Comic Book Resources have interviewed Liu “Dawei” Wei, who is the co-founder and current president of miHoYo, the team behind the immensely popular free-to-play game, Genshin Impact. Wei spoke about the strong accusations that were levelled at the company and development staff when they unveiled Genshin Impact and how it was initially portrayed by gamers and the media as a Zelda: Breath of the Wild clone. Wei said that many of his colleagues were extremely upset and that he thinks that helped inspired them to make the game what it is today. Genshin Impact is available on iOS and Android along with PlayStation consoles.
“The accusations of plagiarism took a heavy toll on the development team. According to Wei, many of his colleagues were crying and saying “Why is this happening?” and “What did we do wrong?” “Let’s prove ourselves,” Wei said. “Let’s make the part of Genshin that everyone didn’t see!” The establishment of Liyue in Feb. 2020 gave players a better understanding of what miHoYo was building with Genshing Impact, leading to a more positive perception of the game.”
Well keep crying because you DID copy Breath of the wild. Sorry that the truth hurts.
Just like how botw is a copy of shadow of the colossus and every older games before it. Literally nothing in botw is original. Sorry that the truth hurts.
Love me some BotW, but it is absolutely “what if Dragon’s Dogma, but climb walls instead of cyclopses”
Fanboys don’t like to hear it, but I think it’s a good thing lol
The whole game is original actually. The mechanics may not be but that goes for every game ever made. They all have something from some other game.
Oh China…we all know you don’t respect I.P. ownership & shamelessly copy what others create. You should’ve stuck with Honkai Impact 3rd, at least you ONLY copied Bayonetta 2’s airplane fight sequence for that game. It’s a far less extreme example of blatant plagiarism than Genshin of the Wild.
Just like how well know how nintendo don’t respect I.P. ownership & shamelessly copy what others create. Botw is a copy of shadow of the colossus and every older games before it. Literally nothing in botw is original. Shadow of the wild aint original nor it is better than those older game. Hell botw isnt even the best zelda game lol. Far from it.
The Chinese market is notorious for stealing ideas, there is literal proof of this constantly posted every day, I mean one company stole WoW and released it as their own.
I find it funny that these devs are confused as to why everyone thinks this way when the evidence is blantantly obvious as to what they did.
I mean botw stole from shadow of the colossus and every mechanics that is present in the game is invented by older games. I find it funny Nintendo fanboys act like botw is anything original when its just a copycat of older games lmao
Environment hazards that include climate as a danger…..yeah NOTHING is original in BoTW…>_> What a stupid Psycho SOny Crony you are…keep crying butt hurt SOny boy! XP
Did u just say botw invented environment hazards lmao. U need to play more games first nintendo sheep.. Also a shitty bar is that include climate as a danger is innovative ? Literally a copy paste of underwater oxygen bar mechanic lmao. Environment hazard, disaster etc existed before botw through explosion Its not innovative. Don’t even get me started on weapon durability. Even survival games have better durability, meh story, empty world. Originality my ass. Literally nothing in botw is original. At least playstation games look next gen and not a freaking ps2 game that can barely run 30 fps on an ancient console that has 6 year old mobile chip lmao.
Hang on everyone so i can smash my PlayStation in protest, because im sure that will solve everything. In fact, lets all protest and toss are Switch into a big bonfire.
I’m no GI or miHoYo fan and I’m pretty fond of BotW, but there is no denying that the latter game has also “taken inspirations” from other games (including Skyrim and Shadow of the Colossus, both of which Nintendo has openly confirmed before) and is nowhere near as ‘innovative’ as some Nintendo & Zelda fans (not pointing finger at anyone around here ftr) want to believe it is.
BotW takes inspiration from dozens of games. Skyrim is an obvious one as you say, I saw plenty of Minecraft in it too. Literally every game takes inspiration from those that came before it, that’s not the point. Genshin Impact (at launch, no idea what it looks like these days) basically wholesale ripped off BotW’s art style, environment and scenery. That’s not taking inspiration, it’s just plain copying. It was very obviously a deliberate decision to make the game look like Breath of the Wild on your phone.
Comparing it to the obvious fact that BotW took inspiration from other games is missing the point.
+Damon_Gant
Wait so….when a game takes inspiration from 1 other game it’s bad but when a game takes inspiration from dozens of games it’s…good?
Why does this feel so backwards?
This feels like a bad faith interpretation of their comment, but even then I think it’s true. There are rarely ever new wholly new concepts; almost everything is a reinvention of things done before. When you take from dozens of sources, it leads to a mixing that produces something new and unique; it’s what fair use contract refers to as “transformative”. But when you take from only one source, it’s much harder to create something transformative and distinct from that parent material.
For example, BotW draws from Skyrim, Minecraft, and Shadow of the Colossus, but it doesn’t feel or play exactly like any of those games. However, Genshin looked and felt very similar to BotW in the early release stages; it was only after expanding the gatcha and elemental systems that it took on a strongly distinct identity of its own.
+Tristan Neal
I agree it could be seen as bad faith but that’s not what I was attempting to do.
It just seems weird that if you take inspiration from 1 game, that’s considered bad so to me, taking inspiration from multiple games makes it even worse.
Of course, this isn’t what I personally think, I personally am fine with games taking inspiration from 1 other game, it’s that type of inspiration why Street Fighter inspired other companies to make their own 2D fighting games which lead to great franchises like King of Fighters, Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, and so on.
Yeah sure, I admit Genshin Impact does have similarities to Zelda BOTW, even taking a quick look at the videos below makes that clear but that doesn’t mean they ripped them off.
@Damon_Gant: If you say so. Whether we wanna call it ripping off, copying, cloning, etc., miHoYo has atleast acknowledged before that the 2017 Zelda game was a key inspiration for Genshin Impact, and I certainly don’t wanna hold a grudge against them because of the title having the “same” visuals as BotK.
It would be one thing if GI’s gameplay played almost exactly or 100 procent the same as BotW but it doesn’t really, frankly all the similarities between the two titles are pretty thin at best.
And since you wondered, GI looks more or less the same, but its playstyle has evolved (by gacha ARPG standards anyway).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HurjtGfDj1A&ab_channel=AppUnwrapper
There are likely better examples than these but better then nothing.
@Greatsong1
Well, the gameplay similarities are quite significant.
Open world with no loading screens – CHECK
Environment puzzles – CHECK
Quick one-off dungeons – CHECK
Gliding and vertical area design – CHECK
Climbing – CHECK
Sprinting and stamina wheel – CHECK
The only thing that is different is the economy, progression and combat. But the “world” as is, works almost exactly the same. Later after the game became successful they started to differentiate it more with the gacha system, new mechanics and different progression systems (and they stopped making one-off domains as shrine rip offs), but at launch even the story was quite similar (most of the action in Mondstadt already happened in the past and the world was post-apocalyptic after a calamity… same as Zelda BotW).
@Magius: Did it feel very similair to Zelda at that point? Sure no doubt, and it still has the “BotW look”, but the significant similarities (which have all been done before pior to BoTW, including the post-apocalyptic story trope) doesn’t change the fact that even at its early stages GI didn’t play like an absolute (emphasis on absolute) carbon copy of the Zelda game.
*prior
@Greatsong1: It did… and that’s the issue. It was exactly the same game with the only difference being the combat system. That’s it.
While BotW also has used some elements of other games as an inspiration, those systems are not copied 1:1 like how GI copied BotW. This is the issue.
@Magius: As I mentioned above BotW was the key “inspiration” so of course it was very similair at that point, but saying it was straight-up exactly the same game, minus the combat, is just inaccurate when there were other notable differences (and I don’t mean the plain obvious stuff like characters and whatnot) besides the economy, progression, and aforementioned combat.
But I can tell that we, like the rest of the comment section, are clearly going nowhere in this usual “GI vs. BotW” debate so I leave it at that.
Nope botw is copycat of shadow of the colossus mixed with older games mechanics, artstyle etc. Literally nothing in botw is original. The fact that nintendo sheeps acts like botw is original is a joke that writes itself and is the actual issue here. All the systems in botw are copied 1:1 and mixed into one game.
Just like botw is a carbon copy of shadow of colossus and every older games before it. Botw is just a copy of every older game and mechanics mixed into one. Literally nothing in botw is original lo;
I have a feeling this might happen again. Many Zelda fans are not really happy with the game when it launches. The game is still ongoing and people wanted the company to stop using knock offs with Zelda open world and gameplay aspect.
Genshin looks way better in terms of artstyle and graphics than botw ps2 graphics lol. If what genshin did as ripoff then so it botw. Botw didn’t invent cel shading, open world, gliding, climbing etc. In fact after playing genshin I realized how much empty and downgrade of a game botw is. Botw is just a ripoff of shadow of the colossus and older games before it. Its nothing original and its not original its just plain copying. U can’t accept it because its has Zelda and Nintendo stamp on it.
So how many minors have you assulted today, Genshin fan?
How many minors have u assaulted today, Botw fan ?
It seems you have some problems? Because you’re commenting the same thing over and over again.🤔
Don’t forget Sonic Frontiers.
Sonic frontiers got owned by genshin community lmao. Was such an iconic moment lol.
I love seeing people say “um actually this was in a different game and they just used the idea,and it’s not new or innovative at all.” To that I say no one game owns or is the only one that can use that idea, then every COD game would be stealing from doom, every game save for the first game in its style would be stealing ideas. Everything also dosen’t need to innovative either, that have to change to the times sure, but every game doesn’t need to bring everything new and different to the table.
China moment
Just like Nintendo moment when they copy shadow of the colossus and every games machines present in older games to copy and paste it into botw. The irony of Nintendo fanboys acting like this is original is hilarious lmao 🤣
This is honestly such a stupid argument to make. So they copied Zelda BOTW? Big whoop, it’s still using their own IP.
Plenty of developers copied Street Fighter in the 90’s but because they used their own IP people were fine with it.
It’s also clear as day that the building mechanic in Zelda TOTK is inspired by Minecraft but of course Nintendo Fans won’t point that out because it’s inconvenient to their claims.
Also, how does Genshin Impact “Rip Off Zelda’s Artstyle”? Genshin Impact’s Artstyle looks more like Guilty Gear than Zelda BOTW so how did they rip off the artstyle?
Exactly and going by their logic botw is a ripoff of shadow of the colossus and older games that have release. Nothing in botw is original but because it has Zelda and Nintendo stamp on it the fanboys like to act as its original lmao. Tried the game due to its empty world, meh story, has freedom of experimentation that was fun, ps2 graphics. After playing that game I understood the game is way overhyped and at best deserved a 7 nothing more. Way overhyped because of Zelda ip and Nintendo stamp on it.
Bruh, I grew up with the PS2 and Zelda BOTW absolutely does not look like a PS2 game.
You’re crazy if you think that.
It literally does lol. Not to mention how empty the world looks, barely running 30 fps in 2023. Its honestly embarassing ngl.
Where are you getting PS2 graphics from? It’s the one thing that makes your comments lose merit. Just play Final Fantasy X & X-2 and you’ll realize just how much better BotW looks in comparison. Even the “HD remasters” on PS4 can’t hide the lower graphical quality of FFX/X-2. The only thing in FFX/X-2 on PS2 that looks better than BotW is the FMV CG cutscenes, but those don’t count as they’re not using the gameplay engine. In fact, go play RE4 (the PS2 original) to also see how much better BotW looks. You can defend Genshin Impact without using false claims.
So you think if you popped Zelda BOTW into a Playstation 2, a Non-HD console by the way, it would run perfectly fine? If so that’s just wrong on so many levels.
BotW took inspiration of their own game which is the very first Zelda game.
What kind of permissions do I have to agree to to play this free game? Do I have to be online? I never downloaded this because I figure where a free game is involved, there must be a nefarious angle thats also involved.
You need to connect to the Internet but don’t need to play with others if you don’t want to. Only really insidious thing is what’s true of all gatcha games. You can pay money but won’t always get what you want when you do so. Fortunately you can beat everything with f2p characters. They really bank on making their paid characters interesting and limiting the time to pull for them to encourage folks to spend money
That said, I don’t really recommend getting into the game at this point. I don’t think it’s very friendly for newcomers because you can’t replay any of the time limited events and can miss key story details that were included in them. And the gameplay itself isn’t all that interesting compared to other games. The only reason I still play is I want to keep following the story that had been going on for near 3 years.
I remember the man who smashed his PS4 was proved to be working for an advertising company for Genshin to draw people’s attention to the game.
There is no issue here. Just a bunch of stupid corporate fanatics upset their “god” isn’t treated like, well, a god. Nintendo has them just like Disney, Squeenix, etc.
In the famous words of Frank Drebin (RIP Leslie Nielsen): alright, move on! Nothing to see here! Please disperse!
Once Genshin was able to introduce their Chinese inspired realm, it took on a different feel from BotW. However, prior to that, they felt near identical. Gliding, climbing, cooking… Even the world and enemy designs felt similar to those in Zelda. A lot of the assets looked far too alike in addition to the simpler gameplay.
Liyue and then later Inazuma and the chasm all have very unique settings, though the puzzle action adventure combo is very zelda-like. The Dragonspine area and Sumeru areas were back to being very much like BotW and other Zelda games. The musical puzzle and little forest fae creatures were very much reminiscent of some of the earlier Zelda titles. The only thing which felt more unique to the game was the story and characters of these regions. I think Genshin did a better job with more time to sort out their lore and characters unrelated to the protagonist, but that’s the advantage of a longer running storyline. They should take more advantage of that stuff this their strong suit.
I’m hoping the new region Fontaine will be another chance for Genshin to try something new. Zelda doesn’t do much with their swimming mechanics when they do exist, so I really want to see them play around with some of the exploration mechanics. Plus, visually it should be another clear break from what we’ve seen in BotW and TotK.
I have a feeling this might happen again. Many Zelda fans are not really happy with the game when it launches. The game is still ongoing and people wanted the company to stop using knock offs with Zelda open world and gameplay aspect.
That’s some irony when botw is a copycat of shadow of the colossus and every older games lol. Literally nothing in botw is original and the game looks like ps2 game lmao. Nintendo should be the first one to stop copying mechanics from other games and act like they invented it.
Oh just shut up already.
I wish we could torture aranara like the koroks in botw.
Thank you Mariko.
Botw does what ps2 and ps3 already did , while Skyward Sword is somehow one of my all time favorites it was already very outdated. Also Genshin is far superior to Zelda botw , the world feels less empty , there is more you can do even in the base game , the world feels more alive with npc’s , cities loads of quests etc. Also it looks far superior , plays ,more fluind wich is kinda strange for a game that also runs on a mobile phone. Altough mobile phones are more powerful than the Nintendo switch so I gues that explains allot aswell.
Well that’s what those fuckers did.
That’s all these people know. Half-assly copying and vulturing on the Greatness of Japan.