Genshin Impact has been out for quite some time now, and has become a solid example of how to make a good live service game. Numerous updates have added in a lot of new story content, a new playable characters, and tons of bug fixes for issues people were constantly complaining about. That said, for those who have been deep into Genshin from the beginning, the list of things to do daily has dwindled.
So, for players who love Genshin Impact but are looking to scratch a similar itch when things slow down, here are some other games with either a similar tone, similar mechanics, close-enough gameplay, character designs, or all of the above.
Updated on June 15, 2022 by Ritwik Mitra: Genshin Impact has shot up the charts to become one of the most popular games around. The title seemed like nothing more than an opportune cash-grab, but the developers of Genshin Impact have genuinely put a lot of time and effort into this game and its world. Here are some games like Genshin Impact that fans can check out if they want a similar vibe.
15 Assassin's Creed Valhalla
There's no denying that the open-world formula of the newer Assassin's Creed games has its flaws. However, players seeking out an action-adventure game that lasts for a good while will find a perfectly competent game here.
Fans of the series always wanted a story set in the midst of the Viking Age. This is easily the most engaging part of Assassin's Creed Valhalla — although the game does have other highlights as well.
14 Dragon Quest 11: Echoes Of An Elusive Age
Dragon Quest 11 is one of the best and most accessible titles in a series that is JRPG royalty. While many people did know about Dragon Quest to an extent, many people agree that the eleventh title is what really made waves in the West.
This, coupled with the widespread availability of this game, has led to many people finally getting a taste of this brilliant series. Fans of Genshin Impact will be right at home with the charming nature of the world and its characters.
13 Octopath Traveler
Octopath Traveler is a rather off-the-beat recommendation for Genshin Impact fans. The game is an HD-2D JRPG that uses the gimmick of eight individual protagonists pretty neatly.
The art is absolutely stunning, with the music and boss fights being some of the very best in this genre. Octopath Traveler might be frustrating at moments, but the game really shines when it executes its best parts.
12 Final Fantasy 14
Final Fantasy 14 has slowly climbed up the ranks to become the best MMORPG right now, thanks to a steady stream of content. Many people argue that this game's success stems from the fact that it leans more towards the RPG side of things, and uses the multiplayer component to strengthen individual experiences.
Given the impact of multiplayer gameplay on Genshin Impact, it's easy to see why Final Fantasy 14 is a great recommendation. This MMORPG deserves all the love its getting, and is a perfect entry point into this seemingly daunting genre.
11 The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel
The Legend of Heroes series houses many stellar JRPG sagas within a connected world. Trails of Cold Steel is one story arc that is easily the most approachable game from a technical standpoint.
While most people argue that Trails in the Sky is a narratively superior experience, the graphics and gameplay of these recent titles have simply aged better. These games can feel slightly generic at times, so players who want to test the waters with this franchise can't find a better entry point than the first Trails of Cold Steel game.
10 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was always going to be on this list. It's the first game people compared Genshin to, it has a lot in common with Genshin stylistically, it has a ton in common mechanically, and they're both very stamina heavy.
Sure, they're very different games as a whole, but look at them piece by piece, and there's a lot that overlaps. So, if players have somehow managed to play Genshin Impact without touching Breath of the Wild, go back and play it. The Zelda title has hundreds of hours of content in it, a pretty big expansion DLC, and there's even a Musou version thanks to Hyrule Warriors 2: Age Of Calamity.
9 Assassins Creed Odyssey
The list of things a player can do in Breath of the Wild, Genshin, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey is pretty similar, but the method of actually completing those tasks is quite different. In Assassin's Creed, players can climb anything, as they can in Genshin, but the flow of climbing is incredibly different, and gliding around isn't a thing.
There's no switching between characters in Odyssey, but the mash-and-react style of fighting is absolutely similar — even if Odyssey places more emphasis on parrying. Still, they're both gigantic open-world games with a million different things to explore, collect, and do, especially within Odyssey's two DLCs.
8 Nier: Automata
Nier Automata is the game that Genshin's combat gets compared to most commonly, and for good reason. Yes, players aren't exactly multitasking between character action combat and dodging a wave of bullets in Genshin as they do in Automata, but the floaty dodge-dash, the disappearing/re-appearing weapons, and the animations overall are very similar.
Both games have wonderful soundtracks, amazingly designed characters, intuitive yet complex combat, and a bit of an overcomplicated narrative.
7 Xenoblade Chronicles 2
It's a bit surprising how little this game has come up in the gaming community in regards to its similarities to Genshin Impact. People bring up Breath of the Wild all day every day, but yet never mention how Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has a similar style, elemental combination system, open-world exploration mechanics, and more.
Frankly, Genshin is more similar to this than any other title, to such a degree that even a lot of the female designs share some aspects visually (especially between Sucrose and Pandoria). At the end of the day, one's a JRPG and the other is an open-world action game, so they aren't carbon copies of each other, but a lot of their building blocks overlap.
6 Tales Of Berseria
The Tales series is one that's been around for quite a long time, but wasn't all too popular in the West until about the last decade or so. The titles are as classic as JRPGs come (outside of maybe Dragon Quest), with all the complex narratives and star-fated friendships anyone would expect from an anime, but they do it all so well.
Any Tales game in recent years would work here, but Tales of Berseria especially does it well. It has one of the best narratives in the franchise, and some fantastically written and designed female characters. Berseria also shares a few other aspects with Genshin Impact such as weapons giving skills as well as flat damage, a controllable cast in combat, a camera that never seems to work quite right, and a whole slew of collectible party members.
5 Final Fantasy 15
While Final Fantasy 15 might not have a lot in common with Genshin stylistically, it's one of the only other games on this list that has players controlling four different characters at once that isn't turn-based. Now, to be fair, in Genshin, players only have one character out at a time, and the flow of it comes from switching between them all in an efficient and useful manner.
In Final Fantasy 15, players can play as Noctis the entire time if they wanted, but they'll have more fun jumping around to all four of them. Both games are heavily anime-inspired in their art style and feature a lot of open-world mechanics and cooking, but Final Fantasy 15 is a lot more 'on-rails' than Genshin, especially within Chapter 13 and afterwards.
4 Honkai Impact 3rd
Next is the most obvious inclusion on this list, Honkai Impact 3rd, another free-to-play game from miHoYo. Both games have collectible characters or valkyries, both games have challenge towers, both have players equipping artifacts or stigmas, and both put a big focus on grinding for resources.
Quite frankly, they're incredibly similar games by design, as they're both "Impact" games, and both use gacha mechanics. The only difference is that Honkai is a bit more of a standard gacha game than Genshin, so it doesn't constantly get compared to AAA releases like Breath of the Wild.
3 Craftopia
This next title is especially odd because it doesn't just feel similar to one game, it feels similar to a whole pile, and the devs aren't really even being coy about it. Craftopia is a game that had its closed alpha in July 2020, before hitting Early Access.
If Craftopia was to be broken down into percentages, it would be something like 30 percent Breath of the Wild, 15 percent Genshin, 15 percent Pokemon, 20 percent Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, and 20 percent all those other crafting survival games like Rust, Raft, and even Minecraft. Craftopia is another one of those titles that take great mechanics from a whole bunch of other games and blends it all into one final product, and the game itself is overall a pretty fun time. It also has a lot more multiplayer content to offer than Genshin does.
2 MapleStory
Out of everything on here, Genshin probably has the least amount of things in common with Nexon's MapleStory. However, if players were to write out all of the most obvious factors for each game on a piece of paper, they'd see that they do share quite a few things conceptually.
Both games have players taking control of character classes that aren't commonly used, and both games are about being 100 percent focused on leveling up and maxing out multiple characters to see how high their damage numbers can go. Both games feature adorable enemies that players have to slay en masse, and both titles have a very cutesy anime artstyle.
1 Immortals: Fenyx Rising
Lastly, there's Immortals Fenyx Rising, a title from Ubisoft that feels like they used Assassin's Creed Odyssey as a base, and then meshed together mechanics akin to those of Genshin, Breath of the Wild, and maybe even Hades. The gameplay even feels similar.
If players are looking for more titles that let them climb and glide around, then the open-world aspects of Immortals will almost assuredly be fun enough to justify players giving it a shot.