How Genshin Impact Could Potentially Become a GOTY Contender

Genshin Impact is one of the best online RPG games to come out in 2020, period. You could even say it has the potential to become a serious contender for the Game of the Year award. But let’s not forget about its stiff competition either. With AAA titles such as The Last of Us Part II, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and many more fully-fleshed-out games that are worthy of being called the Game of the Year, does Genshin Impact really have a chance of going toe-to-toe with these games?

While we think Genshin is still pretty far off in terms of getting there, it’s entirely possible for the free-to-play open world online RPG to snag the title from the other developers’ hands—with a little tweak here and there, of course. Here’s what miHoYo could do to at least give Genshin Impact a chance of being called the Game of the Year and why we think it’ll boost their chances of getting there.

Keep releasing new content to keep the fan base interested

Since its release, Genshin Impact has been making waves in the streaming community. In fact, it’s even on the list of most watched games on Twitch. The game, together with a vast number of popular streamers, not only entices other people to play the game for themselves, but it also boosts the sales of miHoYo, the developers behind Genshin Impact. There’s plenty of content to sift through in Genshin Impact, with tons of side quests and a huge map to explore. But eventually, players will finish the game entirely if miHoYo doesn’t put the work in. Having new content to constantly give the players a reason to play the game is a great way to improve the odds of Genshin Impact becoming a GOTY contender.

The addition of new quests, events, locations, and even characters is crucial for a game like this. Don’t forget; Genshin Impact is merely a free-to-play online game at its core that takes its profits from microtransactions. The gacha system that this game imposes gives players a chance to nab a strong character. But more often than not, they’re met with frustrating rerolls since the odds of getting a rare five-star character is low. What’s great about Genshin Impact is that you can finish the entire game without having to have these rare characters, you just have to put in the hours to do so. And what better way to keep the players playing the game even more than to have more updates and content?

Improve upon the quality of life in the endgame

It’s amazing what Genshin Impact offers despite being a free-to-play game. You can finish the main story with ease, but the game offers you an option to dive deeper as you descend to the endgame. There’s only one problem: the endgame in Genshin Impact can be a slog. Once you reach level 40 and above, it takes an ungodly amount of time just to ascend or level up.

Getting loot from the bosses that you defeated isn’t as easy as the first few times that you did it either. When opening a chest or loot after defeating a boss from a dungeon, you’re required to shell out Resin, which is similar to an energy bar that other online games have to prevent the players from finishing the game fast. In the beginning, you can use the Resin as much as you like since you have an abundance of them. Once you reach the endgame, however, depleting your Resin entirely just to open one chest isn’t unheard of. Sure, your Resin restores after 16 hours, but who wants to wait for more than half a day just to play the game for an hour or two to get new loot?

If miHoYo can come up with a plan to make the quality of life when a player reaches the endgame better without forcing them to cough up their cash just to play a few hours more, it can catapult Genshin Impact to the top for sure!

Conclusion: Final thoughts

Genshin Impact is what we would describe as a welcoming surprise this year. The game prides itself on being similar to a matryoshka doll by having a lot of things to unlock. It’s still too early to say if Genshin Impact is GOTY worthy or not, but the quality and content that you get for a game that’s free is just staggering. If miHoYo manages to step up and take their biggest title to the next level by implementing our suggestions, Genshin Impact can be a game that can at least become a Game of the Year for free-to-play online RPGs!