was "$0-$300 monthly". There were 3 more tiers of spending brackets above that. The fact that the smallest amount you could tell them that you were comfortable spending was "up to $300 per month" felt very tone-deaf.

In my view, the exercise of extreme patience, planning and self-control is warranted if you play any gacha games. The more you like said game, the more you need to be careful.

Mythical youtube pull

The composer for a very big chunk of the game was Yu Peng Chen, and i love his Genshin soundtracks. I think he stopped composing for it like a year ago.

I hate admitting to anyone I know that I’m playing Genshin Impact. I’m also afraid to tell my friends who tried the game and quit that I’m still playing it. It’s the only game I feel ashamed to talk about. I’m afraid people might think I’m a gambler or assume I’m part of the toxic fandom just because I’m still keeping the game alive by playing it.

But I miss the old days when Genshin made my world feel bigger. Back then, the people I talked to became close friends, and I met a whole new group of people in the community. It used to feel so big, and now there are only a few of us left.

The lore, the world-building, explorable locations and the music are seamlessly interwoven in ways even the most critically acclaimed video games can't even come close to replicating. Unfortunately, most will never find this perspective for themselves after being distracted by either the gameplay loop, the gacha, the combat and other surface-level nonsense because to be immersed in that experience is to read the description of every item, every book, every location, even consuming the marketing media that accompanies the story, completely taking in the story that comes with the far more in-depth unvoiced World Quests that give incredibly strong context to the main storyline, every explorable location, every item and also past storylines before the beginning of the game. It's a shame really.

This is a great primer for anyone picking up their first Gacha game, especially Genshin or other Hoyo titles. The games have great cores but they are all Gacha games first and foremost. If you don't understand how that is going to affect your gameplay loop and how susceptible you are to gambling, it's best to avoid Gacha or have a plan for what characters you KNOW you want. Plan properly and it will be a pretty good time, if you don't, it may came back on you as you progress. Spend your pulls and or money wisely

I've played this game for 5 years and MAN, I couldn't agree more with the stuff you said, the thing that keeps me playing is characters and environment. The lore of the game is great but man do they suck at presenting It, although the presentation did get better in the newest region (Nod-Krai) and the mention of powercreep made me audibly groan, I wish I could use my C6 Noele with Itto's sig weapon and Furina duo in the abyss without having to worry about If I can actually use that team or worry about X mechanic. I think many Veteran genshin players feel the same when I say that I have a Love hate relationship with this game.

As a 'Free to Play player' of Genshin that started about 10 months ago, I can still admit it's admittedly difficult to separate one's enjoyment of the game from the rate and success with which you "pull" characters from the gatcha system. The best advice I would give is to prepare yourself that you will NOT have every character you personally like. You won't even have every character that will be good for clearing most of the endgame content. You have to pretty much go in with that mentality and make the best with what you have. It's still very much possible to have fun, but it takes considerably longer hours of play and the right mentality.

I was one of the people that played Genshin for years from release, there from the beginning. I'm pretty sure I played it every day for at least 2-3 years strait. As someone who loved Breath of the Wild, is an aspiring game designer and general artist, i was completely enamored with the game. Like you said, it had the great mechanics of BOTW but more - a colorful, vibrant, unique world - with more interesting combat, story, and party members. Genshin has inspired my ideas and works so much since then. (And I really appreciated the colorful world due to personal preference, as it feels like too many games go for the dark and gritty.)

But as a strictly FTP player, I was feeling the power creep even a few years ago not end-game due to lacking time, skill, and especially burn out. I got tired of the dailies, tired of my own FOMO as I missed more and more events, locations, characters. Tired of having to reply on friends to get the items to power up my characters, a fluctuating and lessening number of friends throughout college. I've tried to get back into it off and on, but it feels like the overwhelming amount of content had me rushing through everything to try to get to the new stuff, to feel like that beginning again. My run probably is still stuck around a little bit of fontaine and sumeru done but not too much, moreso unlocking the map in a few areas if anything.

A part of me still wants to get back into it, be obsessed with the characters and story again. be apart of a community. But the other part is still tired, uncertain of how much i still care about these characters and story anymore, at least having to interact with it in this way, so far back.

I'm thankful that i myself can manage not doing dailies or obsessing over characters too much at least(i detest grinding and grow tired of it really quickly), but it feels like some of the magic isn't there anymore.

I keep the game on my laptop that can barely run it at all low settings. I'll take the quarter day waiting time to download the updates a few times a year. I wish i had more friends to play with to lessen the grind. I desperately want to experience the game for the first time again. And sometimes i still feel ashamed that i can't, won't. scared to play the game again.

i dont know what my point is, other than agreement with most of your points. A wonderful game that can hurt to play, hurt to love, hurt to leave.

It is actually very real how close it is.
"Oh I play Genshin. It has this, it has that...No. I do not recommend it. Like ever."

Hilariously, the title of this is exactly what I'm always telling my friends. I've been playing since release, fully F2P, and I am nonstop talking about the lore of this game-- but at this point, when any of my friends ask if they should start playing it, the answer is an emphatic "NO DON'T". Even setting aside the hostile pricing of the gacha system, it's just impossible to start the game this late without constantly feeling left out due to all the missed limited events. It would feel like a constant, exhausting game of catch-up, and it just would not be possible to have the good teams and builds so many players want without spending. And I refuse to introduce people to a game that encourages spending as much as Genshin does

As someone who understands a bit about how slot machines earn money.. Genshin and all the post-Genshin gachas are actually very very close to each other in terms of "Generosity", despite the difference in free pull currency given. That's because there are actually 3 variables to the revenue equation:
- Obvious: Probability rates and pity. Most people only talk about this on a surface level
- Indirect: Cost per pull. Which is also affected by amount of free meaningful pulls given on a regular basis.
- Hidden: Actual value of win. Which is measured against ingame systems. This is the one that game companies manipulate the most because it is easy to distort the perception of value

When the game gives more in terms of free pulls and lower rates, it needs to decrease the actual value to still earn from players. And I'm not talking about perceived value by players - they will have an internal formula for how "good" a character actually is.

22:48 Since this video’s release, HoYo has to state on every banner that obtaining your 5star character could cost between USD$2 and $200. I’m grateful (to the EU, probably) for this transparency.