Genshin Impact

Climb a cliff in Teyvat and there is usually something at the top. A chest, a puzzle involving wind currents, a shrine, a view worth stopping for.

Teyvat as the actual product

That is the quiet trick at the centre of Cognosphere’s game. It is an open world with real-time combat, voiced cutscenes and a main story that stands comparison with mid-tier console releases, handed to you free on a phone, and the exploration does not thin out after the opening region. If the appeal of a game is wandering, solving overworld puzzles and finishing a long story at your own pace, the value is enormous.

Elemental reactions, and the spectacle budget

The combat system is the most carefully argued thing here. Electro into wet ground, pyro into a frozen enemy, swapping characters to chain one element into another: a rock-paper-scissors idea that keeps producing new answers as your roster widens. Around it sits production work that is not standard on mobile, from the voice acting to the way each new region arrives with its own architecture, music and mythology.

A daily loop measured in resin

The honest shape of a long-term session is short. Do your commissions, spend resin on the domains that drop artefacts and ascension material, and the tap closes until it refills. Progression-minded players hit that ceiling most days with time left over.

What stays open when the resin runs out

Exploration is the part with no meter on it, which is a tidy piece of design if you like exploring and a wall if you were chasing power. Two people can play this for a year and describe completely different games.

Wishing for a five-star

The economy is what holds the score down, and the cruelty is in how the two halves interlock. The characters you become attached to through the story are the ones behind expensive pull rates, and the material to actually level the ones you do get is on the resin clock, so wanting something and being able to use it are gated separately, by different systems, both of which have a price attached. Nothing is hidden and nothing is a scam. It is simply built to convert attachment into spending, and the multi-year story pacing gives it years in which to do so.

Take the world as the thing you came for and treat the roster as optional, and Teyvat is one of the most generous free experiences available on a phone. Come expecting a fair path to every character and the economy will grind against you constantly. Know which player you are before you start, and the link below will take you there.