A Year in Teyvat: The Genshin 'Impact'

MANILA, Philippines — It has been a year since travelers far and wide began their journey in the world of Teyvat.

miHoYo took the world by storm last September 28, 2020, when it released its free-to-play open-world game Genshin Impact where players take on the role of “The Traveler”, who has spent their life crossing through different worlds with their twin sibling. 

Unfortunately, when the siblings try to leave Teyvat, they were separated by an unknown god who also sealed their powers. The Traveler embarks then on a quest to find the unknown being and reunite with their sibling.

But Teyvat is an enormous world, made up of seven major nations. To this day, Genshin Impact has only released three—Mondstadt, Liyue, and Inazuma. 

The game is one of miHoYo’s long-term projects and they project that it would be several years still for the game’s story to be completed. But fans are not complaining. 

The main selling point of Genshin Impact is its limitless possibilities. 

With such a massive open world to explore combined with phenomenal animation that uses styles of Chinese, Japanese and Korean animations, players traverse the land of Teyvat hungry for a new kind of adventure each time they log in.

In the Philippines, Genshin Impact has also made waves. 

In 2020, Genshin Impact was the second most talked about game in the country after Animal Crossing and by the first half of 2021, Genshin Impact has soared to the top spot. 
But what has hooked Filipinos to the massive open-world game?

“Genshin Impact is a game that is highly inspired by Anime style animation that has been a part of the Philippine culture since the early 1990s where children would watch anime shows like Dragon Ball Z, Ghost Fighter, Flame Of Recca, and many more.” shared Jerson V. Chavez, one of the administrators of the Genshin Impact [Philippines] Facebook group.

The Genshin Impact [Philippines] group was formed for those who were interested in the game and a place to share expectations based on the beta-test gameplay videos that were available. Since then, the group has grown to 128 thousand members and counting. 

“Looking back into the past before the game even started, the members of our group were only a few thousand Filipino fans who are often asking things like, "when will the game be available globally?" "Are there any news about the game launch?" These were the typical question you will see from the group when it was just starting. Those members, in my opinion, were anime lovers who love anime games. Then the sudden boom of members happened a few weeks after the launch when Genshin Impact started getting high feedbacks from big mobile operating system companies such as Apple, Google Play. After that, Genshin Impact took the curiosity of various gamers from all types of fields and thus made them play Genshin Impact and so here we are now.” shared Chavez.

Besides the animation style, Koy Medina of the Genshin Allies Community Discord group sees that the sense of freedom to explore is another thing that has enticed Filipino gamers.

“Genshin Impact is slowly gaining popularity is because of the freedom of other travelers to do what they will and be able to discover the best thing in their world and their chosen characters. Once you played Genshin Impact, you'll be left with its cliffhanger stories that make you want to continue the game,” said Medina.

Medina along with his co-administrator Everly S&V, created the Discord group after observing many players wanting to keep at the game but were struggling with the game’s point system and rewards. “We decided that we'll invite people who needed assistance to gain more points for them to be able to claim their deserved rewards. We didn't expect that our server will reach 600 people. Genshin Impact is mostly composed of people who just want to have fun.”

Chavez also sees this sense of camaraderie in Genshin Impact [Philippines]. 

Within a year of Genshin Impact, Chavez has noted that the group is now composed of veteran and beginner players, with the former always willing to answer questions from new players every time they encounter any roadblocks when leveling up. 

He adds, “The primary objective of the group now is to help the members on how to play by providing guides and tips.”

And after a year, both Chavez and Medina only see the popularity of the game growing—especially with the influx of updates from miHoYo. 

One major update that had happened earlier this year was the introduction of a new nation, Inazuma along with its Archon, Raiden Shogun, and a few Inazuma characters. 

Much to the delight of Filipino fans, the voice actor of the Raiden Shogun, also known as Baal, is Filipino-American Anne Yatco. Another Inazuma character, Chief Retainer of the Kamisato Clan Thoma, is voiced by another Filipino American actor Christian Banas.

Though their characters have a turbulent relationship in the game, both Banas and Yatco have been tweeting support to one another and giving a shoutout to the Filipino community. 

Not to mention their Twitter interactions have certainly been entertaining.

miHoYo has already dropped hints of what they have in store for the one year anniversary. 

On October 3, Genshin Impact will be hosting its first online concert, the Genshin Concert 2021 - Melodies of an Endless Journey. The concert will feature music from the game played by the Flanders Symphony Orchestra with musicians from the United States, South Korea, and other countries.

Besides the concert, miHoYo has hinted to more surprises in store for the game’s first anniversary. The press release of the game’s 2.1 updates released last September 1 hinted about things to come as the anniversary date draws near. 

“Fans and players also have a chance to receive abundant rewards in a series of seasonal events to celebrate Genshin Impact’s first anniversary,” said miHoYo’s press release.