One of the biggest issues a lot of people have with Genshin Impact is the gacha mechanics. Whether it’s the rather high cost of ensuring you’ll get your favorite five-star character or the sometimes-frustrating resin system, it can be hard to jump into the game. As time goes on, though, limited-time events are making their way up the list of annoyances for plenty as well.
The issue that many are having with limited-time events is the fact that they have contained key pieces of lore in them. Most recently, the 3.5 Windblume’s Breath event spoke in depth about the Hexenzirkel for the first time, a group of characters that have mysteriously popped up in Sumeru archon quests that had been released a few updates prior. In fact, the identity of a character that was left a mystery was revealed during the limited-time event.
There have been a ton of events that have introduced lore that’s no longer available in the game. Players are upset about it, arguing that there should be a way to access that lore in some other way in-game.
Potential Solutions to Bring the Lore Back
There are several ideas that could easily work to incorporate the events/lore into the game full-time. One such idea is to make all the event quests become some kind of world quests. Rewards or not, this would even the playing field and make it so that everyone has a chance to access all the lore in the game.
Another idea is to make it like a memory system where the Traveler could remember past events and the things that happened in them. This could work well since the cutscenes were already developed for the event, and making it accessible in-game is just a matter of available space for more game content.
Why Hoyoverse May Use Limited-Time Events to Discuss Lore
Limited-time events serve multiple purposes, but one of the biggest ones is to get players involved in the game again. They’re not really meant for generating new players. What’s one way to keep an event from feeling too boring? Add in lore.
While this isn’t always the most ideal thing to do (as the above Reddit comment pointed out, it causes Hoyoverse to write the same thing multiple times), it does keep longtime players interested in the game. A consistent player generates more money than a new player, and many people just care about the lore events discussed because it’s not in the rest of the game.
Other Live Service Games and Event Lore
Genshin Impact isn’t unique in this problem – many other games show off lore through limited-time events, and it’s almost a formula that gacha games just can’t ignore. That’s part of creating an atmosphere where players don’t want to miss out on anything, so they keep playing.
However, it’s worth noting that many events will be re-run for newer players to enjoy. Genshin Impact hasn’t really done this yet. While some events are yearly, they’re not the same event as a whole and don’t include past versions of the event for new players to explore.
It Doesn’t Benefit Hoyoverse to Include Event Dialogue Elsewhere
Adding a way for players to explore/see past events just doesn’t offer much to Hoyoverse, and it could serve to entice players to skip events because of it (or not come back to the game at all).
Plus, many of the events end up tying into the story in the way Hoyoverse already intends them to. Scaramouche was first introduced back in an early limited-time event, but his character was reintroduced later in an Archon Quest that aligned well with the rest of the story.
There’s also the fact that if people care about Genshin Impact’s lore enough to go look at archives of past events, they’ll also do a quick Google search to find the same lore on the fan wiki or YouTube.
What do you think? Should Hoyoverse add in a way for people to check out past events in-game or is it fine to be exclusive to current players?
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