Chinese Zelda: Breath of the Wild Ripoff So Blatant One Gamer Smashed His PS4

Joseph Luster August 4, 2019

breath of the wild

Chinese company Mihoyo has an open-world PS4 game in the works called Genshin Impact, but you’d be excused for mixing it up with a certain flagship Nintendo title. The first gameplay footage made its debut at the recent China Joy gaming expo, and some attendees had serious issues with its blatant similarities to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Judging from the videos on display, as well as a bunch of footage and screens shared across social media back in June, Genshin Impact is more than a loving homage. Everything from environmental to weapon effects look awfully familiar, as criticized in since-deleted tweets.

“The game Genshin Impact developed by Mihoyo is completely copying The Legand of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The company uses all the elements in Zelda to make their own game and selling it (currently in beta version). Please take a look at this, thanks.” — Vivian.Ysy (@SiyuYang_V) June 23, 2019

“It’s a big game company in China. These are some pics of the game compared with Zelda. They are exactly the same.” — Vivian.Ysy (@SiyuYang_V) June 23, 2019

Nintendo fans were quick to show their disapproval in various ways. Some opted to simply hold up their copies of Breath of the Wild and/or flip Genshin Impact the bird.

There were also strategically positioned cosplayers:

Others, however, took the matter even more to heart than the rest. One particularly disgruntled gamer protested by destroying his own PS4. That’ll show ’em!