Would Genshin Impact Players Have Been Less Upset By Miliastra Wonderland If It Were A Separate Game?

It’s been about a week and a half since Genshin Impact’s Luna II update launched, bringing with it the Miliastra Wonderland content. For those unfamiliar, this is a separate, sandbox game mode that allows players to use assets from the action RPG to create their own content and share with others. Think of it like Roblox if it were loosely tied to Teyvat.

And it is, the mode is loosely tied to the game it’s attached to by a bit of narrative where the player is gifted this creative area hidden away in a pocket dimension by it’s creator, “O”, a member of the Hexenzirkel. The other tie-in is that players begin by creating a Manekin to play as in this space shared by other players, and that that Manekin can be pulled back into the base game in Teyvat to use in a player’s parties.

Beyond that, only the fact that you need to load up Genshin to play in Miliastra Wonderland might keep you from thinking it could be a separate game altogether. It’s certainly treated as such with things like a battle pass of it’s own. And that, for most people, is where the issue comes in.

Since it’s launch, Genshin Impact has had a battle pass. Said battle pass is free, but if you want more useful (or cosmetic) items, you have to purchase either the Gnostic Hymn for $10 or the Gnostic Chorus for $20. All HoYoverse games work more or less this way. So, if Miliastra Wonderland were released as a separate game, it might not have surprised players so much when the new sandbox mode launched with it’s own battle pass – as well as a selection of cosmetic items players can purchase directly and other methods of monetization. Effectively, players can spend a lot of money in Miliastra Wonderland very easily.

Of course, the cosmetic battlepass rewards or purchases are needed to make your Miliastra Wonderland character unique. And, it’s cool that we can do that with at least one character now, although, I suspect a lot of players would rather be able to dress up the Traveler, as while playing the main Genshin Impact game, that’s who we see in cutscenes and the like.

The obvious result of all of this is that players on social media have been complaining about it, particularly the perceived greed of it all. Don’t get me wrong, it is a lot of money. But no matter how much you might like or hate a company, they are a company first and their job is more or less to make money. We can certainly argue the ethics of it. But I’m hardly shocked that a company made a product and proceeded to find ways to make a great deal of money off of it. Particularly when it’s an entertainment product.

I will admit, this particular situation doesn’t affect me at all. When Miliastria Wonderland launched, I logged into it long enough to grab the Manekin and pull them into Teyvat to use in combat. I probably won’t be using the sandbox mode much, if at all. I mean, I can barely keep up with my teapot dimension. It’s optional to the main gameplay, which means spending money on it is very optional.

Does HoYo creating entirely different currencies for this mode and locking outfits as well and visual character changes like eyes behind them feel a bit much? Yes. I can see where it feels like a lot, particularly when you’re already spending money on event wishes and battlepasses for the main game. But, I do look at it and wonder if the reaction would have been the same if Miliastria Wonderland had come out as a completely separate game.

As mentioned, all of HoYo’s games have currencies we purchase, battle passes we subscribe to, and outfits we can spend money on (unless we want to dress up the main character). I play several of HoYo’s games and have spent money on each of them. Typically, at different times, depending on when characters I really want are coming up.

But I can see where this just feels different, because it’s attached to an existing game. Instead, they could have made it it’s own title and tied it into the rest of the HoYoverse – as several of the games they’ve developed are in one way or another – using the connection to “O”. The game could easily be picked up by anyone who is interested in it, but something special could be added for Genshin Impact players where having the object gifted to them via Venti (or more specifically, using the same email they used for their Genshin accounts and having received that item recorded by the game) would earn them special outfits or other items they could use in Miliastria Wonderland.

All that said, I spent some time looking at the mode earlier today, and from a glance it seems to be fairly successful either way. Yes, social media is complaining, but several of the modes seem to be pretty popular. Blade Soccer has had 102.4K players since it launched and a more than 80% positive rating.

I’m not even going to begin to guess how many things players have created in Miliastra Wonderland. But there are definitely plenty of people taking advantage of the ability to be creative. That does make me wonder if HoYo didn’t make a mistake by attaching it to Genshin Impact simply because there are players who might like to try it if it weren’t part of a gacha-based RPG.