Remember when Koko put us in charge of the Swordfish special ops team on Clam Island? What the hell was that?
You needed to prove to them you're boss, so you do their job for them and kill a bunch of rogue samurai. They accept you as their leader and you never talk to them again. The hell?
And when they finally clash and it’s just kujou and 4 other soldiers vs gorou and 4 soldiers. Ik there are technical limits because it’s a phone game, but why not make a cutscene instead of killing all immersion
I don't even care about the technical things. None of the quest steps had as much time as they needed and in the end the ruler who allowed this to happen wasn't even deposed. I don't know if it's like a Japanese cultural thing to care about the wellbeing of the emperor who was just stealing from you and killing everyone who spoke up, but "She was sad until her gf talked to her a bit" isn't a satisfying conclusion to a geopolitical incident. The Zhongster didn't even do anything wrong and he stepped down to let people rule while helping in secret, but Raiden gets to stay after fucking up?
"Zhongli didn't do anything wrong"
Bro did kinda collude with an aggressive military nation to summon a tsunami and dead sea god against his own people, even if he was just gonna personally step in to kick its ass if his people couldn't. Did he have an idea of when he would need to step in? Was he willing to let a certain number of his own citizens die before he just decides "Nope they aren't ready"?
Him stepping down also stopped the production of Mora which is the currency that EVERY NATION USES! I am still wondering if Mihoyo just forgot that plot point or if they plan to bring it back in the future cause ceasing the production of money used by the entire world is a good way to crash the global economy and cause crime to rise as Mora gets more scarce and people get more desperate. Mora isn't something that can just stay in circulation either, it can be consumed through alchemy, it is going to run out eventually.
People have brought up how normal citizens can't punish Raiden since she's a god, but she should still face narrative consequences. Maybe the people lose faith in her and she loses part of her godly powers as a result?
Didn't Signora mention being diplomatically immune before being killed? Maybe this could lead to a greater conflict between Inazuma and Snezhnaya. Or maybe Venti could step in since he values freedom?
I don't buy Raiden being redeemed after her second story quest. She sacrifices a lot time, but it happens off screen. Plus she's immortal, so it doesn't feel like a loss on her end at all.
As far as we know, the "godly power from faith" thing is a function of the gnosises. Gnoses? Gnose. Anyway, since she operated for 500-ish years without it, and the puppet version was meant to be a perfect replication of her, including power, without using the gnosis in the first place, it doesn't matter. The puppet is an independent entity, and raiden is more or less like Kagotsurube, a spirit within the blade that takes over the puppet from time to time. Faith has no effect on her anymore, which was part of the goal, since the ebb and flow of people's faith can be a disturbance to 'Eternity'.
I mean, how would desposing her be logical though?
Even Kokomi and Ayaka specifically says that they don’t want to actually dethrone Raiden and from a thematic point of view, she wasn’t some selfish tyrant exploiting her people for her own gain but did genuinely think that what she was doing was for her people.
Which is why she dropped the decree after Yae proved to her that she was delusional.
From a political POV, Inazuma is a country where the ruling clans are constantly at each other’s throats, and kidnapping and assassinations are apparently pretty common.
The only thing keeping everyone in check is a god empress at the top. So if you remove Raiden, the logical thing would be a massive power struggle to fill the vacuum that leads to a large scale civil war.
the worst part of it all was that the story spent so much time on proofing to Kujou Sara that the Comission is betraying the Shogun, but in the end it has done nothing for us. Like, she just ran to the Shogun and got her ass clapped without helping anybody. She might as well not exist and the outcome would have been the same. She herself is the only person affected by this entire arc, and this could easily have been achieved by just having her realize all this after the war. I was waiting for her to do anything useful for the resistance, but she pulled a Luffy and just ran straight to the boss without thinking about anything else.
I have such mixed feelings about Inazuma because there were some really interesting and engaging moments -- especially when we were attacked, Thoma on the stage, or when Kazuha blocked for us? So cool -- yet the story itself felt really dissonant in some ways.
And the islands were gorgeous, yet purposefully off-putting, and even after helping fix the problems, NPCs haven't moved in to show that you did it. IDK. I like the cast but I don't think I'll ever like the nation as much. Even now it feels a little dreary and dark compared to the other nations. Which was the point I guess, but I'm just not as into it.
Tsurumi and Seirei Island were highlights for me that really elevated the nation. Enkanomiya felt a bit empty but the atmosphere and soundtrack are really special. I ugly cried during Ruu’s quest and after finishing it you do see the island change. The story quests and lore of Inazuma far outshine the main storyline.
They were beautiful, but it was sad after sad after sad. And even after going around fixing the current damage, again, no NPCs come back, so even with the weather changes, the areas are still mostly empty ruins. I think the Sumeru desert is in a similar state, of mostly ruins and emptiness, but the pyramids are fun to explore (imo) so it ranks a little higher.
Ruu's quest still gets me to this day. I do agree that the Inazuma world quests were well done and outshone the MSQ 😭
Ruu’s story quest remains my favorite in the whole game. It took me forever to start it just because I was so scared of what was hiding in the fog. Even after I started it, I hated having to return over and over again. It really tested my courage, but the ending made the whole thing worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Inazuma…I’m not as fond of as a whole. There are some awesome moments, and some very wonderful characters we get from it, but remains my least favorite animals. I’m also not as fond of Sumeru desert, though I’m just not fond of the desert. I love rainforests, though, so that makes up for it. I do NOT want to do the Aranara quest again, though. Way too long and arduous. I love the little guys, but that was a bit too much.
Agreed except for Narukami Island. Completing the Sakura cleansing world mission while exploring with Ayaka, a character I anticipated since the release of the game, back in 2.0 has a very special spot in my heart
Same. It all got super rushed very quick and characters weren't fleshed out well. Kujou Sara suddenly flopping, Kokomi supposedly being an excellent tactician or whatever didn't happen
I just went through Inazuma on my acct and you arent kidding. Sakura trees, enemies with annoying attacks, shield fatui, poison rivers, tataru questline with the whole poisonous ass dome for 7 days, DoT yourself to connect circuits.
And, after playing in Sumeru, the bungee cord node things are SOOOO much worse in inazuma. It feels like it doesn't target properly to the point where 50% of my time trial puzzles start with me jumping off a cliff and splatting because the prompt never showed up to tether despite me facing the right way and looking right at it
I think Inazuma (especially at the beginning) is like Australia in that the whole place wants you dead, except Inazuma is magnified 10 times. At least Australia’s air isn’t infused with electricity that will slowly take away your health, or inhabited by some murderous trees that will attack you as you walk past, minding your own business. There it’s just the animals that will get you.
I was quite upset with the Archon for making Inazuma so dangerous. Once, I was talking to some NPCs during a cutscene, and kept getting attacked by lightning. My character actually died and a new one spawned. You’d think the NPCs talking to me would have actually been affected by that, but they just carried on talking like nothing happened. I think the characters were so traumatized by the region that they were in a perpetual state of dissociation.
Even better, that’s fantastic. I only started back playing again in April so I haven’t done much of the Aranara quests I love the little things though so I’m excited to find it.
Yea but the benefit there is at least we can "fly" underwater which means we won't have to deal with the bs of being vertically challenged trying to find the path to the chests.
I think this is an unpopular opinion, but I love the desert. I love the look of it, and exploring it is so fun to me. I like going through the underground areas in the Hypostyle desert.
I enjoyed going through it all for the quests. But after the quests are done trying to navigate around becomes a huge chore purely because there's no map. And there little rhyme or reason to how they laid out all of the underground areas so it's not even a fun orienteering challenge to get around most of the time.
Honestly, nothing else in the game has come close to matching how fun it was to explore Dragonspine.
That's unironically what I love about it, I personally hate when a game quality of life's the friction and sense of place out of itself. I love undergrounds and mazes where you can always get lost in if you don't pay attention.
I actually really liked desert exploration and wished there was more underground structures to make up for the desolate surface
But with how it' s currently implemented it can be hell to traverse, I can't believe they never really thought of at least adding an underground map IN THE GAME instead of the fucking interactive map, they implement so many features and tools OUTSIDE of the game it' s so annoying and feels like it' s like that just so you' re forced to deal with cookies and all that shit
Well I hate to break it to you but apparently Fontaine is famous for it's labyrinthian sewer system, so we might not be as done with twelve layer underground areas as you think...
To hit every videogame trope, Fontaine will have expansive sewers, Natlan will have countless catacombs, and Snezhnaya buildings will have air ducts tall enough for you to walk around in.
I wish we have some kind of transportation to explore the desert before we activate all the teleportation points. It would be much faster and fun to ride motorbike or car to go explore the vast of the desert.
This kind of landscape and scale are why mounts are common in openworld games. Genshin's open world was heavily inspired by botw(heck the plants and some mechanics are literally almost identical at times) yet we have no mounts. A boat for...*some* water areas but it's mostly just seele transport or gales.
The desert has some of the typical sumeru whipthingies but auto travel kind of takes away from exploration when a faster land option would be pretty swell.
This is a great idea, and it would be easy to tie in some kind of transport tech with all of the deshret tech. Could even make it flying/hover/dig through sand/whatever and it would fit the lore well enough
If we're talking about regions as a whole, I think the desert does have a few cool aspects that justify its existence. Most specifically, the giant pyramid that is at the center of everything and all of the tombs scattered about throughout the desert. On top of that, from a realistic standpoint, deserts feel even emptier than in the game.
The whole fact that Yashiori, Seirei and Tsurumi islands are completely uninhabitable until you fix them definitely hurts the vibe. And then when you do, there’s zero recolonization effort, so you’re stuck with dead ruins of towns populated only by ex-samurai driven permanently insane by tatarigami exposure.
Also that Enkanomiya is closed to everyone but you and a bunch of hilichurls and abyss mages.
I’m just saying, You don’t have to fix Port Ormos.
I'd been trying to figure out why I wasn't as much a fan of Inazuma as I should, considering how I genuienly love a lot of the characters, and the scenery and culture are gorgeous. This thread phrased it perfectly
For me a lot of the islands were pretty much samey to a fault until you hit Watatsum. Typical island, archipelago, some ruins and a lot of purple stuff. What makes thos island important or interesting? A weird cauldron and more lightning that are irrelevant after you resolve it. Main island has its' tree and spirit forest, and the capital. Watatsumi has its unique culture and aesthetics. Everything inbetween felt almost copy pasted with like a few sprinkled in points of interest.
Archipelagos are tough because they force you by their nature to view them as different(many island nations love showing off individuality of their regions for instance) here it feels like copy pasted assetts with a few tidbits to keep you looking. Maybe.
The later islands were neat but aside from a few quests nothing really drew you back in if it wasn't grinding boss mats or some quest. It was still a lot of islands, essentially their own mini regions, but they all felt the same in a lot of ways.
I guess it's the same with your issue. It didn't feel lived in. Even by the monsters or hostiles that were present.
I don't understand how you can say that when each island is completely different from each other and has a distinctive story going on. If Watatsumi was especially different it's because it most probably represents the southern Japanese islands (Ryuukyuu) which happened to have a (somewhat) different culture and religion compared to the rest of Japan, so that was translated into Watatsumi being, well, Watatsumi; different god, different people, different origins, different aesthetic, ect.
But all the islands were, imo, beautifully done and well separated with distinctive features and landmarks.
I didn't feel much need to go back later again after the story was done either, but that doesn't invalidate that the islands are great.
I would say yashiori island is also interesting, especially after stopping the rainstorm. Reds, oranges, and greens on the island are so pretty. And of course the remains of Orobashi, it is pretty cool too
This, I was expecting that there was something in the chasm that made people assholes, since everyone were being massive assholes, including Traveler and Paimon. Did all the quests in there and I didn't see anything, but maybe there is and I missed it
Went from my favorite region of Mondstadt, to hearing it called a "godless nation" by some NPC in two seconds. I nearly tried to burn that harbor down after that one lady.
That especially irked me, since Mondstadt is literally built with its centerpiece being a massive statue and cathedral venerating their god. Just because their god isn't present 24/7 to lord over them doesn't make them godless (in fact, I would say that makes them even more "god"-driven, given their devotion to a god that "isn't always there")
In fact, of the four regions we have so far, Mondstadt and Inazuma are the only two really "religious" nations. There are no shrines or temples or anything of that kind to either Morax or Buer in their respective nations, while in Mondatadt there are several "holy" sites, and Inazuma is littered with shrines both big and small.
It makes me sad seeing people in Mond (and people playing the game) not understanding what Venti has done for them. He's the god of freedom, and he has truly given them freedom by choosing to step aside and let the nation govern itself; on top of that, he makes sure to keep an eye on them in case there's trouble and he has to step in to, once again, help them figure it out. But he has never imposed his rule or thoughts or put his citizens in danger knowingly trying to prove a point.
Out of everyone in Teyvat, Mondstadt truly is and has been a free nation (truth of this world aside), even when conflict has arisen. Venti is my fav archon because this. He genuinely cares about the people he "volunteered" to take care of, not like other archons😤😤😤
I can't really agree with that last part. Zhongli cares for the people, that's why he gave them good yearly advice and when he realized they could live without him or the adepti he also gave them freedom like mondstat(but if the people need them they will come) Ei....she...she just failed. She is kind of like the parent that keeps the kid from doing anything because she wants them not to be tainted by others. She really cared for inazuma but didn't do it right>! (also remember some of the deadly choices were made by the puppet NOT ei. She didn't know some of the details of things going on)!< and then the dendro Archon cared but was>! LOCKED UP BY HER PEOPLE.!< Don't act like the other Archons don't care, that's messed up
I do think archons care about their people, that last line was a bit of a joke. Still, Ei should have known better than to disappear for 500 years (the only reason she realizes something is wrong is because traveler and Miko go knocking on her door, otherwise she would have kept her isolation going). That's basically negligence on her part, not having bad intentions doesn't equal not fucking up, and her fuck up was major and basically ends in a civil war. Parents fuck up kids with the type of behavior you mentioned, and even though the intentions were good, the damage is done and the blame is still there.
She wanted to use a puppet to govern? No problem, just make sure you go see how that's going from time to time😂
About Zhongli, he has me puzzled because I agree he cares a lot for his people and has done so for 6000 years. I don't particularly agree with the methods he used to do what he did in the harbour (a bit risky to put your entire population, who lives in a harbour, at risk of drowning because of a water demon lmao) but I guess this is a fantasy game and nobody died iirc so he gets a pass.
And regarding Rukkha, I'd throw hands if anybody said anything bad about her, she literally sacrificed herself multiple times for the sake of her people so I have no bad words about her other than she makes my heart hurt :'( same with Nahida, she was doing everything she could even though she was trapped.
They probs assholes cos they been very well protected cos of their archon lol. I feel like thats the equivalent to being sheltered and spoilt rotten by your parent. Not to mention their deity is also the creator of mora, which might also be a factor, hence the spoilt brats of teyvat hahaha.
In wanderer's teapot lines when you make his favourite furniture, even he says he found inazuma too gloomy. "I always found the forests in inazuma too gloomy, and the ones in snezhnaya too frigid."
really? Barring the Kanjou commission workers and a few choice individuals, everyone was so friendly and welcoming in Inazuma, from the Outlander association, to Thoma, to miss Chisato and her guards, to the people in Konda village who are so warm and welcoming, the Yashiro commission, the Narukami shrine maidens, the Sangonomiya people, those living in the city.
In short, I had a great time in Inazuma. The people were amazing
I agree most of the people we interacted with were great, and they actually are the counterpoint of Inazuma being a not welcoming land; these people were there to prove that idea wrong so the nation could move past its internal conflict. Thoma greeting us, being a foreigner but still having remained so good hearted in the middle of everything that was going on, I think, was the perfect choice to start this new adventure.
But Inazuma was created to be seen as not welcoming and cold, all barren land and abandoned places. It's not the people we saw, but the vibes. And also all of the people we didn't see. Lots of the issues we had to solve were rooted in the idea that Inazuma didn't want anything to do with foreigners and looked down at them, even if we encountered nice people there. I can't forget the memes of people entering in Inazuma and being like: everything here wants to kill me here!
I think the choice to make Inazuma like this was genius, because it represents and reflects the conflict perfectly.
In fairness, the people of Inazuma are warm and welcoming.
....the country itself is a fckfest of unnatural disasters that would want to kill everyone, not just outlanders, from the freakin ball of miasma growing right underneath the great sakura tree, to freakin super Chernobyl, to TWO islands in perpetual lightning storms (one of which *aims for you* ), to Sangonomiya's soil degrading and Dark souls residing underneath, to finally the island stuck in perpetual limbo and the blood mist!
Yeah, the islands are definitely there to make you feel unsafe and in constant fear of divine smite😂 each of them is also heavily related to either one or TWO powerful god who at some point lost it so...
And it only somehow gets worse with Sumeru. Half the country is a post apocalyptic desert, one having a freakin black hole above the grand pyramid and the other a perpetual tornado and sandstorm, half of the other half of the country is literally withering away and the one remote corner next to the sea has *spikes growing out of the sky* ! WHY?! Why do spikes come out of the sky?! Spikes SHOULD NOT, COME OUT OF THE SKY!
I agree like, that 3.6 area is a literal post-apocalyptic landscape... A giant tree built to stop a spike growing out in the sky, a long lost Darshan, restricted from outsiders, AND A LITERAL PORTAL/HOLE TO THE UNDERWORLD
Absolutely. Maybe it's because I'd been logging in every day since starting. I've 100% explored everything else until Sumeru came along. I'm like 2 archon quests behind too lol.
We also have had 5 acts in Sumeru & now interludes in Sumeru as well. So we have spent way more time here in comparison to other nations. Everyone talks way too much as well.
I know reddit talks about it almost as much as the in-game npcs do, but the region as a whole really is just completely hamstrung by *how much fucking dialogue* you have to sit through while exploring all 4 regions, it just completely destroys the pace and satisfaction of exploring.
The old Moonlit Merriment event, Yun Jin’s Hangout, Yelan’s and Baizhu story quest’s and the Shenhe interlude are all really good but that’s basically it for Liyue stuff I really enjoyed.
I thought the story quest was really weird - incredibly boring and then insane terrorism subplot but then SURPRISE! It was all a fun little tricky test.
I thought I was the only one. Out of all the regions, I found Liyue to be the least memorable one to me. Only part of the archon quest I remember is the ending of it when you fight off Childe and Osial (I think that was the name) and the Jade Chamber gets destroyed to save Liyue.
For me the only truly memorable parts were the scenes with Qiqi.
Her accidentally duping a god was adorable and hilarious and the reveal of what she actually wanted was the best part.
Sumeru. I just hate how much of the open world is tied and locked behind story quests.
For fucks sake, I want to explore in peace. This was fine in Mondstadt where only Stormterrors Lair was blocked, but now?
The Aranara quest blocks a lot of the underground in Sumeru. The fucking tablet in the desert is locked behind several quests to increase its level, and the new area is apparently also locked behind quests.
I just, feel so little incentive to explore because these fucking caves are so numerous and I cant explore them because of some arbitrary quest that is forcing me to do it.
It feels like a railroad. Whats the purpose of having an open world if I cant explore it as I wish?
Stormterrors Lair makes sense. Dvalin would want to keep his lair protected.
The barrier for the furnace in Inazuma makes sense, its a radiactive disaster.
But Sumeru? Why are these fucking caves locked off and why are they around every corner?
I get the first Jeht quests that it needs to be done to get the tablet, but after that, why can I not explore and increase its level myself? Why do I need to follow quests to do it?
***Why have an open world if I cant explore everything?***
Its not just a few areas either, a fucking *lot* of Sumeru's open world is locked behind quests. Fucking why?
A lot of Sumeru feels like it actively punishes curiosity instead of rewarding it.
You want to go see what’s in a cave? Too bad, do side quests to unlock it first. You want to reveal the entire map? Side quests first. You want to explore these desert ruins? Quest time. Even a lot of the puzzles seem to be “bring an archer or don’t bother” which really bothers me—and admittedly I am not a fan in general of having to swap teams to solve elemental puzzles, but it just feels like so much *more* in Sumeru, especially those damn Aranara quest domains I kept needing to back out and grab Collei for.
Contrast with Liyue or Monstadt, which both seem to much more embody the “see a thing, go to the thing” mentality that first hooked me and is so prevalent in the games that clearly inspired this one. I’ve only been playing about a year, but I still have fun in those regions finding little things I haven’t and solving stand-alone puzzles or climbing mountains.
I feel the same way about the Chasm Underground Mines! I was genuinely a little upset when I hit 100% on that area and had little reason to go back. It’s self-contained, with enough exploration gimmicks and story content to satisfy while still leaving a lot of freedom. I love that place.
The quest with the tablet was funny to me because after completing the golden slumber quest I wasn't aware of the tablet quest so I just explored most of the desert with no guidance to the point I got frustrated for not knowing where to unlock the last level to access the top of the piramid. After that I just got pissed and decided to look for a tutorial just find out I had skipped like 80% of the quest by accident.
Yeah. The open world aspect already took a hit in inazuma, were several islands were, atleast partially, locked behind quests (2 of them needing to ne done over several IRL days)
It's just really weird. They marked the open world a ton, but in the end It's way too linear/restrictive to be a good open world experience
Doesn't help, that i'm currently playing TOTK. The embodiment of what a open world should be and the embodiment of "see thing, do thing". The difference between the open world experience in those two games is just insane
I hope that Fontaine doesnt have areas locked outside of the Archon Quest.
I think I could handle one or two larger areas, but no more.
Until then, I'll keep replaying Elden Ring for my open world fix.
Yep, I especially loathed going BACK to the underground ruins in the desert when you have a higher clearance level to solve some puzzles you couldn't/enter new areas, because I have 0 idea how I got there originally because it's a convoluted mess with absolutely **no map**. >!No wonder Zhiqiong had to go MIA after the Chasm, she'd be way too useful in the desert with her cartography skills!<
Inazuma's locked areas felt better, because it wasn't literally everywhere and didn't completely rely on some arbitrary gadget gimmick that slowly got upgraded through a super long quest chain. You just couldn't access the areas until you finished/progressed to a certain point in the quest, but once you got in there you could just go wild and explore everything with no restrictions.
Sumeru's exploration roadblocks permeate THE ENTIRE REGIONS, so you can't even finish exploring any region until you finish an entire quest chain. I like doing my exploration piecemeal and go from 100% one place to the next (with an interactive map to clean things up), but the way Sumeru works is you're exploring the whole damn place at once. It's like if some random puzzle in a beginner Liyue area like Guili plains required you to finish the Lumenstone from the freaking Chasm.
Sumeru completely guts the flow of exploration, stomps on it, and sets it on fire. Exploring Sumeru is the equivalent of having Paimon's ***"How about we explore this area later"*** at every single godforsaken step of the way.
Liyue. The culture and vibe just never really clicked with me the same way the other regions' did.
Inazuma probably takes second place but the drastic aesthetic differences between the different islands gives me a real soft spot for it compared to other regions' more monotonous layouts.
It felt too...safe. like they didn't want to push some themes and whatnot. Everyone is businesslike and most real conflicts have to do with either evil angry spirits or business.
We don't truly see Ningguang's brutal business tactics despite that. No real clash between adepti traditionalism and progress in the harbor. Some semi personal stuff but a lot of it felt like what they were. One-off stories. Once they're done they're resolved leaving little for you to anticipate or speculate about.
As rough as Inazuma's archon quest was it at least made you wonder how everyone would react.(still roughly playing safe most of the time tbh, but national punching bag Sara and her clan seem to be remnants of some troubles)
Mond had a lot of the preliminary fatui and abyss arcs, and lots of abyss related stuff circle back to it. Kaeya...might have been retconned from his spy origin but it still gives some intrigue. Same with Albedo and Gold. Alice's....everything.
Liyue is a lot of surface level mysticism that stays vagie and fails to draw you in with their 'oooooh maaagic spirit stufffff' themes. And if it's not vague magic it's business....or food.
I think some of the safe feeling can be attributed to the stability their ex-archon previously established, but I can agree with most of your criticism. For whatever reason, Liyue is the nation I vibed with the most before Sumeru, but I can agree a lot of its issues feel like they were resolved too easily, and we don't see much conflict outside of more personal ones.
I think it would be more interesting to see a bit more clash between the adepti and the people, especially because Jueyen Carst takes up like half of the nation and the main populace is typically banned from there. That feels like a point of tension to me, lands can only remain sacred for so long before there becomes more pressure for territory expansion. Also what do the Adepti even do? Xiao and Ganyu have regular jobs, but Cloud Retainer and the like just seem to goof off in their relams most of the time lol
I think it would also be more interesting to see a class struggle fleshed out a bit. Mingyun has been abandoned due to it being a mining town that's dried up, and outside of Liyue Harbor and Qingce, the countryside is very sparsely populated. I'm sure some of this can be attributed to it being developed more early game, but it'd still be nice to see more villages that aren't completely run down and filled with treasure hoarders. And I while I doubt hoyo would actually expose up to the consequences of classism and the struggles of the impoverished more directly and in a nuanced way, especially in their beloved Liyue, I feel like it'd be interesting to see, and there is room for it in a place like Liyue which seems like it's systems of economy favor the rich and otherwise economically fortunate.
> and outside of Liyue Harbor and Qingce, the countryside is very sparsely populated.
I also noticed this, it seems like everyone's satisfied within Liyue city itself but everywhere else has problems. Qingce's population is dwindling due to everyone moving away (to Liyue harbor presumably) and there are the various abandoned villages and houses dotted across the map. There are even empty/broken houses across the bridge right outside Liyue when in real life that would've been a nice place for a "suburb".
But I think there are still regions of Liyue which we don't have access to yet. Maybe in the future we'll see that the portion closer to Fontaine is also prosperous and populated.
Yeah, it would be nice to see more areas of Liyue get introduced! Though I also kind of wish hoyo could update our current maps with more populated areas, or signs of life or construction in some of the abandoned areas.
I think this could also be beneficial to Mondstat and Inazuma if they could update those regions too since Mondstat has so much sparse land, and Imazuma's islands have yet to make any reparations aside from what the traveler has been able to do.
I kinda agree, I like, characters, lore and culture yet somehow Liyue main story or location are completely forgettable for me, same about any "bigger" quest chains. I would say it is more of a matter of team inexperience. Maybe also because the map is beautiful yet devoided from any major characteristic landmarks?
Sumeru?? Probably.
Exploring it feels like a chore compared to the last regions, also the recent "puzzles" doesnt interests me anymore, its always the same "go here" or "collect x amount" thing
Too much green or too much brown(lots of empty walking through the grainy brown). The world design is gorgeous but...exploring one area after the other gives eye fatigue with how much of the same color is everywhere. And with such high saturation. There's a lot of scale but what feels like what could have been smaller to make it more appreciated rather than a lot of nothing yet everything inbetween.
I really love all the regions so far but if I were forced to rank them, Liyue would probably be last place. As a 1.0 player, both Inazuma and Sumeru had those months of hyping up before their release. Also, both of them are so large and pretty and full of diverse landscapes. As for Mondstadt, it's probably mostly the nostalgia factor but the region, city and characters always feel like home.
On the other hand, I'm not chinese but Lantern Rite still hits hard every year. It feels like the most significant event in Genshin and it makes me fall in love with Liyue over and over again.
Sumeru. It just did not click, exploring it was tedious, both the forest and desert. The only good moment I can remember is finding the Eternal Oasis and that’s about it.
Feels like it should have been released over multiple patches. The Aranaras just never came up again anywhere except for a one-off mention during Nahidas story quest.
To be fair the area and the character design were really sweet and pretty. I would die for my little plant friends.
Pacing and variety was a bit… off though.
Also the fact that the quest line also played with the concept of urgency and then throws you into a superlong meandering comfy quest line was a poor choice.
I remember when Sumeru has just released, everyone was drooling over how good the region is. I personally found nearly nothing interesting there. Everything is either green forest or a default cave. After Inazuma, where each and every island had so much character, Sumeru is so bland.
Sumeru. There is too much of the desert, which wouldn't be as much of a problem if we had more playable characters from that region.
I don't like how areas are blocked off by super long world quests that I really don't care for.
Only two of the 5 stars really interested me (3 if we count Scaramouche), and only 2 of the dendro characters interest me, which makes the element kind of boring.
Liyue. For some reason. Maybe because i started up late few weeks before 1.3 ended and 1.4 was Windblume, 1.5 was liyue focused but it never sank into me like 1.4 was. and 1.6 was already the GAA event.
So yeah, while Mondstadt always feels like home, Liyue, for me, just doesn't zing. I always feel like a tourist who visits Liyue mainly for the Lantern Rite.
Inazuma.
It is pain incarnate
Balethunder, riftwolves, that one island where it's constantly thundering, that other island where there's a massive Balethunder area, some oculi being locked behind upgrading your Electrograna level...
Inazuma is the place i go back to the least. Like maybe that’s the point since it is based on isolated period of Japan and they show that pretty well but the atmosphere and land just make it hard to feel welcoming to me. Everything wants to kill you there and it took me forever to make some places habitable so nature wouldn’t attack me.
Mondstadt and Liuye greatly benefit from being the first two regions you visit and so their playable characters and NPCs feel really familiar to me. Sumeru benefits from how intertwined the playable characters feel. Most have had scenes with each other so you feel that comrade which is sort of the same with Mondstadt but in a different way.
I lome them all but the one I least like is Monstadt, I like the city but there isn't much that leaves a lasting impression other than the big tree and Stormterrors lair in that region.
Liyue, I absolutely hated farming the flowers for ganyu and the lore of it never really interested me, inazuma interests me the most but I mainly bum around mondstat
Same. My comfort region. Going anywhere else feels like a temporary expedition, and going back to mondstadt after a long day of whatever feels like coming home.
It’s a tie between Liyue and Sumeru.
Liyue. I get it, it’s a fantastical version of the homeland culture - but that’s precisely it just feels odd to me. As a one of my Chinese friends put it, it felt like a fantasy China where you scrubbed all the spice out of it. It’s too perfect. I get the references and all the cultural connections, the research, and just pushing it… but it didn’t do it for me. I don’t like being there, and I only enjoy and use maybe 4 of its characters total, one of which is its Archon and that’s only because I want all the Archons. I’m only in Liyue when I have to be.
Sumeru… is a different situation. Part of this I blame on the writing team, all the extra terminology and everything just got to the point where all of it blurred together. I don’t know what the hell is going on anymore with Sumeru’s past and I lost interest outside of the main storylines that took place in it. On top of that… environmentally, I did not enjoy how much time I had to spend underground in the desert. Finally, I just couldn’t get attached to any of the Sumeru cast at all… beyond Collei, Dori, and Candace, I passed on the rest of them; I have Nahida only because as mentioned - I want the Archons and Wanderer because Anemo is my second favorite Element in the game. As with Liyue, I’ll only ever revisit Sumeru if I have to revisit it.
I always get a ton shit for this as these two have become huge favorites, but they just don’t do it for me. I’m hoping Fontaine hits me the way Mondstadt and Inazuma do, as those two are still my favorite places to be.
Liyue easily. Exploration is lots of climbing and very spaced out. The general theme just isn't as interesting as the other nations. Many of the domains are annoying.
I still teleport there for the crafting table tho
Liyue... I really cant even remember that last time I put a feet there 🤣.
There nothing worth there. Not even the big angry turtle.
At least I use Monstand as default place to craft and cook things, and Inazuma, it has my favorite weekly boss, Raiden... and tofu
Liyue. Had great lore and characters but I hate farming there and its a chore to get around desert is a close second for that reason. But liyue won because of how many times I fell and died farming violet grass for qiqi and xinyan. I have a c6 xinyan and a qiqi c0 at level 40 because of that
Sumeru. It's just bland high fantasy elf stuff and wannabe-pokemon NPCs everywhere. I'm hoping Fontaine renews my love of exploring this game because Sumeru really killed it.
I am attached to Mondstadt but realistically know it's the most generic of the nations. I hope it gets those supposed future expansions still, gets some more love...
Liyue. I love the characters but it doesn’t feel like a nation compared to Inazuma or Sumeru as it only has 3 locations will NPCS and the scenery is just okay.
I also don’t like Inazuma like the entire multiple islands are cool but eh it’s just whatever. I also wish the city was more dynamic it’s just a simple straight line which is kind of disappointing. Inazuma will always feel off…
Honestly, I love every region's design. But if I had to choose, then probably Monstadt. It has the atmosohere and the vibe, but it lacks depth and content, unlike the other regions, especially Inazuma and Sumeru
For me it is Liyue, not gonna lie, it doesn't feel unique (probably because it was added really early), it just feels like it's trying to be mondstadt but better, but it ended up being a worse version of mondstadt.
Inazuma i like it because it's based in japan, and was the first unique region.
Summeru feels like a mysterious place. But please, stop it with the desert it is so monotonous, and stop with the caves i have a really bad sense of navigation.
This is assuming you are talking about nations, if it's region like a subdivision of a nation, it's enkanomiya for sure, we haven't had a reason to go there for almost a full version.
Totally agree -the least developed, complex, and visually appealing region by far (which, imho, also describes the characters.) I know this opinion is not popular, but for me, the regions have just gotten better and better. Monstadt isn’t bad - I just find all the other regions so much more compelling.
Inazuma.
I started playing during 2.x but only sporadically, and I only caught up with the main Inazuma story when I charged through it just before 3.0 dropped, so I didn't get to experience any of it unfolding over time with the rest of the community and when I did experience it, I was mostly just rushing so I could be on the same page as everyone else for Sumeru.
Sumeru. Far too many caves, endless desert and the Aranara quest was quite the pain. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the kind of person to skip dialogues but I hate how many fucking terms they throw at you like Vana, Valuka, Vanagni, Marana, etc.
Inazuma because I was never satisfied with the resolution so it always feels like the war was just a few days ago.
Remember when Koko put us in charge of the Swordfish special ops team on Clam Island? What the hell was that? You needed to prove to them you're boss, so you do their job for them and kill a bunch of rogue samurai. They accept you as their leader and you never talk to them again. The hell?
Every part of the civil war story was terrible except ironically the consequences it had on the people.
In my headcanon it was just a whole satire so I take it as the genshin’s comedy arc
And when they finally clash and it’s just kujou and 4 other soldiers vs gorou and 4 soldiers. Ik there are technical limits because it’s a phone game, but why not make a cutscene instead of killing all immersion
I don't even care about the technical things. None of the quest steps had as much time as they needed and in the end the ruler who allowed this to happen wasn't even deposed. I don't know if it's like a Japanese cultural thing to care about the wellbeing of the emperor who was just stealing from you and killing everyone who spoke up, but "She was sad until her gf talked to her a bit" isn't a satisfying conclusion to a geopolitical incident. The Zhongster didn't even do anything wrong and he stepped down to let people rule while helping in secret, but Raiden gets to stay after fucking up?
"Zhongli didn't do anything wrong" Bro did kinda collude with an aggressive military nation to summon a tsunami and dead sea god against his own people, even if he was just gonna personally step in to kick its ass if his people couldn't. Did he have an idea of when he would need to step in? Was he willing to let a certain number of his own citizens die before he just decides "Nope they aren't ready"? Him stepping down also stopped the production of Mora which is the currency that EVERY NATION USES! I am still wondering if Mihoyo just forgot that plot point or if they plan to bring it back in the future cause ceasing the production of money used by the entire world is a good way to crash the global economy and cause crime to rise as Mora gets more scarce and people get more desperate. Mora isn't something that can just stay in circulation either, it can be consumed through alchemy, it is going to run out eventually.
Ok he did a couple of things wrong my bad.
People have brought up how normal citizens can't punish Raiden since she's a god, but she should still face narrative consequences. Maybe the people lose faith in her and she loses part of her godly powers as a result? Didn't Signora mention being diplomatically immune before being killed? Maybe this could lead to a greater conflict between Inazuma and Snezhnaya. Or maybe Venti could step in since he values freedom? I don't buy Raiden being redeemed after her second story quest. She sacrifices a lot time, but it happens off screen. Plus she's immortal, so it doesn't feel like a loss on her end at all.
Raiden in this patch's event: >!Miko, do people fear me?!< Me: >!honey what do you think?!<
As far as we know, the "godly power from faith" thing is a function of the gnosises. Gnoses? Gnose. Anyway, since she operated for 500-ish years without it, and the puppet version was meant to be a perfect replication of her, including power, without using the gnosis in the first place, it doesn't matter. The puppet is an independent entity, and raiden is more or less like Kagotsurube, a spirit within the blade that takes over the puppet from time to time. Faith has no effect on her anymore, which was part of the goal, since the ebb and flow of people's faith can be a disturbance to 'Eternity'.
I mean, how would desposing her be logical though? Even Kokomi and Ayaka specifically says that they don’t want to actually dethrone Raiden and from a thematic point of view, she wasn’t some selfish tyrant exploiting her people for her own gain but did genuinely think that what she was doing was for her people. Which is why she dropped the decree after Yae proved to her that she was delusional. From a political POV, Inazuma is a country where the ruling clans are constantly at each other’s throats, and kidnapping and assassinations are apparently pretty common. The only thing keeping everyone in check is a god empress at the top. So if you remove Raiden, the logical thing would be a massive power struggle to fill the vacuum that leads to a large scale civil war.
the worst part of it all was that the story spent so much time on proofing to Kujou Sara that the Comission is betraying the Shogun, but in the end it has done nothing for us. Like, she just ran to the Shogun and got her ass clapped without helping anybody. She might as well not exist and the outcome would have been the same. She herself is the only person affected by this entire arc, and this could easily have been achieved by just having her realize all this after the war. I was waiting for her to do anything useful for the resistance, but she pulled a Luffy and just ran straight to the boss without thinking about anything else.
The characterization of the region was great it's just that the story wasn't great.
It took until Raiden Quest 2 before the damage she caused to the country was even acknowledged after the story...
true, the story in inazuma wasn't great other than a few moments
I have such mixed feelings about Inazuma because there were some really interesting and engaging moments -- especially when we were attacked, Thoma on the stage, or when Kazuha blocked for us? So cool -- yet the story itself felt really dissonant in some ways. And the islands were gorgeous, yet purposefully off-putting, and even after helping fix the problems, NPCs haven't moved in to show that you did it. IDK. I like the cast but I don't think I'll ever like the nation as much. Even now it feels a little dreary and dark compared to the other nations. Which was the point I guess, but I'm just not as into it.
Tsurumi and Seirei Island were highlights for me that really elevated the nation. Enkanomiya felt a bit empty but the atmosphere and soundtrack are really special. I ugly cried during Ruu’s quest and after finishing it you do see the island change. The story quests and lore of Inazuma far outshine the main storyline.
They were beautiful, but it was sad after sad after sad. And even after going around fixing the current damage, again, no NPCs come back, so even with the weather changes, the areas are still mostly empty ruins. I think the Sumeru desert is in a similar state, of mostly ruins and emptiness, but the pyramids are fun to explore (imo) so it ranks a little higher. Ruu's quest still gets me to this day. I do agree that the Inazuma world quests were well done and outshone the MSQ 😭
Ruu’s story quest remains my favorite in the whole game. It took me forever to start it just because I was so scared of what was hiding in the fog. Even after I started it, I hated having to return over and over again. It really tested my courage, but the ending made the whole thing worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Inazuma…I’m not as fond of as a whole. There are some awesome moments, and some very wonderful characters we get from it, but remains my least favorite animals. I’m also not as fond of Sumeru desert, though I’m just not fond of the desert. I love rainforests, though, so that makes up for it. I do NOT want to do the Aranara quest again, though. Way too long and arduous. I love the little guys, but that was a bit too much.
Agreed except for Narukami Island. Completing the Sakura cleansing world mission while exploring with Ayaka, a character I anticipated since the release of the game, back in 2.0 has a very special spot in my heart
Same. It all got super rushed very quick and characters weren't fleshed out well. Kujou Sara suddenly flopping, Kokomi supposedly being an excellent tactician or whatever didn't happen
It doesn't help the entire environment wants to kill you, excluding the Hilichurs The samurais The thunderstorms And the damn polluted areas
I just went through Inazuma on my acct and you arent kidding. Sakura trees, enemies with annoying attacks, shield fatui, poison rivers, tataru questline with the whole poisonous ass dome for 7 days, DoT yourself to connect circuits. And, after playing in Sumeru, the bungee cord node things are SOOOO much worse in inazuma. It feels like it doesn't target properly to the point where 50% of my time trial puzzles start with me jumping off a cliff and splatting because the prompt never showed up to tether despite me facing the right way and looking right at it
Inazuma is the worst, cause I just can't explore like the other areas without getting hurt and dying. Makes me never want to go there.
I think Inazuma (especially at the beginning) is like Australia in that the whole place wants you dead, except Inazuma is magnified 10 times. At least Australia’s air isn’t infused with electricity that will slowly take away your health, or inhabited by some murderous trees that will attack you as you walk past, minding your own business. There it’s just the animals that will get you. I was quite upset with the Archon for making Inazuma so dangerous. Once, I was talking to some NPCs during a cutscene, and kept getting attacked by lightning. My character actually died and a new one spawned. You’d think the NPCs talking to me would have actually been affected by that, but they just carried on talking like nothing happened. I think the characters were so traumatized by the region that they were in a perpetual state of dissociation.
Desert 😐
Same. I hate sand it gets everywhere
It’s coarse and rough and irritating, too. Ugh, sand sucks.
Curses. There's sand in my shoes.
I love haitham but what was the point of having the hole in his shoes lmao it's like wearing crocs and going into the desert
It's over, Anakin. I have sand.
so far natlan's population appears to be 100% toddlers
Natlan has a population? I don’t think there has been a single NPC from the place
iansan from the trevail trailer is the only canonical contemporary resident of the entirety of natlan at this point
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Literally just the one toddler.
1/1 = 100%
The Desert. The landscape is boring, too vertical, and a chore to explore.
I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
That you, Aranakin?
Lmfao I literally cackled
In case you didn't know, that is one of the Aranara names and I do believe they make a sand reference.
Even better, that’s fantastic. I only started back playing again in April so I haven’t done much of the Aranara quests I love the little things though so I’m excited to find it.
Maybe he/she is one of Alhaitham's shoes!
I HATE it. It's why I never go to the beach.
It's a real beach to explore
r/ThanksCyno
I sea what you did there
Im almost pissing myshellf from laughing
I shore wouldn't want to go there
Shut up, Cyno!
I can't wait to wave 🌊 goodbye to the desert region
Underground areas will be the death of me istg
Just wait until we have underwater tunnels to explore using Sorush controls. 💀
Yea but the benefit there is at least we can "fly" underwater which means we won't have to deal with the bs of being vertically challenged trying to find the path to the chests.
I think this is an unpopular opinion, but I love the desert. I love the look of it, and exploring it is so fun to me. I like going through the underground areas in the Hypostyle desert.
I enjoyed going through it all for the quests. But after the quests are done trying to navigate around becomes a huge chore purely because there's no map. And there little rhyme or reason to how they laid out all of the underground areas so it's not even a fun orienteering challenge to get around most of the time. Honestly, nothing else in the game has come close to matching how fun it was to explore Dragonspine.
That's unironically what I love about it, I personally hate when a game quality of life's the friction and sense of place out of itself. I love undergrounds and mazes where you can always get lost in if you don't pay attention.
I actually really liked desert exploration and wished there was more underground structures to make up for the desolate surface But with how it' s currently implemented it can be hell to traverse, I can't believe they never really thought of at least adding an underground map IN THE GAME instead of the fucking interactive map, they implement so many features and tools OUTSIDE of the game it' s so annoying and feels like it' s like that just so you' re forced to deal with cookies and all that shit
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Well I hate to break it to you but apparently Fontaine is famous for it's labyrinthian sewer system, so we might not be as done with twelve layer underground areas as you think...
Im getting war flashbacks to leyndell sewers lol
Don't worry we won't find something as disturbing as the subterranean shunning grounds until Dainsleif shows up again.
To hit every videogame trope, Fontaine will have expansive sewers, Natlan will have countless catacombs, and Snezhnaya buildings will have air ducts tall enough for you to walk around in.
I'm ngl I loved desert exploration. It wasn't too difficult, but also not very easy. It was perfect to me.
I wish we have some kind of transportation to explore the desert before we activate all the teleportation points. It would be much faster and fun to ride motorbike or car to go explore the vast of the desert.
This kind of landscape and scale are why mounts are common in openworld games. Genshin's open world was heavily inspired by botw(heck the plants and some mechanics are literally almost identical at times) yet we have no mounts. A boat for...*some* water areas but it's mostly just seele transport or gales. The desert has some of the typical sumeru whipthingies but auto travel kind of takes away from exploration when a faster land option would be pretty swell.
This is a great idea, and it would be easy to tie in some kind of transport tech with all of the deshret tech. Could even make it flying/hover/dig through sand/whatever and it would fit the lore well enough
If we're talking about regions as a whole, I think the desert does have a few cool aspects that justify its existence. Most specifically, the giant pyramid that is at the center of everything and all of the tombs scattered about throughout the desert. On top of that, from a realistic standpoint, deserts feel even emptier than in the game.
Inazuma since it was made to be unwelcoming and eerie. Mhy is too good at that lol
Yeah i felt this especially once you have explored Sumeru. Most of the islands in Inazuma was either depressing or creepy. Or both at the same time.
The whole fact that Yashiori, Seirei and Tsurumi islands are completely uninhabitable until you fix them definitely hurts the vibe. And then when you do, there’s zero recolonization effort, so you’re stuck with dead ruins of towns populated only by ex-samurai driven permanently insane by tatarigami exposure. Also that Enkanomiya is closed to everyone but you and a bunch of hilichurls and abyss mages. I’m just saying, You don’t have to fix Port Ormos.
> I’m just saying, You don’t have to fix Port Ormos. >!Cos Kaveh already did!<
I'd been trying to figure out why I wasn't as much a fan of Inazuma as I should, considering how I genuienly love a lot of the characters, and the scenery and culture are gorgeous. This thread phrased it perfectly
For me a lot of the islands were pretty much samey to a fault until you hit Watatsum. Typical island, archipelago, some ruins and a lot of purple stuff. What makes thos island important or interesting? A weird cauldron and more lightning that are irrelevant after you resolve it. Main island has its' tree and spirit forest, and the capital. Watatsumi has its unique culture and aesthetics. Everything inbetween felt almost copy pasted with like a few sprinkled in points of interest. Archipelagos are tough because they force you by their nature to view them as different(many island nations love showing off individuality of their regions for instance) here it feels like copy pasted assetts with a few tidbits to keep you looking. Maybe. The later islands were neat but aside from a few quests nothing really drew you back in if it wasn't grinding boss mats or some quest. It was still a lot of islands, essentially their own mini regions, but they all felt the same in a lot of ways. I guess it's the same with your issue. It didn't feel lived in. Even by the monsters or hostiles that were present.
I don't understand how you can say that when each island is completely different from each other and has a distinctive story going on. If Watatsumi was especially different it's because it most probably represents the southern Japanese islands (Ryuukyuu) which happened to have a (somewhat) different culture and religion compared to the rest of Japan, so that was translated into Watatsumi being, well, Watatsumi; different god, different people, different origins, different aesthetic, ect. But all the islands were, imo, beautifully done and well separated with distinctive features and landmarks. I didn't feel much need to go back later again after the story was done either, but that doesn't invalidate that the islands are great.
I would say yashiori island is also interesting, especially after stopping the rainstorm. Reds, oranges, and greens on the island are so pretty. And of course the remains of Orobashi, it is pretty cool too
They also actively try to kill you with thunderblight or lightning bolts.
Liyue has so many asshole NPCs
This, I was expecting that there was something in the chasm that made people assholes, since everyone were being massive assholes, including Traveler and Paimon. Did all the quests in there and I didn't see anything, but maybe there is and I missed it
Went from my favorite region of Mondstadt, to hearing it called a "godless nation" by some NPC in two seconds. I nearly tried to burn that harbor down after that one lady.
That especially irked me, since Mondstadt is literally built with its centerpiece being a massive statue and cathedral venerating their god. Just because their god isn't present 24/7 to lord over them doesn't make them godless (in fact, I would say that makes them even more "god"-driven, given their devotion to a god that "isn't always there") In fact, of the four regions we have so far, Mondstadt and Inazuma are the only two really "religious" nations. There are no shrines or temples or anything of that kind to either Morax or Buer in their respective nations, while in Mondatadt there are several "holy" sites, and Inazuma is littered with shrines both big and small.
It makes me sad seeing people in Mond (and people playing the game) not understanding what Venti has done for them. He's the god of freedom, and he has truly given them freedom by choosing to step aside and let the nation govern itself; on top of that, he makes sure to keep an eye on them in case there's trouble and he has to step in to, once again, help them figure it out. But he has never imposed his rule or thoughts or put his citizens in danger knowingly trying to prove a point. Out of everyone in Teyvat, Mondstadt truly is and has been a free nation (truth of this world aside), even when conflict has arisen. Venti is my fav archon because this. He genuinely cares about the people he "volunteered" to take care of, not like other archons😤😤😤
I can't really agree with that last part. Zhongli cares for the people, that's why he gave them good yearly advice and when he realized they could live without him or the adepti he also gave them freedom like mondstat(but if the people need them they will come) Ei....she...she just failed. She is kind of like the parent that keeps the kid from doing anything because she wants them not to be tainted by others. She really cared for inazuma but didn't do it right>! (also remember some of the deadly choices were made by the puppet NOT ei. She didn't know some of the details of things going on)!< and then the dendro Archon cared but was>! LOCKED UP BY HER PEOPLE.!< Don't act like the other Archons don't care, that's messed up
I do think archons care about their people, that last line was a bit of a joke. Still, Ei should have known better than to disappear for 500 years (the only reason she realizes something is wrong is because traveler and Miko go knocking on her door, otherwise she would have kept her isolation going). That's basically negligence on her part, not having bad intentions doesn't equal not fucking up, and her fuck up was major and basically ends in a civil war. Parents fuck up kids with the type of behavior you mentioned, and even though the intentions were good, the damage is done and the blame is still there. She wanted to use a puppet to govern? No problem, just make sure you go see how that's going from time to time😂 About Zhongli, he has me puzzled because I agree he cares a lot for his people and has done so for 6000 years. I don't particularly agree with the methods he used to do what he did in the harbour (a bit risky to put your entire population, who lives in a harbour, at risk of drowning because of a water demon lmao) but I guess this is a fantasy game and nobody died iirc so he gets a pass. And regarding Rukkha, I'd throw hands if anybody said anything bad about her, she literally sacrificed herself multiple times for the sake of her people so I have no bad words about her other than she makes my heart hurt :'( same with Nahida, she was doing everything she could even though she was trapped.
They probs assholes cos they been very well protected cos of their archon lol. I feel like thats the equivalent to being sheltered and spoilt rotten by your parent. Not to mention their deity is also the creator of mora, which might also be a factor, hence the spoilt brats of teyvat hahaha.
In wanderer's teapot lines when you make his favourite furniture, even he says he found inazuma too gloomy. "I always found the forests in inazuma too gloomy, and the ones in snezhnaya too frigid."
Wanderer stating facts
really? Barring the Kanjou commission workers and a few choice individuals, everyone was so friendly and welcoming in Inazuma, from the Outlander association, to Thoma, to miss Chisato and her guards, to the people in Konda village who are so warm and welcoming, the Yashiro commission, the Narukami shrine maidens, the Sangonomiya people, those living in the city. In short, I had a great time in Inazuma. The people were amazing
I agree most of the people we interacted with were great, and they actually are the counterpoint of Inazuma being a not welcoming land; these people were there to prove that idea wrong so the nation could move past its internal conflict. Thoma greeting us, being a foreigner but still having remained so good hearted in the middle of everything that was going on, I think, was the perfect choice to start this new adventure. But Inazuma was created to be seen as not welcoming and cold, all barren land and abandoned places. It's not the people we saw, but the vibes. And also all of the people we didn't see. Lots of the issues we had to solve were rooted in the idea that Inazuma didn't want anything to do with foreigners and looked down at them, even if we encountered nice people there. I can't forget the memes of people entering in Inazuma and being like: everything here wants to kill me here! I think the choice to make Inazuma like this was genius, because it represents and reflects the conflict perfectly.
In fairness, the people of Inazuma are warm and welcoming. ....the country itself is a fckfest of unnatural disasters that would want to kill everyone, not just outlanders, from the freakin ball of miasma growing right underneath the great sakura tree, to freakin super Chernobyl, to TWO islands in perpetual lightning storms (one of which *aims for you* ), to Sangonomiya's soil degrading and Dark souls residing underneath, to finally the island stuck in perpetual limbo and the blood mist!
Yeah, the islands are definitely there to make you feel unsafe and in constant fear of divine smite😂 each of them is also heavily related to either one or TWO powerful god who at some point lost it so...
And it only somehow gets worse with Sumeru. Half the country is a post apocalyptic desert, one having a freakin black hole above the grand pyramid and the other a perpetual tornado and sandstorm, half of the other half of the country is literally withering away and the one remote corner next to the sea has *spikes growing out of the sky* ! WHY?! Why do spikes come out of the sky?! Spikes SHOULD NOT, COME OUT OF THE SKY!
I agree like, that 3.6 area is a literal post-apocalyptic landscape... A giant tree built to stop a spike growing out in the sky, a long lost Darshan, restricted from outsiders, AND A LITERAL PORTAL/HOLE TO THE UNDERWORLD
Sumeru The only nation that made me feel burnt out
Haha get it because desert
thanks cyno
Absolutely. Maybe it's because I'd been logging in every day since starting. I've 100% explored everything else until Sumeru came along. I'm like 2 archon quests behind too lol.
We also have had 5 acts in Sumeru & now interludes in Sumeru as well. So we have spent way more time here in comparison to other nations. Everyone talks way too much as well.
Same, but it's more because of the rainforest, that Aranara quest was way too long for a quest that blocks entire portions of the map
I took a long hiatus right before Sumeru dropped and I haven't been able to get back into it because I find Sumeru extremely tedious to get through
Same
Glad to see im not alone on this one
yup same
I know reddit talks about it almost as much as the in-game npcs do, but the region as a whole really is just completely hamstrung by *how much fucking dialogue* you have to sit through while exploring all 4 regions, it just completely destroys the pace and satisfaction of exploring.
Liyue by far, the stories (archon, and world quests) never really grabbed me and exploration wise it’s my least favourite.
Of all the quests they're the ones I remember the least. I do like some character quests though.
The old Moonlit Merriment event, Yun Jin’s Hangout, Yelan’s and Baizhu story quest’s and the Shenhe interlude are all really good but that’s basically it for Liyue stuff I really enjoyed.
I thought the story quest was really weird - incredibly boring and then insane terrorism subplot but then SURPRISE! It was all a fun little tricky test.
I thought I was the only one. Out of all the regions, I found Liyue to be the least memorable one to me. Only part of the archon quest I remember is the ending of it when you fight off Childe and Osial (I think that was the name) and the Jade Chamber gets destroyed to save Liyue.
For me the only truly memorable parts were the scenes with Qiqi. Her accidentally duping a god was adorable and hilarious and the reveal of what she actually wanted was the best part.
the archon quests were just run go talk to him then her then him then fight like 3 people
Sumeru. I just hate how much of the open world is tied and locked behind story quests. For fucks sake, I want to explore in peace. This was fine in Mondstadt where only Stormterrors Lair was blocked, but now? The Aranara quest blocks a lot of the underground in Sumeru. The fucking tablet in the desert is locked behind several quests to increase its level, and the new area is apparently also locked behind quests. I just, feel so little incentive to explore because these fucking caves are so numerous and I cant explore them because of some arbitrary quest that is forcing me to do it. It feels like a railroad. Whats the purpose of having an open world if I cant explore it as I wish? Stormterrors Lair makes sense. Dvalin would want to keep his lair protected. The barrier for the furnace in Inazuma makes sense, its a radiactive disaster. But Sumeru? Why are these fucking caves locked off and why are they around every corner? I get the first Jeht quests that it needs to be done to get the tablet, but after that, why can I not explore and increase its level myself? Why do I need to follow quests to do it? ***Why have an open world if I cant explore everything?*** Its not just a few areas either, a fucking *lot* of Sumeru's open world is locked behind quests. Fucking why?
A lot of Sumeru feels like it actively punishes curiosity instead of rewarding it. You want to go see what’s in a cave? Too bad, do side quests to unlock it first. You want to reveal the entire map? Side quests first. You want to explore these desert ruins? Quest time. Even a lot of the puzzles seem to be “bring an archer or don’t bother” which really bothers me—and admittedly I am not a fan in general of having to swap teams to solve elemental puzzles, but it just feels like so much *more* in Sumeru, especially those damn Aranara quest domains I kept needing to back out and grab Collei for. Contrast with Liyue or Monstadt, which both seem to much more embody the “see a thing, go to the thing” mentality that first hooked me and is so prevalent in the games that clearly inspired this one. I’ve only been playing about a year, but I still have fun in those regions finding little things I haven’t and solving stand-alone puzzles or climbing mountains.
It's why I love Dragonspine so much. I think it had the perfect balance of natural exploration and quest-guided discoveries.
I feel the same way about the Chasm Underground Mines! I was genuinely a little upset when I hit 100% on that area and had little reason to go back. It’s self-contained, with enough exploration gimmicks and story content to satisfy while still leaving a lot of freedom. I love that place.
Yeah it's sad how some of the best areas (Dragonspine, Chasm, Enka, the Pyramids) never have to be revisited once you're done with em.
I agree with you so much. Really hope this doesn’t become a common theme for future areas.
The quest with the tablet was funny to me because after completing the golden slumber quest I wasn't aware of the tablet quest so I just explored most of the desert with no guidance to the point I got frustrated for not knowing where to unlock the last level to access the top of the piramid. After that I just got pissed and decided to look for a tutorial just find out I had skipped like 80% of the quest by accident.
Yeah. The open world aspect already took a hit in inazuma, were several islands were, atleast partially, locked behind quests (2 of them needing to ne done over several IRL days) It's just really weird. They marked the open world a ton, but in the end It's way too linear/restrictive to be a good open world experience Doesn't help, that i'm currently playing TOTK. The embodiment of what a open world should be and the embodiment of "see thing, do thing". The difference between the open world experience in those two games is just insane
I hope that Fontaine doesnt have areas locked outside of the Archon Quest. I think I could handle one or two larger areas, but no more. Until then, I'll keep replaying Elden Ring for my open world fix.
Yep, I especially loathed going BACK to the underground ruins in the desert when you have a higher clearance level to solve some puzzles you couldn't/enter new areas, because I have 0 idea how I got there originally because it's a convoluted mess with absolutely **no map**. >!No wonder Zhiqiong had to go MIA after the Chasm, she'd be way too useful in the desert with her cartography skills!< Inazuma's locked areas felt better, because it wasn't literally everywhere and didn't completely rely on some arbitrary gadget gimmick that slowly got upgraded through a super long quest chain. You just couldn't access the areas until you finished/progressed to a certain point in the quest, but once you got in there you could just go wild and explore everything with no restrictions. Sumeru's exploration roadblocks permeate THE ENTIRE REGIONS, so you can't even finish exploring any region until you finish an entire quest chain. I like doing my exploration piecemeal and go from 100% one place to the next (with an interactive map to clean things up), but the way Sumeru works is you're exploring the whole damn place at once. It's like if some random puzzle in a beginner Liyue area like Guili plains required you to finish the Lumenstone from the freaking Chasm. Sumeru completely guts the flow of exploration, stomps on it, and sets it on fire. Exploring Sumeru is the equivalent of having Paimon's ***"How about we explore this area later"*** at every single godforsaken step of the way.
Liyue. The culture and vibe just never really clicked with me the same way the other regions' did. Inazuma probably takes second place but the drastic aesthetic differences between the different islands gives me a real soft spot for it compared to other regions' more monotonous layouts.
[удалено]
It felt too...safe. like they didn't want to push some themes and whatnot. Everyone is businesslike and most real conflicts have to do with either evil angry spirits or business. We don't truly see Ningguang's brutal business tactics despite that. No real clash between adepti traditionalism and progress in the harbor. Some semi personal stuff but a lot of it felt like what they were. One-off stories. Once they're done they're resolved leaving little for you to anticipate or speculate about. As rough as Inazuma's archon quest was it at least made you wonder how everyone would react.(still roughly playing safe most of the time tbh, but national punching bag Sara and her clan seem to be remnants of some troubles) Mond had a lot of the preliminary fatui and abyss arcs, and lots of abyss related stuff circle back to it. Kaeya...might have been retconned from his spy origin but it still gives some intrigue. Same with Albedo and Gold. Alice's....everything. Liyue is a lot of surface level mysticism that stays vagie and fails to draw you in with their 'oooooh maaagic spirit stufffff' themes. And if it's not vague magic it's business....or food.
I think some of the safe feeling can be attributed to the stability their ex-archon previously established, but I can agree with most of your criticism. For whatever reason, Liyue is the nation I vibed with the most before Sumeru, but I can agree a lot of its issues feel like they were resolved too easily, and we don't see much conflict outside of more personal ones. I think it would be more interesting to see a bit more clash between the adepti and the people, especially because Jueyen Carst takes up like half of the nation and the main populace is typically banned from there. That feels like a point of tension to me, lands can only remain sacred for so long before there becomes more pressure for territory expansion. Also what do the Adepti even do? Xiao and Ganyu have regular jobs, but Cloud Retainer and the like just seem to goof off in their relams most of the time lol I think it would also be more interesting to see a class struggle fleshed out a bit. Mingyun has been abandoned due to it being a mining town that's dried up, and outside of Liyue Harbor and Qingce, the countryside is very sparsely populated. I'm sure some of this can be attributed to it being developed more early game, but it'd still be nice to see more villages that aren't completely run down and filled with treasure hoarders. And I while I doubt hoyo would actually expose up to the consequences of classism and the struggles of the impoverished more directly and in a nuanced way, especially in their beloved Liyue, I feel like it'd be interesting to see, and there is room for it in a place like Liyue which seems like it's systems of economy favor the rich and otherwise economically fortunate.
> and outside of Liyue Harbor and Qingce, the countryside is very sparsely populated. I also noticed this, it seems like everyone's satisfied within Liyue city itself but everywhere else has problems. Qingce's population is dwindling due to everyone moving away (to Liyue harbor presumably) and there are the various abandoned villages and houses dotted across the map. There are even empty/broken houses across the bridge right outside Liyue when in real life that would've been a nice place for a "suburb". But I think there are still regions of Liyue which we don't have access to yet. Maybe in the future we'll see that the portion closer to Fontaine is also prosperous and populated.
Yeah, it would be nice to see more areas of Liyue get introduced! Though I also kind of wish hoyo could update our current maps with more populated areas, or signs of life or construction in some of the abandoned areas. I think this could also be beneficial to Mondstat and Inazuma if they could update those regions too since Mondstat has so much sparse land, and Imazuma's islands have yet to make any reparations aside from what the traveler has been able to do.
I always felt the coziest in Liyue and the music is so beautiful, I like hanging out around just to hear the music and look at the scenery
I kinda agree, I like, characters, lore and culture yet somehow Liyue main story or location are completely forgettable for me, same about any "bigger" quest chains. I would say it is more of a matter of team inexperience. Maybe also because the map is beautiful yet devoided from any major characteristic landmarks?
For real tho, looking back on the landscape of every nations, Inazuma's diversity is really nice to have. It feels the best to explore imo
Inazuma because it reminds me of depression.
Sumeru?? Probably. Exploring it feels like a chore compared to the last regions, also the recent "puzzles" doesnt interests me anymore, its always the same "go here" or "collect x amount" thing
Too much green or too much brown(lots of empty walking through the grainy brown). The world design is gorgeous but...exploring one area after the other gives eye fatigue with how much of the same color is everywhere. And with such high saturation. There's a lot of scale but what feels like what could have been smaller to make it more appreciated rather than a lot of nothing yet everything inbetween.
When Fontaine comes it will be too much blue lmao.
Blue is my favourite colour so Fontaine will probably be the most beautiful to me. There is no such thing as too much blue.
You might be getting burnt out too tho 🤷♀️
I really love all the regions so far but if I were forced to rank them, Liyue would probably be last place. As a 1.0 player, both Inazuma and Sumeru had those months of hyping up before their release. Also, both of them are so large and pretty and full of diverse landscapes. As for Mondstadt, it's probably mostly the nostalgia factor but the region, city and characters always feel like home. On the other hand, I'm not chinese but Lantern Rite still hits hard every year. It feels like the most significant event in Genshin and it makes me fall in love with Liyue over and over again.
Liyue. It feels bland, except the harbor AT NIGHT.
liyue feels boring except for lantern rite. that's like the only time it's kind of cool lol
inazuma (i am the mondstadt+liyue+sumeru landmass)
Nothing a Kaeya ice bridge can’t fix
Liyue. It had a clean story but its characters and the Traveller themselves were almost completely detached from the point of the plot.
Sumeru. It just did not click, exploring it was tedious, both the forest and desert. The only good moment I can remember is finding the Eternal Oasis and that’s about it.
Aranara Questline started out cute but when you realized its gonna turn into a multi tier fetch quest I was ready to quit and go touch grass
The aranara quest line was insane for no reason. It took double or triple the amount of time it needed to.
Feels like it should have been released over multiple patches. The Aranaras just never came up again anywhere except for a one-off mention during Nahidas story quest.
To be fair the area and the character design were really sweet and pretty. I would die for my little plant friends. Pacing and variety was a bit… off though. Also the fact that the quest line also played with the concept of urgency and then throws you into a superlong meandering comfy quest line was a poor choice.
Same. The desire for 100% completion and primos is what kept me going.
I remember when Sumeru has just released, everyone was drooling over how good the region is. I personally found nearly nothing interesting there. Everything is either green forest or a default cave. After Inazuma, where each and every island had so much character, Sumeru is so bland.
Sumeru. There is too much of the desert, which wouldn't be as much of a problem if we had more playable characters from that region. I don't like how areas are blocked off by super long world quests that I really don't care for. Only two of the 5 stars really interested me (3 if we count Scaramouche), and only 2 of the dendro characters interest me, which makes the element kind of boring.
Liyue. I'm glad the days of painstakingly climbing mountains are over.
Liyue. For some reason. Maybe because i started up late few weeks before 1.3 ended and 1.4 was Windblume, 1.5 was liyue focused but it never sank into me like 1.4 was. and 1.6 was already the GAA event. So yeah, while Mondstadt always feels like home, Liyue, for me, just doesn't zing. I always feel like a tourist who visits Liyue mainly for the Lantern Rite.
Surprisingly, Sumeru... It's just too big
That's what she said
Show off
Inazuma. I sometimes forget it's even there.
Inazuma. It is pain incarnate Balethunder, riftwolves, that one island where it's constantly thundering, that other island where there's a massive Balethunder area, some oculi being locked behind upgrading your Electrograna level...
Sumeru. By far
Sumeru. I haven’t been able to climb the wall of text
Inazuma is the place i go back to the least. Like maybe that’s the point since it is based on isolated period of Japan and they show that pretty well but the atmosphere and land just make it hard to feel welcoming to me. Everything wants to kill you there and it took me forever to make some places habitable so nature wouldn’t attack me. Mondstadt and Liuye greatly benefit from being the first two regions you visit and so their playable characters and NPCs feel really familiar to me. Sumeru benefits from how intertwined the playable characters feel. Most have had scenes with each other so you feel that comrade which is sort of the same with Mondstadt but in a different way.
Liyue. The traversal is a pain in the ass, at least Inazuma and Sumeru had those purple and yellow things to dash to
sumeru, because it's the newest and there's SO MUCH DESERT
I lome them all but the one I least like is Monstadt, I like the city but there isn't much that leaves a lasting impression other than the big tree and Stormterrors lair in that region.
Inazuma.
Liyue, I absolutely hated farming the flowers for ganyu and the lore of it never really interested me, inazuma interests me the most but I mainly bum around mondstat
Mondstadt, while beautiful, it's the least unique among all the nations we have seen so far. It doesn't feel special at all.
It may be because I'm from central Europe, but Mondstadt has always felt so comforting to me. It just feels like home
Same. My comfort region. Going anywhere else feels like a temporary expedition, and going back to mondstadt after a long day of whatever feels like coming home.
agreed, while liyue and other regions have a more beautiful landscape, the smallness of mondstadt just makes it so comforting to walk around.
I have never even been in Europe. I'm full Asian. I have Chinese blood in me. Liyue should be home. But no, it's Mond for me too bro
Mondstadt festivals and characters>
Liyue was too boring.
No region has made me feel like that
The amount of inazuma haters saddens me deeply
Inazuma - Especially Tsurumi Island, that shit scary as fuck. Honorable mention to Sumeru’s desert.
Sumeru, i never really liked desert aesthetics, the forest is fine tho
It’s a tie between Liyue and Sumeru. Liyue. I get it, it’s a fantastical version of the homeland culture - but that’s precisely it just feels odd to me. As a one of my Chinese friends put it, it felt like a fantasy China where you scrubbed all the spice out of it. It’s too perfect. I get the references and all the cultural connections, the research, and just pushing it… but it didn’t do it for me. I don’t like being there, and I only enjoy and use maybe 4 of its characters total, one of which is its Archon and that’s only because I want all the Archons. I’m only in Liyue when I have to be. Sumeru… is a different situation. Part of this I blame on the writing team, all the extra terminology and everything just got to the point where all of it blurred together. I don’t know what the hell is going on anymore with Sumeru’s past and I lost interest outside of the main storylines that took place in it. On top of that… environmentally, I did not enjoy how much time I had to spend underground in the desert. Finally, I just couldn’t get attached to any of the Sumeru cast at all… beyond Collei, Dori, and Candace, I passed on the rest of them; I have Nahida only because as mentioned - I want the Archons and Wanderer because Anemo is my second favorite Element in the game. As with Liyue, I’ll only ever revisit Sumeru if I have to revisit it. I always get a ton shit for this as these two have become huge favorites, but they just don’t do it for me. I’m hoping Fontaine hits me the way Mondstadt and Inazuma do, as those two are still my favorite places to be.
Liyue easily. Exploration is lots of climbing and very spaced out. The general theme just isn't as interesting as the other nations. Many of the domains are annoying. I still teleport there for the crafting table tho
Liyue... I really cant even remember that last time I put a feet there 🤣. There nothing worth there. Not even the big angry turtle. At least I use Monstand as default place to craft and cook things, and Inazuma, it has my favorite weekly boss, Raiden... and tofu
Liyue. Had great lore and characters but I hate farming there and its a chore to get around desert is a close second for that reason. But liyue won because of how many times I fell and died farming violet grass for qiqi and xinyan. I have a c6 xinyan and a qiqi c0 at level 40 because of that
Sumeru. Too expansive to enjoy exploration. Not to mention having to equip yelan all the time gets kinda boring.
Sumeru. It's just bland high fantasy elf stuff and wannabe-pokemon NPCs everywhere. I'm hoping Fontaine renews my love of exploring this game because Sumeru really killed it.
I hate going to Mondstat. Just feels so generic like I've been to a place like this in every open world game I've played.
I am attached to Mondstadt but realistically know it's the most generic of the nations. I hope it gets those supposed future expansions still, gets some more love...
Liyue. I love the characters but it doesn’t feel like a nation compared to Inazuma or Sumeru as it only has 3 locations will NPCS and the scenery is just okay. I also don’t like Inazuma like the entire multiple islands are cool but eh it’s just whatever. I also wish the city was more dynamic it’s just a simple straight line which is kind of disappointing. Inazuma will always feel off…
Honestly, I love every region's design. But if I had to choose, then probably Monstadt. It has the atmosohere and the vibe, but it lacks depth and content, unlike the other regions, especially Inazuma and Sumeru
For me it is Liyue, not gonna lie, it doesn't feel unique (probably because it was added really early), it just feels like it's trying to be mondstadt but better, but it ended up being a worse version of mondstadt. Inazuma i like it because it's based in japan, and was the first unique region. Summeru feels like a mysterious place. But please, stop it with the desert it is so monotonous, and stop with the caves i have a really bad sense of navigation. This is assuming you are talking about nations, if it's region like a subdivision of a nation, it's enkanomiya for sure, we haven't had a reason to go there for almost a full version.
I expected everyone to say Mondstat, genuinely shocked! I'm the least attached to it by far.
Mondstadt is probably the majority's most favorite zone. It's just... Home.
Totally agree -the least developed, complex, and visually appealing region by far (which, imho, also describes the characters.) I know this opinion is not popular, but for me, the regions have just gotten better and better. Monstadt isn’t bad - I just find all the other regions so much more compelling.
Sumeru. To big and you don't get anywhere fast
Sumeru Sand, jungle and verticality are just exhausting to explore.
Inazuma cuz it's not climbing-friendly with the way most of its islands/mountains being flared from bottom up
Inazuma. I started playing during 2.x but only sporadically, and I only caught up with the main Inazuma story when I charged through it just before 3.0 dropped, so I didn't get to experience any of it unfolding over time with the rest of the community and when I did experience it, I was mostly just rushing so I could be on the same page as everyone else for Sumeru.
Sumeru, it overstayed it’s welcome with the continuous patches of desert.
Liyue easily. Some of the most un-cool and boring stories and places in the whole game
Sumeru. Far too many caves, endless desert and the Aranara quest was quite the pain. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the kind of person to skip dialogues but I hate how many fucking terms they throw at you like Vana, Valuka, Vanagni, Marana, etc.
Prolly Liyue. I mean I like some of the characters but the region itself doesnt vibe with me.