Gensokishi Online Goes to the Metaverse – Should You Play?
If you’ve kept up with the metaverse at all, everyone and their husky is headed for the play-to-earn station.
Most of these games revolve around the sale of NFTs. Some will sell you land and some will sell you power. A few of them will even grant partial ownership, but there is only one that does it all – Gensokishi Online.
As legendary as it sounds, you may have already played the game. Gensokishi Online is actually the metaverse incarnation of Elemental Knights, a mobile multiplayer game that has a pretty committed player base.
The developers of Gensokishi intend to import the entire universe of Elemental Knights onto the Polygon blockchain.
It’s not uncommon to see replicas of popular games on blockchain, but bringing an old game, including mechanics built for a completely different platform sounds like an unbelievable feat.
The story doesn’t end there. Read on to see if Gensokishi Online is something you want to invest in.
Gensokishi Online – Gameplay and Features
The game is still in its early stages, but already sitting on a heap of promises. For one, players will supposedly be able to customize their characters and even NPCs on a given map.
You’ll also have an opportunity to purchase and own in-game land. We’re seeing some DAO elements here but a bit unsure how that would play into the open world nature of the game. If you own a piece of the world and decide no one can enter, will it be considered “open” anymore?
Gensokishi Online offers a variety of in-game items and equipment for players to collect. The rarity system appears standard with several levels, including some inevitable “legendary” grade goodies you can’t get anywhere else but the NFT auction.
There is a tentative date for the beta test, but we’ve already seen two NFT auctions. It does seem they’re trying to pool in as much liquidity as possible before launch.
The top bidders at the Gensokishi Online auction will receive a large bundle of top items in the game. How this will impact actual gameplay, we have yet to discover, but considering it’s free to play, it’s safe to assume that it will be significant.
You’d have to bid at least 6,000 MV (Gensokishi Metaverse) for a chance to be in the top 10, which is roughly equivalent to $2,400. But don’t worry, anyone can get in with only 100 MV and still get a token of participation at the end. The NFT you get for joining the auction can also be used in game.
Gensokishi Online – Play to Earn?
Gensokishi has announced that the game will be play-to-earn. While there are nuances to this mechanic across the metaverse, it usually implies you can simply play a game and earn tokens.
This, however, isn’t the case for Gensokishi Online. To earn ROND, the utility token, players must actively participate in activities, such as dungeons, battlegrounds, story, etc. The problem is, these activities cost ROND to play so before you even begin, you might have to buy the tokens.
There is apparently a free map for any player to enter. The developers never mentioned if the activities here are free as well or if they can earn you any token.
Another thing is that players have to periodically pay ROND to stay in the game. They claim it’s to prevent AFK (away from keyboard players) and reduce traffic, but notice that 1 ROND is about $0.10.
Let’s say the rate is 1 ROND per minute and the dungeon you’re doing takes half an hour and will net you 20 ROND, you’re losing money trying to stay in the game.
Conclusion – Should You Play?
A good NFT game needs two things: simplicity and profit. While it’s still a bit too early to tell, Gensokishi Online doesn’t seem to have provided evidence of those elements.
We highly recommend waiting for further development while keeping up with your research. Observe the platform as more events are queued towards the beta test and eventually launch.
If you absolutely have to get involved, try to start small. At the time of this writing, any player can join for about 100 MV. You can use it to partake in auctions or stake the coins for in-game currency (ROND.)
One last thing to keep in mind is it might be a while before you get to see the game go live. Not much of official gameplay has been revealed since alpha so take that into account as well.