I think Genshin does a good job of making gaming very accessible to the non-competitive player. Genshin has a beautifully designed world with multiple continents, countries, and landscapes. The musical score is orchestral and changes according to what region of the map you're in, even from village to village. According to Gemini (I’m sorry, guys), the Chinese words for my feelings are 恬淡 (tiándàn) and 境 (jìng), which I believe reflect the peace I feel forgoing daily pressures and competition in favor of quiet serenity and beauty. I spend most of my time in Genshin ignoring the main storyline to complete character quests and special events, especially the annual Lantern Rite. This put me forever behind on current online discourse, but the art of "not caring" does wonders for making this game evergreen.
I remember playing the original Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Gamecube (because I'm that old). Walking around an open world, foraging, and maintaining a simple cabin feel like weekend plans for modern hipsters, but it's also something many people can't do in the nonstop rush for productivity inside our concrete jungles. Genshin transports me to wide European-style plains, Japanese-like mountain ranges, and Liyue's beautiful golden trees. All I need to learn is hilichurl combat and I could be a character in this world, too.
To be honest, I don't spend much time in the other nations of Fontaine, Natlan, or Nod-Krai. The combination of locale and missions don't excite me as much. Maybe the nostalgia of the first few locales is what I stick around for; the introduction of Varka made me excited to be in Monstadt again. There's a new town just beyond Stormterror's Lair that I'm exploring now, a little port that makes me miss the bop of Port Ormos' music in Sumeru.
I haven't talked much about the characters yet, but I'm also nostalgic when it comes to my original Monstadt and Liyue crew. I don't have many characters from the other continents; the most prominent ones are Dehya and the almighty Raiden Shogun. I'm not a meta player by any means, so the imaginary bonds I forge with these characters--combined with some consideration for element pairings--are all that matters for my team composition. If there's one complaint I have about gacha games like this, it's that there's too much catering to character releases and new content instead of tending to the rich story that's already available for deeper mining. That's why I always return for Lantern Rite: I love Liyue, and learning more about its history is a treat...even if it's a convenient excuse for devs to make up more characters for purchase.
In summary, some nights I'm tired and I want to return to well-tread ground. Genshin Impact is charming in that way, especially when the screaming kid and cats don't give a shit about whether or not daddy needs to work in the morning.
