Genshin Impact | 5.2 Special Program

[Moonface]

It'd be silly to make them paid skins when they're giving them for free in certain regions. Although I wonder if this might spur the developers to try making alternate costumes for all the characters over time just as another thing to offer. Like maybe letting characters have Halloween skins and such.

[Dragon Lord]

Well, since they are replacing the current outfits in the Chinese version, they're not really gaining anything, and MiHoYo is known to be very stingy, so I could 100% see them slapping a price tag on them for us because we'd be getting them PLUS keeping the original designs still, while Chinese players are losing the original designs. This could very well be something we see the Chinese community throw a huge fit about as well, so MiHoYo could cave in to that and take away the original designs for us as well.

Also we'll never see Halloween or Christmas skins in Genshin. Neither of those are important days to China, and MiHoYo has proven that they only care about important Chinese events in this game (see: No Halloween or Christmas event in 2020 or 2021, no big anniversary event. Major events for the Lunar New Year in both 2020 and 2021).

[Moonface]

Oh I just used Halloween as an easy example rather than being something they could do because I don't know if it's appropriate for the game. But even for stuff like the Lunar New Year they could still make alternate costumes or something. It'd definitely help to break up what I expect to be the monotony of seeing others online and every single person using the same characters just look exactly alike.

[Dragon Lord]

They have released some alternate skins for characters. Last summer they made one for the characters Barbara (free from event) and Jean (paid), and just with the 2.4 update today we got new skins for Ningguang (free from event) and Keqing (paid).

MiHoYo does not price these skins cheap though. The paid skins will require you to buy the $30 Genesis Crystal to have enough to actually buy the skin. So I'm not exactly sure how the sales on these skins do, because $30 just for one is pretty expensive. Especially considering they don't bring anything unique to them like new animations, new battle effects, new voice lines or anything like that.

[Moonface]

Oh, I never knew they already did outfits before now. I'm surprised I never heard about them through social media since that price tag seems to be begging people to go and complain about it.

Speaking of complaining, apparently a lot of Chinese players actually find the new outfits to be a dumb decision and blame whatever internal party coerced MHY into doing them, rather than blaming MHY or expecting the changes to be applied to all regions like what occurred with Honkai.

[Mr EliteL]

If the Chinese players are complaining then good. As much as I'd like to see new designs for free and not permanent changes, these would've been OK if they were just simple alternate costumes of their original designs. So it sucks for the China server getting this, a part of me hopes fan backlash will cause to at least have the new designs be an alternate choice like for NA/EU. Apparently they're getting some Primogems when the change happens though for losing the original, reading the comments of that Reddit thread. Also in there is these are the first four and there's to be more coming too. Bloody CCP. I find nothing wrong with any character's current outfit. We're over a year in, so it feels a bit late to start nit-picking just because Genshin has become so successful (plus other stuff I believe has been mentioned before concerning CCP, or I'm just remembering what I've read elsewhere). I know there was some censorship or outfit changes in other games too, similar to this. So it's Genshin's turn then.

I was going to go on about if they're doing this now there's probably more people (ie Twitter twonks) looking at the current designs and will start whining to say "Why don't they change this too", "They should not be wearing this!", and "THIS IS WHAT THEY SHOULD BE WEARING" if not already, although I bet it's already been going on like when I watch Hero Hei on YouTube who shows off the complaining on Twitter.

Anyway for the designs themselves at the moment, as again apparently these aren't final, they're just OK. I prefer the originals though. Mona's is cute I agree, and Rosaria's looks more suitable for the night work she does. If these indeed are free for NA/EU I will give at least those two a run.

For 2.4 I already spent the Primogems I saved up on my F2P and got Yun Jin, Jean and Shenhe all in 45 or so pulls which was cool. I was at first disheartened by Jean appearing but luckily Shenhe appeared two 10 pulls later. For my main I got Yun Jin in a 10 pull but what I have left over I plan to save up now, will wish later on to try and get more constellations for her but I've decided to avoid Xiao this time. I want Yae and Kazuha more. If I have enough I will also try and get a C1 Zhongli, and I won't be annoyed if Shenhe also drops while I try and get more Yun Jin, but will stop around soft pity on the banner ready for either Zhongli or 2.5 banners.

Have yet to do anything more than Wishing and dailies but can't wait to get to the new area.

[Dragon Lord]

Ended up plopping some money into the game (surprise, surprise) and walked away with the Xiao I wanted, plus Shenhe, C1 Yun Jin and two copies of Calamity Queller (Shenhe's spear). Only meant for one copy of the spear, but the game decided to bless me with back-to-back copies of it.

Sadly in like 150+ pulls, the game only gave me TWO copies of Yun Jin. I honestly cannot believe I did that many pulls and I'm only walking away with C1 Yun Jin. I can get a free con level from the event once that starts, but man, that many pulls and I'm still five copies away from having her how I need her. Pain.

[Moonface]

I expect only @Dragon Lord will know the answer to this, but how come this game was the one that exploded yet other's like Honkai didn't seem to get pulled up with this game?
Also do either of you think this game could end up as popular as something like FF14 where servers start to get overloaded at times? So far I've never heard of this game struggling to keep up with player counts and if it never has I'm surprised given how sudden it surged in popularity.

[Dragon Lord]

Genshin took off unlike other gacha games before it because it had a really good marketing campaign. Plus it's release on PC + PS4 alongside the mobile release. Then finally you throw the fact that it offered what no other gacha/mobile game had before -- a huge open world to explore with very solid action gameplay -- on top, and it was a perfect storm for success.

Next, you offer up really good character designs + combat styles and that gets your whales to spend hard on the game (I'd know KEKW) and also gets the F2P people to stick around and save for future characters they want. Some people started up the game and saved everything they got for Ayaka's release (game released in September 2020, Ayaka in August 2021) because they loved her design so much.

MiHoYo just came up with the perfect mix of everything to make Genshin a smash hit. They took inspiration from the exploration of a game like Breath of the Wild, but they actually filled the world up with things to do, things to fine, puzzles, etc.. Something that Breath of the Wild severely failed to do. Then they paired that up with a combat system that makes very good use of team swapping and using elemental reactions to get the most damage you can out of everything.

They just took inspiration from a lot of different sources and just made it all better. They almost hit every nail directly on the head, took a huge gamble with such an expensive project, and it paid off for them big time.

[Mr EliteL]

I've never had problems accessing the game over player count, then again FF14 is an MMORPG and been around for much longer so perhaps their server's too outdated to handle influx of players at times? I don't know. Never had a problem on my PS4, but the laptop I use has some problems, but I think it's the laptop itself when it loses connection to my internet for some reason. So that shouldn't affect anyone else unless their own laptop or internet is the problem. Looking at downdetector site, some people do get individual problems and report, or even talk other stuff that isn't about reports, but whatever.  So far though no mass down time that I know of that has been unless of course it's a scheduled patch that they let everyone know well beforehand.

[Mr EliteL]

Version 2.5 is on the way, with the Special Program having been already streamed on Twitch, but there will be a YouTube stream due in 1 hour and 20 minutes, which I shall watch. Here's the preview trailer for 2.5, and also I've located the redemption codes early as I missed the ones for 2.4;

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I'm hoping they'll eventually go back to when the Special Programs were usually broadcasted on a week before the patch is meant to drop. Instead now we have 12 days to wait as opposed to 7 days, boo. But by that preview, it looks great, love there'll be more to Enkanomiya.

[Dragon Lord]

2.5 update so bad that MiHoYo had to release information on 2.6 to get people hyped up. KEKW

But no seriously, 2.5 is looking to be pretty damn boring. Outside of Yae being added as a playable character finally, there's nothing to get excited about. Kokomi re-run is especially hype destroying.

MiHoYo: Hey guys, 2.5!
Fans: Yeaaaaaaaah!
MiHoYo: Introducing Yae and Raiden re-run!!!!!
Fans: YEEEEEAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!
MIHoYo: Also Kokomi re-run!
Fans: .................................
MiHoYo: Uhhhh.... CHASM AND AYATO IN 2.6!!!!
Fans: AGLNAOPIRGNQAPNGDANGP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fuck you MiHoYo for making me wait another 8-11 weeks for Kazuha's re-run. I demand 100,000,000 Primogems as compensation for this atrocious update.

[Mr EliteL]

Some of the events look not so fun, making a drink at Angel's Share? What? OK, I'll do them events for the Primos, there was at least another one I wasn't into but already forgotten what that events was. I am happy the event for taking teams two characters into a gauntlet like domain is back and switching between them. Don't mind that one.

I am hype for Yae and Enkanomiya mostly, and will try and get more constellations for my F2P Kokomi from the wishes I've saved up. Or wish on Raiden perhaps, but for my main only Yae until I get one for her (a double pull would be very welcome), then save again for Kazuha who I hope will be in 2.6, although with The Chasm I'd expect a Liyue 5-star to be included, which could possibly point to Baizhu or Yaoyao for the first Dendro character, although I assume at least one will be 4-star or they'll be kept for the patch either before Sumeru arrives or in there. Windblume will happen soon too perhaps that first, either alongside The Chasm then Sumeru after, or something. We did have pretty much all 5-star Liyue character reruns by now so if not the Dendro characters then, I don't know.

[Dragon Lord]

I'll hide this in case you don't want to read it, but these are the current rumors for 2.6 and beyond:

2.6 = The Chasm, Ayato, Ayaka re-run, Kazuha re-run
2.7 = Will feature a story segment with the Chasm involving Zhongli and a new character named Yelen. Yelen will have a banner during 2.7. Re-run characters are unknown
2.8 = Golden Apple Archipelago 2.0/Ludi Harpastum event in Mondstadt, Venti re-run, Klee re-run, leaks suggest a Sumeru character will be released in this update as well

2.8 will be the final update before 3.0 is released, adding the region of Sumeru to the game.

[Mr EliteL]

Yeah I don't particularly want to read whatever's underneath the hidden lines. Do tell me if a part of that is no Kazuha in 2.6 so I can be happy to save again, although slightly disappointed even more waiting is to happen. I'll try and avoid YouTube more now, because I keep getting crap suggested to me that has leak info or rumours too, ugh, or I'll end up seeing something anyway like I did for the Raiden boss.