Why Genshin Impact Skipping Endgame Content is a Mistake

2 years ago

Genshin Impact developer HoYoverse recently announced that it wouldn’t implement endgame similar to the Spiral Abyss, and players are disappointed.

For the longest time, Genshin Impact’s Spiral Abyss has been the title’s only endgame feature, and a recent interview with the developer has revealed that this might be the case for years to come. Admittedly, the entire interview rubbed some fans the wrong way. Many were peeved by HoYoverse’s roundabout method of answering questions. However, the biggest issue is no doubt the revelation about Genshin Impact’s endgame (or, rather, its continuing lack thereof). In the interview, HoYoverse responded to a myriad of questions about Genshin Impact’s future content, character cosmetics and, of course, the potential for endgame. The company’s responses to that last topic have garnered plenty of backlash from the community – and for good reason.

🔴Genshin Impact Endgame Content and ‘Player Anxiety’

Genshin Impact’s Spiral Abyss is an excellent testing ground for players who want to challenge their team compositions. It resets periodically, rewarding players with precious Primogems every time they complete the last few floors. But it’s also undoubtedly the most difficult content in Genshin Impact, making it the only permanent endgame feature. For the longest time, the more competitive Genshin Impact players have clamored for HoYoverse to add more endgame content. Because, as it stands, the Spiral Abyss simply isn’t enough to justify the game’s extensive gameplay loop of building different characters. Unfortunately, this particular demographic was met with disappointment when HoYoverse expressed in the interview that “design[ing] another type of permanent endgame that is similar to the Spiral Abyss… might end up creating excessive anxiety for [the] players.” HoYoverse doesn’t elaborate on what this “excessive anxiety” might be, but it honestly sounds like a cop-out. Granted, it doesn’t rule out the possibility of endgame content that is different from the Spiral Abyss, but it also doesn’t look like there are any immediate plans for that. Perhaps the statement would have been received better had the developer instead skipped the bit about anxiety and emphasized the company’s intentions to focus on other gameplay modes. The Genius Invokation TCG for Genshin Impact is one example of this, and HoYoverse mentions it in the article.

🔴Missed Opportunities and Community Tensions in Genshin Impact

All that said, if the community’s guess is right and HoYoverse has no intention to implement more challenging endgame content, then it’s a missed opportunity for the popular gacha game. As stated earlier, the core gameplay loop revolves around pulling for characters, grinding for the right Genshin Impact artifacts, then slotting them into appropriate teams. Extensive endgame content incentivizes players to continue this gameplay loop. This then means greater player engagement, which is good for the longevity of Genshin Impact. Granted, not everyone in the community is interested in min-maxing their teams. Some are content with the exploration and quest offerings of Genshin Impact. And that’s great because it means that at least part of the community is satisfied with the game. What’s strange, however, is the sudden uptick in anti-endgame users who tell fellow players to just “go find another game.”

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These users seem to forget that good story content and good endgame content can coexist in the same game. It would make for an overall happier fanbase. Plus, endgame content can encourage fans to keep playing even during content droughts that are an occasional occurrence in Genshin Impact. The point here is that players who want endgame aren’t trying to pick a fight with players who aren’t interested in endgame. They just want Genshin Impact – an action RPG with a fun and innovative combat system – to add more challenging, optional but permanent combat to the world. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen anytime soon.

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