Trading card games, more commonly known as TCGs, have taken the world by storm. New contenders like Flesh and Blood, Legends of Runeterra, and Marvel Snap have already carved out massive player bases, while Disney's Lorcana looms on the horizon. So, it's not terribly surprising that miHoYo, owner of the HoYoverse brand of games, has released a brand new TCG for their flagship title, Genshin Impact. Unfortunately, they released it for the Genshin Impact game quite literally.
Known specifically in-game as "Genius Invokation TCG," Genshin's new card game is a mechanically diverse 1v1 duel wherein players pilot three-character teams supported by a deck of skills and equipment and a set of surprisingly fickle dice. While the game does have some prominent optimal strategies and balance issues, its greatest concerns aren't in the mini-game itself, but in the steps required to actually play it.
Genshin Impact's TCG Is Trapped Inside Its Parent Game
Basic access to the mini-game is the primary issue of concern. Unlike every other digital card game that runs on its own client, Genius Invokation TCG can only be accessed within Genshin Impact. On the one hand, this does remove a hurdle for the millions of already ingrained Genshin players by not asking them to make new accounts, but it also adds a roadblock for anyone that wants to play the card game but isn't that interested in the gacha-driven RPG.
Normally, this problem would be fairly circumventive, assuming Genshin's client is well-suited towards easy access to multiplayer and deck construction. Unfortunately, miHoYo has a notorious history of subpar multiplayer experiences and matchmaking. Genshin players need to complete a relatively difficult quest just to unlock multiplayer capability. Continuing this trend, the only way to play Genius Invokation TCG multiplayer is by using the player's friends list or completing a bunch of preliminary matches against AI opponents first, all of whom players need to hunt down. Players can't even adjust their deck of cards until a match is about to start. Such Sisyphean arrangements combined with being trapped in another game's client make Genius Invokation TCG fairly uninviting from the outset.
Genius Invokation Is Inaccessible Without Playing a Lot of Genshin Impact First
Genius Invokation TCG isn't just trapped within Genshin Impact -- it's actively being throttled by its RPG counterpart. The card game isn't available to the player upon first entering the game or even upon reaching its first major town, but rather upon reaching "Adventure Rank 32." While this benchmark can be reached in a matter of days with rigorous effort, it will take the average player a couple of weeks to achieve. As mentioned earlier, there is an audience of players that may have interest in Genshin's card game, but not its main experience. However, due to this system, it's impossible to play the game without a serious time investment in Genshin Impact.
So, why would miHoYo make Genius Invokation TCG -- a spinoff genre with the potential to draw in a new audience to its decadently detailed world -- so difficult to join for prospective players? Well, it's possible that there was never any intention of making this card battler into its own game.
Genius Invokation May Not Be Intended as a Standalone TCG
In 2015, CD Projekt Red stunned the world with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, one of the best-received RPGs of its time. The game is absolutely flush with quest lines and features, among which is a tabletop card game called Gwent, which has proven to be as intricate and detailed as most official card games today. Detailed mini-games are nothing new for RPGs. Early PlayStation gamers experienced Final Fantasy VIII's "Triple Triad" and Xenosaga: Episode 1's amazingly detailed if awfully named "Trading Card Battle Game," but they've manifested as recently as Horizon: Forbidden West's "Machine Strike." Historically, none of these mini-games have been available right from the outset, and most aren't even multiplayer accessible. When viewing Genius Invokation TCG under this lens, its biggest issues are significantly more forgivable.
Still, whether it was intended as a mini-game or as something bigger, it's arguably the most expansive permanent gameplay feature Genshin has received so far, and there's no reason why it couldn't stand alone. The Witcher 3's Gwent was released as a standalone game two years after the main title's release, with a light redesign and free-to-play model, and was a critical success that invited a whole new audience to the Witcher universe. Genius Invokation TCG is a solid enough game that it stands to benefit from a similar model, removing its biggest hurdles and ironing design quirks while expanding Genshin Impact's audience.