Genshin Impact is a manga for the yet-to-be-released action role-playing game of the same name. If the name sounds familiar, it's because it comes from the same company that made and released the Honkai Impact 3rd mobile game, but otherwise doesn't seem to have any direct connections. The manga appears to be an attempt to introduce, seduce, and introduce potential future clients to the world and cast of Genshin Impact before being released. With that said, Genshin Impact manga is a dirty read, and definitely not what I would rate as a well-made introduction.

Genshin Impact manga was released on September twenty-eighth, and received mixed reviews from players, most of which were not positive. Let's see why this is. So call it criticism/feedback/whining/complaining or whatever you like to call it.

Many centuries ago, the elder gods of the elements granted civilization to the human race, but soon the world split as corruption and greed grew rampant. Can the forces that hold this world together be balanced by human desires, or is everything ultimately doomed to destruction? (Official crunchyroll synopsis)

The story begins with two long prologue chapters, each of which is close to or even more than 40 pages compared to the rest of the chapters, which are reduced from 25 to 16 pages in each Chapter. These bloated prologue chapters tell the story of Vennessa, a slave forced to fight for the freedom of her enslaved tribe. However, once we get into the main story, that is, when we go past chapters 0.25 and 0.5, there is no mention of Vennessy or the fate of her clan. All this reading in advance almost seems like a waste of time and will inevitably leave most readers confused and doubtful about the need for them to be so long.

We spend so little time really getting to know Vennessa and her tribes that the emotional impact of their condition or possible fate can't really capture the reader. Even if one were to argue about their significance as world-building and knowledge-enrichment, the extremely convoluted narrative and hasty pacing, combined with a barrage of unusual terms, make for rough reading.

Genshin Impact manga series is still ongoing but with no official English translation and the game without a confirmed release date, it’s hard to predict where the series will go or how it might end.

As things stand, unless you were/are interested in the upcoming game, Genshin Impact manga doesn’t feel like something worth reading on its own merit. The main overarching plot of an evil corporation/organization indulging in human experiments and all kinds of extortion and underhanded manipulation isn’t new nor is it handled in a manner that makes it all that engaging.