


To put it another way: Genshin Impact is what happens when a company goes, "What if Breath of the Wild was Destiny?" It's disorienting at first and then quickly starts to make all the sense in the world. It's just one more way that Genshin Impact feels like playing the future of games as the industry leans more into the games-as-a-service business model, monetizing big budget free-to-play games with battle passes and loot boxes. But there is one more similarity between Genshin Impact and Breath of the Wild that helps explain the former's appeal and shows its ambition: It plays near-flawlessly on mobile (I tested on iOS), seamlessly transitioning from the TV to the phone for a pick-up-where-you-left-off experience that mimics a Nintendo Switch without having to pay a dime up front for the hardware or the game.
