Hoyoverse has released its version update 5.0 for Genshin Influence on Wednesday. While players usually enjoy flashy additions to the game, like new characters and regions to explore, this major update also includes more quality of life features. The developers have reduced the requirements for playing late-game content and added a gadget that reduces grinding for certain items. But not everyone is excited and some long-time Genshin Influence Players complain about the changes.
The 5.0 Genshin Impact update, titled “Floral Splendor on the Sunburnt Abode,” introduced several updates that make grinding in the game easier. The developers made the new Natlan region and its Archon main quests accessible to all players in the early and mid-game, so now players don’t have to slog through dozens of hours of quests just to play the new story or play in the region. Additionally, the addition of a new gadget makes creating strong characters in the game much less tedious. In the latest version of the game, players can now customize items called artifacts, equippable items that assign character stats, instead of simply playing over and over until they randomly get an artifact optimized for their character.
Now dedicated players who are in the Genshin Influence Mines over the years seem to be a little salty. In a viral videosomeone overlaid text over the gameplay of the character Kazuha jumping off a cliff to say, “How it feels to know I can now customize artifacts.” The top comment under the video, which has been liked more than 13,300 times, read, “These new generations will never understand what I went through to get my Xiao artifacts.”
Another video, viewed more than 1.6 million timesshows a happy looking person while the text says, “Genshin Impact: ‘You can now choose your substats for artifacts! No more endless farming!'” After a few moments, the video’s audio switches to muted audio and we see a person crouched over a table with the text, “OG Genshin fans who have spent countless hours farming for the best artifact.”
In the comment sections of these videos, some people say that such changes “make Genshin easier.” Here’s my take: I don’t think removing the grinding and time commitment to a game makes it “easy,” but I can at least sympathize. Depending on your luck, it can take weeks or months to find the right combination of items for a single character. The process can be tedious and seemingly endless, and frequently left me questioning why I was playing the game.
But even then, I’m glad the developers are making these changes. If anything, it speaks to why the developers should have released such features sooner. If people hadn’t been tinkering with it all these years – and the team had released such changes sooner – the bitter pain of what could have been wouldn’t be so bad.
