HoYo’s latest gacha has all the tropes and systems you’d expect, this time in a retrofuture urban setting and excelling in presentation, fast-paced combat and quality-of-life improvements. The combat is fluid, satisfying and addictive (albeit never particularly challenging), the story isn’t the deepest but has its moments (even if the pacing could use some work), and the whole thing has great visual design, sound design and music. Smaller than Genshin, its minor flaws are easy to overlook if you’re willing to ignore or accept the predatory gacha foundation.

Basically Genshin but sci-fi instead of fantasy, and turn-based instead of realtime combat. The intro tutorial is painful, but push through and it becomes pretty fun. Lock up your wallet.

If you can stick around long enough to see through the shameless BOTW clone, Genshin has its own somewhat charming personality, and pretty fun combat. Its F2P gacha model becomes restrictive unless you’re up for an insane grind or… becoming a whale.