What If Genshin Impact Had Given Free 5-Star Characters? Hypothetical Discussion
I want to play Genshin Impact, but I feel like I simply cannot.
Many years ago, my cousin introduced me to the world of gacha games, and I started with Genshin. I experienced the launch of Honkai: Star Rail, as well as Zenless Zone Zero. Along the way, I made many mistakes: I ruined accounts, lost others, started over multiple times, and played many different gacha games—both as a free-to-play player and by spending money. And yet, I always end up coming back to the same place.
I want to play Genshin. I truly love its story, its world, and its characters. However, the game feels fundamentally deficient when compared to its siblings. Across nearly every system shared among HoYoverse games, Genshin consistently feels like the weakest entry: the energy system, the farming methods, rewards, pulls, endgame content, and even the way the story is presented. If a particular storyline does not interest me, unlike in other titles, I cannot skip it—and that feels genuinely frustrating.
This situation constantly makes me think about how the game could be better, or how it could have been better. Sometimes I imagine what Genshin might look like once it reaches its end of service, when perhaps a fan or a group of fans could create a private server or an offline version. Other times, I simply think about how things should have unfolded differently.
For example, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero have both given away several free 5-star characters. As with many other posts that revolve around hypothetical scenarios and speculative discussions, I began wondering what kind of pattern Genshin could have followed when it comes to giving away free characters—similar to ZZZ, which gifted characters whenever a Void Hunter was released, an important lore figure and a major meta-defining unit.
Taking into account that Genshin’s banner system works differently, and acknowledging that I am speaking as a casual observer with limited knowledge, I looked into the history of banners and started thinking: what if the character released after an Archon had been free? This follows a similar logic to ZZZ, where a character was given away knowing they would be overshadowed by the major release of the moment—the obvious “must-pull” character. Knowing in advance that one character would be free could have helped players manage their resources more confidently and encouraged them to pull for the Archon instead.
This is merely an idea, and I want to emphasize that I am approaching this as an outsider. I genuinely want to hear every opinion and criticism. Alternatively, which character do you think should have been free?
For me, those characters would have been Sangonomiya Kokomi, Yoimiya, Baizhu, and Citlali.
Many years ago, my cousin introduced me to the world of gacha games, and I started with Genshin. I experienced the launch of Honkai: Star Rail, as well as Zenless Zone Zero. Along the way, I made many mistakes: I ruined accounts, lost others, started over multiple times, and played many different gacha games—both as a free-to-play player and by spending money. And yet, I always end up coming back to the same place.
I want to play Genshin. I truly love its story, its world, and its characters. However, the game feels fundamentally deficient when compared to its siblings. Across nearly every system shared among HoYoverse games, Genshin consistently feels like the weakest entry: the energy system, the farming methods, rewards, pulls, endgame content, and even the way the story is presented. If a particular storyline does not interest me, unlike in other titles, I cannot skip it—and that feels genuinely frustrating.
This situation constantly makes me think about how the game could be better, or how it could have been better. Sometimes I imagine what Genshin might look like once it reaches its end of service, when perhaps a fan or a group of fans could create a private server or an offline version. Other times, I simply think about how things should have unfolded differently.
For example, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero have both given away several free 5-star characters. As with many other posts that revolve around hypothetical scenarios and speculative discussions, I began wondering what kind of pattern Genshin could have followed when it comes to giving away free characters—similar to ZZZ, which gifted characters whenever a Void Hunter was released, an important lore figure and a major meta-defining unit.
Taking into account that Genshin’s banner system works differently, and acknowledging that I am speaking as a casual observer with limited knowledge, I looked into the history of banners and started thinking: what if the character released after an Archon had been free? This follows a similar logic to ZZZ, where a character was given away knowing they would be overshadowed by the major release of the moment—the obvious “must-pull” character. Knowing in advance that one character would be free could have helped players manage their resources more confidently and encouraged them to pull for the Archon instead.
This is merely an idea, and I want to emphasize that I am approaching this as an outsider. I genuinely want to hear every opinion and criticism. Alternatively, which character do you think should have been free?
For me, those characters would have been Sangonomiya Kokomi, Yoimiya, Baizhu, and Citlali.
Commentaires
Plus, you don’t even need 5-star limited to play the game. You just might want them to beat some end-game content. It’s not required to complete the stories, quests, puzzles, etc. And not a single one of my 5-stars are C6 nor do I have but a few 5-star weapons and I’ve been playing since release. There’s no such thing as “must have” as that’s just your FOMO talking.
also, i actually consider genshin's combat/energy system to be two of its greatest strengths and that they form by far the best gacha combat system i've ever experienced.
up until recently, genshin really hasn't had anything close to those "must-pull" characters that everyone needs to get in order to enjoy the game and finish end-game content. it differs from HSR and ZZZ in this aspect, which eliminates the need for free consolation prizes. i consider this to be another one of genshin's strengths.
if you view these as negatives, then you can play games that appeal to you more, but it doesn't make genshin universally "worse" in any way.
Second, Genshin is older than ZZZ and HSR. Both games are still relatively new and they have different game mechanisms so you're comparing apples to oranges. Third, each game has its own level of power creep and difficulty. Ganshin's still quite easy to clear with an entire four star team whereas in HSR and ZZZ the lack of four stars makes it harder to clear content and the power levels is significantly harder.
the fact that Genshin is already in the midst of giving away free pulls right now shows me that you haven't been keeping up with the game which is fine. As someone who plays all three games, yes the grinding is more tedious in Genshin than the other two but again, the mechanics of each game is different.
Is this whole post written by ChatGPT?
Literally just copy, paste, and move it over a little bit.
Your entire post is blatantly written by ChatGPT. It gets basic facts wrong (Yoimiya released before Shogun, among others) and seems completely ignorant of basic modern mechanics - and you write in comments completely differently from how you "wrote" in the opening post.
Get out of here with your low-quality karma farming.
Either way, Hoyo gotta make money, so that will never happen.
I agree a skip button would be nice. I spam clicked my way through some quests yesterday because I don't care for that quest line and it is a bit of a time waste, but the rest of the game is rewarding and fun enough for me that I'm okay with grinding through a few boring quests here and there.
Genshin's (2020) current number of 5-star units: 63 (not including Traveler)
HSR's (2023) current number of 5-star units: 53 (not including Trailblazer)
HSR's only half as old as Genshin, yet just ten characters away from catching up.
if free and strong: the game stops making easy to adquire and usable units. for comparison, hsr and zzz, no 4\* in any of their meta or half meta teams, if you use one, is because you genuinely have no choice or because you like them.
if free and weak: then it's the same as the four stars of the game, no one will care about them, and people will legit forget they existed, changing absolutely nothing. for comparison, aloy from genshin itself, tell me the last time you saw one? or the time before that?
if free and mid: same as above, but they're at least usable enough to see the light of day in some teams and work as a sidegrade when rapidly powercrept, for comparison, see zhao currently, and harumasa on release (bro lasted one entire patch before Sanby took over his spot.
so, if you use HSR and ZZZ as a comparison, it doesn't work. those games have two 5\* per patch every patch, powercreep in the same level as genshin but 3 years sooner. complete lack of low cost units (genshin has so many good four star units it's actually funny), and most importantly, weapons in this game are NOT mandatory, specially compared to hsr, where entire parts of a character's kit is locked behind lightcones. if anything, genshin is the f2p friendly game of hoyo, because you get 60\~70 total pulls here for one character per patch, in hsr and zzz, you get around 90\~100 total pulls for two banners.
also, constellation selector every 8 months for old units, more options in team building than zzz or hsr could ever achieve and to top it all off, older characters are starting to get buffs, so even if your favorite is a old unit (my favorite is childe, all the way back from 1.1), chances are you'll get him buffed eventually.
so no, there's no need for free units in this game. they'll be nice to have, yes, but that's far from a dealbreaker, if anything, hsr and zzz should stop with the free units and actually start to make their lower rarity ones useful
You say that but you also say
>However, the game feels fundamentally deficient when compared to its siblings.
Grass is greener on the other side complain
Comparisons are what are ruining the gacha space, as everyone and their mom compares gacha games, even when they have entirely different gameplays, economies, and other factors that make comparing gachas apples to oranges
>Across nearly every system shared among HoYoverse games, Genshin consistently feels like the weakest entry:
Yeah, thats not how it works
>the energy system,
More energy is required on the other two because otherwise by the time you are done, meta has changed twice over rendering all that time useless
Genshin doesnt have that issue
>the farming methods,
Once again, not remotedly comparable
Like are you gonna tell me getting 4+2 pieces, with more stats to choose from, somehow better than 4+1flex on Genshin?
>rewards, pulls,
Rewards and pulls go hand by hand, more rewards/pulls also equals more needed to be spent
HSR has double the 5* per patch compared to Genshin
>endgame content,
Genshin has 3
HSR has 3
ZZZ has 3(?)
Like what exactly is the complain about? How often it refreshes? All thats doing is forcing more pulls behind endgame only
>and even the way the story is presented. If a particular storyline does not interest me, unlike in other titles, I cannot skip it—and that feels genuinely frustrating.
So you arent playing for the story on an story game, you just want full gacha?
>This situation constantly makes me think about how the game could be better, or how it could have been better. Sometimes I imagine what Genshin might look like once it reaches its end of service, when perhaps a fan or a group of fans could create a private server or an offline version. Other times, I simply think about how things should have unfolded differently.
Hoyo themselves could do it, no need for "fans"
Then again GGZ is still alive anyways
>For example, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero have both given away several free 5-star characters. As with many other posts that revolve around hypothetical scenarios and speculative discussions, I began wondering what kind of pattern Genshin could have followed when it comes to giving away free characters—similar to ZZZ, which gifted characters whenever a Void Hunter was released, an important lore figure and a major meta-defining unit.
>Taking into account that Genshin’s banner system works differently, and acknowledging that I am speaking as a casual observer with limited knowledge, I looked into the history of banners and started thinking: what if the character released after an Archon had been free? This follows a similar logic to ZZZ, where a character was given away knowing they would be overshadowed by the major release of the moment—the obvious “must-pull” character. Knowing in advance that one character would be free could have helped players manage their resources more confidently and encouraged them to pull for the Archon instead.
>This is merely an idea, and I want to emphasize that I am approaching this as an outsider. I genuinely want to hear every opinion and criticism. Alternatively, which character do you think should have been free?
>For me, those characters would have been Sangonomiya Kokomi, Yoimiya, Baizhu, and Citlali.
Yoimiya literally released before the archon, and Citlali released alongside Mavuika on the same exact half
Baizhu is not fair to be used considering he was an element not avaliable by the time Zhongli dropped, which is literally the second version in the game
And while I wouldnt dislike getting a free Baizhu, not sure why a game "quality" has to be decided "wether they give a free limited 5* away or not"
Thats just caring about free rewards, but not about the game itself, and for that there are thousands on the market
HSR and zzz have such a worse and horrible relic/disc/artifact farming experience it is laughable. No off piece? The amount of traces in HSR and skills in zzz to level up, they have to give you so many to farm, 1 cause there is nothing else to do (no open world exploration), and 2 cause you have to upgrade them a million times. Genshin....3 talents to level up roughly 7ish times.
HSR gives you basically 1 event the entire patch and then login bonus because there is nothing to do besides their powercreep endgame.
Zzz loads up on events and most of them are fine.
But then zzz and hsr both so egregious and disgusting spending "events" where you have to spend hundreds of dollars to get rewards.
Also genshin gives a free 5 star selector every anniversary and 4 free 5 star constellations away per year for characters you have. Plus genshin makes 4 stars that are usable.
HSR hasn't made a 4 star since 2024 and zzz....well....they make A ranks but....they aren't what anyone would call good.
Hsr just had the worst and most bloated storyline in any of the games with Amphoreus. Their "buffs" are so bad that they are laughable. They powercreep characters after 2 patches.
Zzz story in 2.0 has been pretty terrible as well and disconnected. So much so they had to put out a statement and deep dives about it and about righting the direction going forward.
That's a long way off, Houkai 3rd is still active and receiving updates, and economically speaking Genshin is still a powerhouse to be measured against. EoS is not happening any sooner than 2030 I'd say, and that's a worst case scenario.
And I can picture what those fans would create: A dull and soulless AFK Resource collection game + gacha pull simulator, with a pointless open world that only really serves as the background for doing everything through menus. The living embodiment of "optimize the fun out of a game".