With the recent release of version 1.3 for Genshin Impact, players have once again been preparing for the new content, world bosses, and events that have become a regular occurrence. As exciting as the new patches are though, Genshin Impact currently has a problem of awkwardly implementing its new areas into the daily routine of players. If future areas end up the same way, the endgame might suffer as a result.
The introduction of Dragonspine in version 1.2 of Genshin Impact was well received by fans for its environmental designs, new puzzles, and exploration challenges. However, as more players finished the events and exploration quests for Dragonspine, it became obvious that there aren’t many reasons to revisit the region. Apart from a few daily commissions and an artifact domain, Dragonspine hasn’t been integrated into the daily routine of Genshin Impact players like Monstadt or Liyue.
The biggest problem with Dragonspine in Genshin Impact is that there’s almost no reason to revisit the area once it’s cleared of all the quests and activities. Apart from a few random daily commissions or doing the Hydro and Cryo domain, Dragonspine doesn’t have distinctive features that encourage players to come back. Once players have completed the Frostbearing Tree by bringing it Crimson Wishes, there is no further incentive to continue exploring the region. Furthermore, all of the unique mobs found in Dragonspine drop common items that can already be found in Monstadt and Liyue. Some players might return to farm the exclusive starsilver but the weapons crafted from those are underwhelming as well.
For many players, the disappointment isn’t with Dragonspine itself but rather how the area is implemented back into the gameplay loop of Genshin Impact. As a region, Dragonspine was a great addition as players were able to explore, fight new enemies, solve new puzzles, and work around a brand new mechanic. However, that fun all but disappears by the time the Dragonspine quests are cleared and the Frostbearing Tree is level 12. Although the sheer cold mechanic was interesting for the first two weeks of the update, it’s more of a headache to deal with by the time players clear the region and there aren’t enough exclusive materials to warrant revisits.
While Monstadt and Liyue offer world bosses, ley lines, exclusive materials, and domains to revisit on a daily basis, Dragonspine has almost nothing in comparison. Even when players do a daily commission or the domain in Dragonspine, there’s rarely a reason to explore the region once they’re finished. Of course, Dragonspine wasn’t designed to be a large area for the Genshin Impact map and the lack of a central hub with crafting, contracts, and shops may also be a reason why players rarely return. At the same time though, it seems like a waste to put so much effort in creating a gorgeous new area complete with enemies, puzzles, and challenges only to offer no incentive for players to return.
The Dragonspine problem is also a symptom of a bigger problem in Genshin Impact in that some of its ideas or mechanics don’t get fleshed out properly. Though most players might have forgotten at this point, there were a number of unique dungeons or mechanics that were introduced briefly before being forgotten. For example, one of the earlier dungeons in Genshin Impact had players glide over enemies while dropping bombs on them. This could’ve easily been an interesting combat style or mechanic designed around Klee but it never returned. Many dungeons that players visited during the earlier stages of Genshin Impact also offer no replay value despite being well-designed.
Unfortunately, these mechanics of the game are often awkwardly implemented, and in the case of Dragonspine, it becomes another aspect of the game with great potential that doesn’t find its way back to the core gameplay loop. There are a few things that Genshin Impact could do to make revisiting Dragonspine a worthwhile venture such as making the Crimson Wishes a daily activity or adding a world boss to the region. For many players, the Albedo questline was also vague and ended abruptly which hopefully signifies that Genshin Impact could bring some improvements to the region one day. For now though, while Dragonspine was an exciting new area to explore for the first two weeks, it’s already starting to feel like one of Genshin Impact’s forgotten mechanics.
At the same time though, it’s understandable that miHoYo doesn’t want to spend too much time developing such a comparatively small region. Dragonspine is supposed to be a dangerous environment and it isn’t supposed to be an enticing place to visit with its sheer cold mechanic. Moreover, the lack of activities in Dragonspine doesn’t negatively affect the game in any way, it’s more of a problem of wasted potential. However, it’s important to note that Dragonspine will likely have a great deal of influence on the designs of future areas in Genshin Impact.
The lack of incentive for players to revisit Dragonspine can pose a much bigger problem for future area updates as well. So far, it seems that while Genshin Impact has excelled at building gorgeous open-world environments, players often complete the content within them very quickly leading to boredom before a new patch. While this is normal for many gacha games, this could be a problem for new areas if they are built like Dragonspine where content doesn’t have good replay value.
Importantly, new Genshin Impact areas need to be implemented into the daily routine of players better than how Dragonspine was. This means that new areas should include exploration options, new domains, world bosses, and unique materials to give enough incentive for players to revisit the areas even once the storyline finishes.
Dragonspine offered a great amount of new content, puzzles, and exploration for Genshin Impact players to discover. However, it also suffered from lacking incentive for players to revisit the area once they had completed it. Although a small area like Dragonspine being ignored isn’t the end of the world, Genshin Impact will need to be careful in how it designs its new regions going forward. At the very least, activities in newer regions should be integrated into the daily routine of Genshin Impact players better.
Genshin Impact is available on Mobile, PC, PS4, and currently in development for PS5 and Switch.
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