Parents' Guide to Genshin Impact

The detailed excursions in this game's virtual world make for a varied, in-depth playing experience. Players can invest a considerable amount of time just exploring different areas in Genshin Impact, such as Mondstadt, a bustling island city surrounded by water, picking up inventory such as food ingredients or items that will increase your character's experience rating and engaging in quests that relate to the main missing sibling-themed story or shorter-term quests. The game controls are also impressive. By circling their finger around a joystick portion of the screen and/or tapping buttons, players can climb rocks, jump, run, swim, and otherwise amble around all sorts of terrain. They can also zoom the perspective in and out and get a three-dimensional view of whatever area they're in.

The lush graphics and visuals make Genshin Impact stand out—grass sways as you walk through it, candles flicker, and characters' voices and movements resemble anime more than a mobile game. Conversations with Paimon, who is with you during your journey, can be a bit boring—her habit of referring to herself in the third person can get annoying, and she's not always very helpful or warm to new people. But many interactions provide useful information, and gamers can obtain playable characters along the way who have unique abilities that they can later use in situations like battles. The app offers some guidance, and players often come across something or someone to help, but they may still feel unsure about what to do at times. With so many detailed settings to investigate and an impressive amount of activities to complete, they could easily spend hours wandering the fantasy world—which may be Genshin Impact's biggest drawback. To help keep screen time in check, players or caregivers might want to set limits for how long Teyvat's lands can be explored in one sitting to keep from being overly absorbed in the adventure.