Genshin Impact “Chapter 1: Bad Wine” (Part 1 + Part 2) Webtoon Review
Major Spoilers are included in this Webtoon Review. Please read with caution.
On October 10, 2020, I started and finished Genshin Impact Webtoon’s Chapter 1 “Bad Wine” Parts 1 and 2. Playing the video game and reading this Webtoon at the same time has made the experience pretty outstanding and easier to swallow with fan-favorite characters showing up in this chapter—since the storyline is somewhat difficult to follow since it didn’t follow up the Prologue too well.
Synopsis for Chapter 1: Many years have passed since Venessa took the keys of Mondstadt and founded the Ordo Favonius to watch over her beloved city. But a new power appeared, spreading its dark influence across the lands and imposing a "blood tax" upon its subjects. New heroes must step forward to protect all that is dear.
My biggest issue was the transition between Prologue and Chapter 1. Aside from the synopsis and maybe a short conversation that took place in Chapter 1 Part 1, the story kicked off like it was beginning a brand-new tale with little connection to what we already read.
There should’ve been more talk about Venessa and how she exactly built this new city of freedom, and how this “blood tax” went against everything Venessa tried to destroy in the past. The story standing on its own isn’t too bad though, as it properly introduced new organizations, characters, and how the world currently functions.
Genshin Impact appears to be too focused on delivering the plot than developing the characters as well. While I enjoy the characters—due to my video game experience—and the beautiful artwork, all of it seems to be in service of the plot. Adding new terms and organizations—making sure the reader is familiar with those than the characters—makes it difficult to immerse in the world and story as a result.
Like Kaeya and Diluc are amazing fan-favorite characters in the video game, but they are given little to nothing to do in the Webtoon story—except for that one awesome fight scene with Diluc, but that didn’t really give us anything other than, “wow, what a beautiful fight scene”. For me personally and probably most other players reading this Webtoon, “wow I want to roll Master Diluc so bad.”
Even the cliffhanger at the end of Part 2 with Amber is more “I want to know the mystery behind the cool fire God item she has” than “I want to know that character” type cliffhanger.
Overall, I’m sticking with the story for the artwork and to understand the video game’s world better—which adds to my argument about this series focusing more on plot than characters. I’m not a huge fan of plot-driven series, so I do have a bias there, but I’m still going to keep it reading anyway. I would also still recommend reading the Genshin Impact Webtoon for those very same reasons. Thanks for reading this Webtoon review, everyone! I’ll see y’all later in the next chapter review.