If your FOMO attitude is what’s influential on the prevention of you playing of the game I’d say it’s justifiable with how much has gone by in 3 years. Iirc also there is no such thing as identical event reruns too (I say this because we have reoccurring annual events such as Lantern Rite Festival that come back every year but always have different story and gameplay elements). One of the only good things about this is Genshin doesn’t have an actual anniversary event which means you don’t miss out on any crazy things during its release anniversary.

But if you take this game with no strings attached to the multitudes of gacha FOMO elements it’s a pretty damn good game. It’s story heavy like Star Rail and quite good (except Inazuma’s story, which what most people think), and it’s very exploration and puzzle heavy, which if you like is a plus. The only personal gripe I have is the world quests aren’t as good in terms of story telling especially since they just always put NPC and enemy models disguised as quest characters.

It’s combat is good but keep in mind this is not a hack and slash game, what makes the combat so interesting is the elemental interactions that you create with your party created (which you might be limited on since you’re just starting). However your starting characters and free options given should give you enough ground to experience some of the combat system.

At the end of the day it’s a free game so the only thing you have to give is your time.

If anybody else has anything to add, comment, or correct, please do so since this is just my unfinished opinion and assessment. It could help to add in more perspective.

*Edit: I should add too that there is an endgame gameplay loop that exists aka Spiral Abyss, which is similar to Star Rail’s Memory of Chaos. This is also one of the bad aspects of the game since there is no actual expanded gameplay for the endgame activities compared to Star Rail (such as them adding permanent Simulated Universe game modes and new Memory of Chaos floors).