- Genshin is mainly targeted at casual players, locking the game’s design into simple and intuitive gameplay.
- Clorinde’s kits leans more on the complicated side with Genshin’s standards, but it’s still simple enough to fit in the game.
- If Clorinde sees a successful banner run, we’ll hopefully get to see Hoyo bring in more characters that push the boundaries of the game.
Genshin Impact has carved its niche in the gacha game market with its stunning visuals, open-world exploration, and action RPG combat. However, the gameplay has often been criticized for being overly simplistic, favoring team composition optimization over individual character mastery. Here’s why I think the arrival of Clorinde may change that for future character designs, and why it’s a good thing for the game!
Genshin Impact’s Game Design
To anyone who’s known Hoyoverse from back when they were Mihoyo, it’s common knowledge that Genshin isn’t their first major venture into the gacha world. Their previous game, Honkai Impact 3rd, was a lot more complicated. The Valkyries each had their specific mechanics and a variety of combos and skills. The game became very popular in SEA countries, but ultimately, it didn’t reach a global presence.
Learning from their mistakes but not wanting to change their prior passion project, they rethought their game plan and wanted to create a game marketed towards the more casual side of players.
What Does Clorinde Do?
Unlike many Genshin Impact characters whose skills primarily involve straightforward attacks or buffs, Clorinde throws caution to the wind. Her kit revolves around her Elemental Skill, “Hunter’s Vigil,” which transforms her normal attacks into Electro-infused pistol shots and unlocks a lunging attack. Each pistol shot grants her a certain amount of Bond of Life. This bond of life can be used to buff the damage of your lunges. Couple this with the ascension passives that grant her bonus bond of life and heal her, and make it so she can’t be healed by outside sources, and you’ve got a very selfish hyper carry.
Why Genshin Prioritizes Simpler Designs
This complexity that Clorinde and similar characters provide could be a double-edged sword. While veterans like myself are yearning for a character like Dante from Devil May Cry, it could alienate the casual player base that Genshin Impact has traditionally catered to.
Genshin’s success hinges on its accessibility. The game thrives on being easy to pick up and play, with intuitive controls and characters whose skills don’t overwhelm players with visual effects and intricate mechanics.
Skill Expression With Clorinde
As time passes, more casual gamers get into more intense games. People you’d never seen use a computer use gamer lingo in their day-to-day conversations. With the release of Wuthering Waves, people bored with Genshin now have a place to relive the joy of Genshin—this time with a separate world, a separate story, and gameplay that’s more fun over the long run.
Clorinde is so unlike any other character we’ve seen in Genshin that the sudden shift likely means that Hoyo realizes the problem—that their game is becoming stale with characters functioning the same way. The most similar character we got to Clorinde was Hutao. However, that was more based on the game’s mechanics, i.e., ICD and stamina management, forcing players to learn cancels to utilize her better. It wasn’t Hutao herself that provided player expression. Players just found a way to use her that way.
Clorinde, on the other hand, is made to be more complicated. Her resource management is direct, unlike stamina. Her skill also provides quick thinking not only for the Bond of Life but also for repositioning and dodging enemy attacks. A clear example of the change in game design is comparing her with Xiao. The latter had a way to jump up into the air, but instead of using that feature to implement midair combos or an alternative to sprint dodging, it was just another button-mashing ultimate. Clorinde’s skill can be timed to dodge enemy attacks, and she looks cool doing so.
What This Means For The Future
Just the fact that Hoyo’s testing new stuff is good for the game. Genshin has always lacked the rule of cool, in my opinion. I absolutely adore Genshin and have been playing it since launch, but I never really saw it as an RPG or a game heavy on combat. With the changes that Clorinde might bring, however, people may start having fun with the game’s combat!
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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