The first new zone added to Teyvat is a roaring success.
Genshin Impact launched a few months ago, surprising many with just how damned good it was. By all accounts Genshin Impact shouldn’t be as fantastic as it is: the game initially appeared to be a shameless Breath of the Wild clone (albeit with a starker anime aesthetic) with gacha elements (which are infamous for prioritizing profit over gameplay). Turns out Genshin Impact was more an earnest homage to Nintendo’s instant-classic than it was a soulless homunculus, and the gacha elements didn’t impede or detract from the solid core gameplay loop. To call Genshin Impact a simple surprise undersells just how impactful (ahem) the game was at launch.