Back in late February gamers were given a brief look at a Breath of the Wild-style adventure game from miHoYo, where you gather your party and make your way across an expansive open-world sandbox themed around East-Asian mythology. Well, Chinese studio miHoYo announced that the second closed beta for Genshin Impact will begin starting March 19th, 2020.
The announcement about the second closed beta test was accompanied by a new three minute trailer featuring a look at the Liyue scenery as well as some additional gameplay, narrated by the waifu material known as Amber.
I must say, miHoYo certainly lives up to the moniker of being tech otakus trying to save the world.
We get some fly-by shots of the town before we follow Amber to the beach where the archer unleashes special attacks and combos on enemies before she hands over the combo to a lancer named Xiao.
The open-air concept of Genshin Impact with a strong focus on Chinese farmlands and architecture definitely helps the game standout from all the other hideous looking AAA titles in development.
There are no ugly rejected mutants in the player roster and the environments are tinged with open-borders degeneracy like Cyberpunk 2077. It’s quite telling how the design philosophy differs so much between Eastern and Western developers, where one is constantly trying to impose the devolution of societal standards on us while the other is constantly trying to celebrate nature and cultural differences.
An argument can definitely be made that Genshin Impact borrows so heavily from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild so as to be little more than a clone with a few different characters to play and a re-skin of the soundtrack, but it’s been three years since Breath of the Wild released, and Genshin Impacy looks like it may sate the thirst some gamers have for a similar experience.
That’s not to mention that the vibrant palette and gorgeous environmental designs help the game pop and sizzle visually like so few other titles on the market.
You can follow the development of Genshin Impact or sign up for the closed beta by visiting the official website.
