If you are somehow not familiar, the popular free-to-play video game Genshin Impact has seven different elements, but when it first launched only six of those were attached to playable characters. The seven elements are Anemo, Pyro, Hydro, Electro, Geo, Cryo, and Dendro, but the last of those wasn’t added to the game for playable characters until the recent Version 3.0 addition alongside the nation of Sumeru. As part of a recent interview, developer miHoYo (under the global brand of HoYoverse) addressed exactly why it took so long to add.
“The Dendro element is the last piece of the puzzle in the seven-element system,” a Genshin Impact spokesperson told IGN. “It is also the representative element of Sumeru, the nation of wisdom. Therefore, when we designed its elemental reaction mechanisms, we wanted it to be an element with more profound gameplay, one that enables multi-element reactions.”
“However, at the time of design, we were unable to come up with a mechanic that the development team found satisfying and innovative,” the statement continued. “As the development of the Sumeru area progressed, we had gathered more ideas and inspirations amidst constant polishing. We made a deeper connection between the Dendro element and Pyro/Hydro/Electro elements, so that the Elemental Reactions are not only reflected by characters, but also in the entire ecological environment of Sumeru.”
In other words, the developer had trouble coming up with multiple elemental interactions for Dendro. That’s what delayed its addition initially. And developing Sumeru for Version 3.0 gave the team enough ideas to implement it in a way that was satisfying.
Genshin Impact Version 3.1, “King Deshret and the Three Magi,” is currently available. It added a new desert area to Sumeru and will feature new characters like Candace, Nilou, and Cyno. More broadly, Genshin Impact itself is available, free to play, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile devices. The video game is also set to eventually release for the Nintendo Switch, though no definitive date has been announced for that as of yet. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the popular free-to-play title right here.
What do you think about the response from the developer about why Dendro took so long to add? Are you excited to see what sort of changes Genshin Impact goes through in the future? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!
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