Genshin Impact

[ZMOT]

The game literally gives you trial characters so unless you are an omega retard I don't understand how you can't hit the cap for rewards on it. I'm sorry but outside of the specific whale content events like the boss one we just had, self-reporting that you struggle on this level furthers hoyo's point that half their playerbase are literal gamer infants who need their "square goes into the square hole" events to get rewards.

in his defense, that's really just a bandaid. even for me who has some knowledge/remembers how some of those character's kits work, hoyo going "here are some chars, figure out how to build and play a proper team now" is annoying. I can't imagine how it is for even more casual players who can't/don't want to keep track of all the 70-somewhat chars that exist. same applies to chars you can "borrow" during IT or events, which sometimes even have constellations changing parts of the gameplay.

it's ok in story content where everything is overtuned so you can't die or have no real failure condition, but in content like that.... plus it doesn't help that trial descriptions (if that char manages to be on the current banner to begin with) is pretty barebones, and their skill descriptions aren't necessary the clearest to pick it up fast (and most people probably don't want to read a bunch of text to clear a simple single event fight). I think natlan chars have a bit better trial, but can't remember if they really go into the mechanics and interactions.

the only solution maybe would be able to play all the characters all the time in a limited environment to test etc. - not something I see most casuals doing either, but at least it's there, and with proper guide would be there if they need it instead of having to scour websites. or do it like wuwa and illusive realm where you could play them as long as they were on the banner.

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

What a fucking joke.

 

[LucasSomething]

in his defense, that's really just a bandaid. even for me who has some knowledge/remembers how some of those character's kits work, hoyo going "here are some chars, figure out how to build and play a proper team now" is annoying. I can't imagine how it is for even more casual players who can't/don't want to keep track of all the 70-somewhat chars that exist. same applies to chars you can "borrow" during IT or events, which sometimes even have constellations changing parts of the gameplay.

it's ok in story content where everything is overtuned so you can't die or have no real failure condition, but in content like that.... plus it doesn't help that trial descriptions (if that char manages to be on the current banner to begin with) is pretty barebones, and their skill descriptions aren't necessary the clearest to pick it up fast (and most people probably don't want to read a bunch of text to clear a simple single event fight). I think natlan chars have a bit better trial, but can't remember if they really go into the mechanics and interactions.

the only solution maybe would be able to play all the characters all the time in a limited environment to test etc. - not something I see most casuals doing either, but at least it's there, and with proper guide would be there if they need it instead of having to scour websites. or do it like wuwa and illusive realm where you could play them as long as they were on the banner.

Another thing to point out is how (afaik) this is actually the first time Lantern Rite has a serious solo score attack combat challenge at all, which tells a lot of hoyo's current priorities.

Lantern Rite was always ultra casual stuff you can clear at any powerlevel. Shit like coin collecting, boat races, multiplayer fluff and random minigames. But suddendly Hoyo decides to add an endgame level arena (lvl 90 enemies) on the fun only event.

I didnt find the event that hard but i can see someone struggling for multiple reasons, especially not minmaxing the stratagems and not getting how kinich and mualani play or what their type of damage actually is (Kinich m1 shots are skill damage).

 

[ZMOT]

I didnt find the event that hard but i can see someone struggling for multiple reasons, especially not minmaxing the stratagems and not getting how kinich and mualani play or what their type of damage actually is (Kinich m1 shots are skill damage).

I could infer that from being a trial char during the skill damage challenge (although that doesn't have to mean much and I actually finished it with a completely different team), but yeah their main event that also works as a national chinese thing usually wasn't really sweaty from what I remember. however it feels a bit meager compared to the previous years too and "slap a combat challenge on it" is probably cheaper and faster than doing a whole slew of minigames and other stuff.

 

[Girl Named Sandoz]

idk guys i think the score targets might be a tiny bit too high...


i agree that some of the combat challenge events are a little overtuned (like that last one, i didn't even bother going for platinum) but if you can't clear this with the trial characters provided it's simply a skill issue

 

[poggies123_]

Not sure about the veracity of this since some leakers have a habit of pulling stuff out their arse, but big if true

 

[LucasSomething]

did all lantern rite in one sitting and rolled 16 on arlechino hoping to get crevruses. Got no chevruses but guess who comes again







I'm gonna get Diluc C7 before getting a good dehya con.

 

[Troon Whisperer]

You get about 1400 points from doing all the other lantern rite stuff, so you just need to clear the first tier for 3 combat trials. Just set the multiplier to 10, grab the trial characters plus a couple of others and smash things until they die. Just pay attention to the gimmick and you'll be fine.

 

[ZMOT]

Not sure about the veracity of this since some leakers have a habit of pulling stuff out their arse, but big if true
View attachment 6930688

nothing about that is new tho, skirk was always rumored to show up later in 5.x as buildup to snez (or now nod-krai), with a color scheme that's most likely cryo.

until the beta rolls around it's all speculation anyway. I still remember leaks that young madame ping would be the lantern rite 5*....


I just hope they make mare jivari a proper region (wouldn't mind 6.x being it instead of snez), not some one and done dragonspire-tier subzone. the new natlan info made it sound underwhelming as fuck.

 

[thebigbean]

So, what were people's thoughts on Natlan’s story overall? Yeah, I lurked, but I was surprised not many people talked about it here. I’m surprised not many people talked about it here.

Not gonna write a huge ass essay or anything, but something felt off. It wasn't the worst thing ever, but it was definitely not as good as Sumeru or Fontaine, not even close. Definitely a huge downgrade.

I hate agreeing with the YouTube consensus, but it felt like it had way too much filler. Makuvia was, I don't know, too nice? A lot of the main quest felt like side quests and got me bored. Playing psychologist? Too many premature, unearned parties? Everyone liked you way too fast. Dunno, a lot of it felt unearned. Way too much lore dump. And I really wasn't able to care about things they wanted me to care about, like Mavuika's past family, or all the Tribe lore.

They killed a fuck ton of NPCs, the freaking goddess of death appeared, and the stakes still felt lower than Fontaine somehow.

Capitano was amazing, though. By far the best character. Too bad they didn't capitalize on him. He definitely overshadowed Mavuika, and well, everyone really. Is it just me, or was Mualani just Yoimiya but somehow less interesting? The Natlan’s cast is by far the weakest. It says a lot when the local tsundere is more popular than the freaking archon.

Overall, it was a 6/10 or 7/10 for me. Not amazing, but not terrible either.

 

[Dollar Store Sentai]

If Nathan goes to Natlan will he be doubly disappointed?

 

[Leaf Wage Slave Jr]

So, what were people's thoughts on Nathan's story overall? Yeah, I lurked, but I was surprised not many people talked about it here. I’m surprised not many people talked about it here.

Natlan was... passable at best, and felt like they were clearly trying to pad out the amount of Main Story they had written at worst, though the part that stood out to me is still when you could tell the VA's fucked off for their strike. Its biggest standout moment was the All Out War mission, of which a lot of the tension was then immediatly undercut by "Multi-Rez lul"

They killed a fuck Tom of NPCs, the freaking goddess of death appeared, and the stakes still felt lower than Fontaine somehow.

I'll admit, the Chuychu death caught me off guard, just because she looked like an actual character rather than a cookie cutter NPC with a name - they seem to have learned that lesson from Teppei in Inazuma, I'll give them that.

Capitano was amazing, though. By far the best character. Too bad they didn't capitalize on him. He definitely overshadowed Mavuika, and well, everyone really. Is it just me, or was Mualani just Yoimiya but somehow less interesting? The Nathan cast is by far the weakest. It says a lot when the local tsundere is more popular than the freaking archon.

Capitano by far stole the show. And he's inspired a new wave of cope of "THEY"LL BRING HIM BACK AND MAKE HIM PLAYABLE!!!!" from the same types of people who still hold out hope for Signora to make a return as a playable character, which is bonus points.

 

[DenseDeerFather]

Capitano

Don't forget Dottore, who isn't even dead AFAIK but... You know.

But since the consensus is that Natlan is Meh-lan, I suppose I can look forward to snooze my way through the archon story.

Joy.

Also while the site was down, this happened.

Yay. Time for some half assed pulls for Ellen because I don't expect to win a third 50/50 but I want a guarantee for Evelyn.

 

[Seminar]

Just reinstalled ZZZ and after 1st 10roll i got Ellen and now should i just rush everything to do events or take my time ? My characters are starting 4 to lvl40 and some random ones that were released during launch

 

[RhoasJonas]

So, what were people's thoughts on Natlan’s story overall?

Sumeru > Fontaine > Liyue > Natlan > Mondstat (Not counting the dragonspine event) > Inazuma.

 

[Dumpster dived waifu]

So, what were people's thoughts on Natlan’s story overall?

Fontaine > Sumeru > Mondstat > Liyue > Inazuma > Natlan.

I know Inazuma isn't great, but the few times when it did something cool, it's been more fun than Natlan.

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

Just reinstalled ZZZ and after 1st 10roll i got Ellen and now should i just rush everything to do events or take my time ? My characters are starting 4 to lvl40 and some random ones that were released during launch

Go for events for the rewards and resources. I assume you haven't finished the story, so take your time with it. It isn't going anywhere.

For end game content (Shiyu Defense, Deadly Assault, Endless Tower or whatever is called, harder modes of Hollows), you need to have a couple of teams set up with good stats and gear.

---

Got my 300th pull and nabbed Koleda. Also, someone tell Astra to leave me alone. I maxed her trust in like two days because she doesn't leave the store...

 

[poggies123_]

So, what were people's thoughts on Natlan’s story overall? Yeah, I lurked, but I was surprised not many people talked about it here. I’m surprised not many people talked about it here.

Not gonna write a huge ass essay or anything, but something felt off. It wasn't the worst thing ever, but it was definitely not as good as Sumeru or Fontaine, not even close. Definitely a huge downgrade.

I hate agreeing with the YouTube consensus, but it felt like it had way too much filler. Makuvia was, I don't know, too nice? A lot of the main quest felt like side quests and got me bored. Playing psychologist? Too many premature, unearned parties? Everyone liked you way too fast. Dunno, a lot of it felt unearned. Way too much lore dump. And I really wasn't able to care about things they wanted me to care about, like Mavuika's past family, or all the Tribe lore.

They killed a fuck ton of NPCs, the freaking goddess of death appeared, and the stakes still felt lower than Fontaine somehow.

Capitano was amazing, though. By far the best character. Too bad they didn't capitalize on him. He definitely overshadowed Mavuika, and well, everyone really. Is it just me, or was Mualani just Yoimiya but somehow less interesting? The Natlan’s cast is by far the weakest. It says a lot when the local tsundere is more popular than the freaking archon.

Overall, it was a 6/10 or 7/10 for me. Not amazing, but not terrible either.

Shallow and disappointing, Mihoyo loves making their characters the most one-dimensional, cookie character types possible (consider the collection of women who are workaholics and that's their entire personality) but goddamn is it boring. Mavuika was born different from the start, she's always been fit and capable for the Archon role, her leadership skills are perfect and she's willing to sacrifice herself without no hesitation. A Mary Sue that comes off as boring and lame considering all the other Archons had their own flaws and ways to manage them while dealing with the crisis at hand, ESPECIALLY with how good Furina was in the previous region. Say what you want about Inazuma's quest being dogshit, but it was mainly due to how the plot itself was written and concluded, Raiden herself was a good concept of a stubborn tyrant god clinging to unrealistic ideals while being far divorced from reality.

The rest of it is pretty stale too, the overall theme of the quests somehow don't feel serious, the dialogue sounds like it was written for retards or children, and this is all despite Natlan being an active warzone. Speaking of which, the part where we got to saw all the casualties firsthand was pretty good, and definitely an improvement. I'm not sure why they went out of the way to glaze the Traveler so much this time, like it's good to acknowledge the main character too, but goddamn do they dedicate entire filler segments to it.

Would've been better if they did more show than tell, it's really annoying when you see Chad Capitano meet up with Mavuika in the temple and expect a fierce battle of wits, arguing about their methods, but no — it's just the usual slop of them glazing each other, talking about how great the other one is as if reading from a character sheet. Reminds me of the Chasm quest where they could've shown Yelan do cool spy things, infiltrate the area or put her espionage expertise to good use as an introduction, but no lol, it's just Yanfei and Kuki fucking slobbering on her nuts telling us why she's so cool and why we should totally pull on her.


I really miss Fontaine and Furina, that region somehow made me intensely nostalgic for a gacha game plot of all things. Perhaps it was the music?

 

[Staphylococcus aureus]

So, what were people's thoughts on Natlan’s story overall? Yeah, I lurked, but I was surprised not many people talked about it here. I’m surprised not many people talked about it here.

Not gonna write a huge ass essay or anything, but something felt off. It wasn't the worst thing ever, but it was definitely not as good as Sumeru or Fontaine, not even close. Definitely a huge downgrade.

I hate agreeing with the YouTube consensus, but it felt like it had way too much filler. Makuvia was, I don't know, too nice? A lot of the main quest felt like side quests and got me bored. Playing psychologist? Too many premature, unearned parties? Everyone liked you way too fast. Dunno, a lot of it felt unearned. Way too much lore dump. And I really wasn't able to care about things they wanted me to care about, like Mavuika's past family, or all the Tribe lore.

They killed a fuck ton of NPCs, the freaking goddess of death appeared, and the stakes still felt lower than Fontaine somehow.

Capitano was amazing, though. By far the best character. Too bad they didn't capitalize on him. He definitely overshadowed Mavuika, and well, everyone really. Is it just me, or was Mualani just Yoimiya but somehow less interesting? The Natlan’s cast is by far the weakest. It says a lot when the local tsundere is more popular than the freaking archon.

Overall, it was a 6/10 or 7/10 for me. Not amazing, but not terrible either.

Natlan scraped by on the work of the GOAT Capitano to be honest, and even then... I don't know. I agree with people saying the characters were too shallow. Capitano was genuinely interesting and cool; I thought Citlali, Mualani, and Ororon were funny; Kachina made me a little emotional sometimes; and... Xilonen is fine. Kinich is fine. Chasca is fine. There's really nothing interesting there at all. Mavuika annoys me to an unreasonable degree, I hate her stupid bike and her 360° ass zipper, and she's so flat and boring as a character. I don't find her enjoyable to play as, she looks and acts like a My Little Pony character, and the entire plot of Natlan can be summed up by the phrase "Friendship is Magic." I won't address any issues with filler, since I think everyone agrees Hoyo was just trying to pad out a region they planned absolutely nothing for.

Also, I hate Phlogistons. I like leylines/Irminsul/actual Worldbuilding stuff, so it's fine since it explains the source of elemental energy and such, but it's lame to me and I hate that it's what they used to justify their racist Nightsoul BS. At least the Night Kingdom was cool.

Better than Inazuma, but it doesn't have the nostalgia factor of Mond/Liyue, and it's much worse than Sumeru and Fontaine storytelling imo. Very mid. Absolute 5 or 6/10. Ronova playable when?

 

[Hammr2]

So, what were people's thoughts on Natlan’s story overall? Yeah, I lurked, but I was surprised not many people talked about it here. I’m surprised not many people talked about it here.

Lurk more, starting from page 247.
I'll be a bit of contrarian here: Fontaine -> Sumeru -> Mondstadt ->>> Natlan = Inazuma -> Liyue.

The low stake is mostly how predictable Natlan story telling wise all the way. Fontaine is much less so, despite horrible "what's the point" prison arc. I don't like Furina as much as other people (not hating her, just not as much). It's mostly because I dislike idea of long-life tropes but somehow being so inconsiderate and "whatever" to each other. I don't feel like story is persuasive enough for me to believe Neuvillette somehow doesn't care that much about Furina bluffing over hundreds of years. Or somehow Furina is just by herself looking for answer to deal with prophecy. Entire prison fortress just outright build bunch of ships preparing for the flood in secret.
It isn't the only time MHY does long-life trope, I hate it in HSR too with that Fired side quest in Xianzhou Luofu. The slow-mental housekeeper Mei works for the hirer Luhui for 200 years, yet Luhui doesn't even notice Mei has keeping a detail note on her job all over years. Only later to find out, Luhui feels bad for Mei and almost fires Mei.

It was supposed to be a sympathy feels bad kind of quest, but the 200 years thing upsets me so much. How DUMB and inconsiderate it is, especially considering writing for the two characters seeing each others daily or very frequently.

Now other than that, after this year Lantern Rite. Does MHY now starts to make the Traveler being more in spot light rather than stand by and normal fetch quest like older days? After like maybe WuWa or other upcoming gacha games.

Would've been better if they did more show than tell,

Usually the "show" parts are in exploration or maybe some of the side quests. By exploration, I mean area appearance design and notes to collect. Except Genshin is open-world and not linear, notes are easily missed and not necessarily be collected in order. It doesn't help with amount blabbering, so no context and can't be read in proper order to get the gist. The whole "show" experience is crap.
Especially, when there are times "obviously" to pad word count making the whole reading experience boring.

The rest is typical designing video games. Gameplay section first, then story later. Strict schedule release date is now slowly biting their butts. They have less freedom comparing to other MMOs can be waited much longer to write story section. Unfortunately, WoW and even FF14 don't do so hot either. I can't say what it is for Warframe since "space ship" update beside cringe.

Edit: I consider good "show" part is stealth section playing Chuychu and Chasca. Rather than just them outright telling players what exactly happens, players are forced to do it. Depending if players find that part fun to play or not though.
But I definitely hate any force walking section like recent Lantern Rite or whatever Mavuika reminisces section.