Why has Nod Krai felt so.... meh?
From the start I've played genshin since it's early first few months from launch and loved the game ever since.To this day i still actively cosplay genshin characters and buy Genshin merch. However, I felt ever since Fontaine got released the entire story just... dropped? I am not looking for any fights ir arguments, I understand everyone has their own opinion and all I wish is to voice something that I've been keeping bottled up and maybe find people who might share the same opinion as me, and if we don't have the same opinion, then that's 100% valid
I know people might claim otherwise but to me Sumeru was the best Archon quest narative wise with rich themes and emotions. It definitely had its own set of flaws I can compalin about and it was actually the reagion i wasnt looking forward to much but it's story and each character execution didnt felt worthless but beaningful, but now I dont feel that love anymore ever since Nod Krai... Don't get me wrong, Nod krai is a huge step up from whatever disaster Natlan was and I looked forward to it allot but I'm left.... dissapointed?
Nodkrai Aesthetic wise is absolutely spectacular with chracater designs with insane details. I LOVE Folklore and Mythology so I always love to bury my nose deep into whatever new mythology each region introduces so I can know more about the real live culture and customes it represents. But the keyword in that sentence was "Aesthetic". Nod krai might have a pretty Aesthetic but the story and characters really haven't been all that impactful to me. It's great to see how each character interacts with one another and see their dynamics, but I don't feel the way they are impacting eachother as they are presented they are doing. In Sumeru every character learned and growed from start to finish even if it's something small, but it was noticeable.
At first I thought I was just being biased because Scaramouche and Albedo are my favorite characters but even when they were included in the new story, it just... doesnt click you know? Arlecchino is my favorite harbinger but I did look forward to see Columbina and her story but again I'm left feeling unsatisfied yet no one seems to have the same view as me. I'm scared to voice my opinion because I know how defensive people can get. I was once like that too, I get it.
I'm sorry if this has allot of spelling mistakes or seems a bit all over the place, sometimes I struggle to put my thoughts into proper words. English is not my first language.
I know people might claim otherwise but to me Sumeru was the best Archon quest narative wise with rich themes and emotions. It definitely had its own set of flaws I can compalin about and it was actually the reagion i wasnt looking forward to much but it's story and each character execution didnt felt worthless but beaningful, but now I dont feel that love anymore ever since Nod Krai... Don't get me wrong, Nod krai is a huge step up from whatever disaster Natlan was and I looked forward to it allot but I'm left.... dissapointed?
Nodkrai Aesthetic wise is absolutely spectacular with chracater designs with insane details. I LOVE Folklore and Mythology so I always love to bury my nose deep into whatever new mythology each region introduces so I can know more about the real live culture and customes it represents. But the keyword in that sentence was "Aesthetic". Nod krai might have a pretty Aesthetic but the story and characters really haven't been all that impactful to me. It's great to see how each character interacts with one another and see their dynamics, but I don't feel the way they are impacting eachother as they are presented they are doing. In Sumeru every character learned and growed from start to finish even if it's something small, but it was noticeable.
At first I thought I was just being biased because Scaramouche and Albedo are my favorite characters but even when they were included in the new story, it just... doesnt click you know? Arlecchino is my favorite harbinger but I did look forward to see Columbina and her story but again I'm left feeling unsatisfied yet no one seems to have the same view as me. I'm scared to voice my opinion because I know how defensive people can get. I was once like that too, I get it.
I'm sorry if this has allot of spelling mistakes or seems a bit all over the place, sometimes I struggle to put my thoughts into proper words. English is not my first language.
Commentaires
Is this something we should try to actively avoid?
They could have given us Alice and Varka years ago, but decided not to. Its an annoying decision since it wastes a whole year before Tsaritsa but thats where we are rn.
I think that it’s perfectly alright to feel “meh” about something that other people find incredible. People can have their opinions, and that’s the great part about such a HUGE game with so many different facets.
I think that for Nod Krai, it may feel a bit disconnected from the rest of Teyvat, and the characters may also feel a bit disconnected from each other too. Hoyo is attempting to bridge a gap between the greater lore and the main storyline, and I think that has created a tendency to spread itself out more than it might want to, at least until all of the loose ends are tied up. I’ve felt this way too, even if I’m absolutely LOVING Nod Krai.
Your opinion is valid, and I hope you still enjoy the game regardless! Cheers!
This implies that Nod-Krai isn't doing the same. Please take a look at how Lauma changed about a lot of things, your best visualization of that is to compare how she talked to Nefer at the start of Nod-Krai and how she talked to her during the festival. Columbina too, and she even helped Dainsleif grow with her. Heck, we had Dori coming out as an entirely different character than the fanbase likes to portray her as.
It's fine if you dislike Nod-Krai, but this is really a minority opinion as far as I know. And the region is doing way more justice to characters than previous regions, so it's a matter if you see it or not.
-way way too much yap for very few minutes of payoff, like with rerir or even in the trailer where 80% of the trailer is Sandrone yapping about the narssizenkreuz of something
-Too much useless exposition honestly, we are at 18 h of quest now and oh boy did I just kept spam click on my keyboard. I would lie to you if I say I remember Nicole yapping about hyperborea or Flins lore about the fae, or Sandrone narssizenkreuz stuff.
-A cruel lack of stakes and impact. For a region that was supposed to have 4 harbingers with different motives, agenda, personality and methods ( 5 if we count childe in it, spoilers), the stakes are incredibly low and the main villain, dottore just spawn after 6 acts of AQ for 5 min of screentime, to kidnap bina but we all know bina is going back alive, and dottore will get jumped by the power of friendship. Instead of having a battle Royale where the traveler will be "mostly" alone, even with bina if you want, fighting in a region where most of the faction characters only care for their interest and power source and have no business with him whatsoever, we always fight alongside every single faction to defeat a self proclaimed by the plot big bad (Rerir first, dottore second), all united to save the damsel in distress bina. Basically the same power of friendship problem than natlan but this time, no deaths, no despair in a dark sky, no NPC dying here and there, no mavuika taking risky décision to increase the stakes, just power of 6h of prep time I guess...
-the fatui harbingers being an absolute joke of a faction. I dont even want to explain it line by line, there is a vidéo of lore creator called otsuucurry that clearly explain why this faction who was once so interesting and full of charismatic antagonist became just a bunch of wasted potential
-Finally, characters whose purpose in the AQ are still up in the air. Honestly, what is the purpose of durin and albedo in nod krai aside from helping others? The same applies to Alice for example.
And the fatui! I'm all in for a villian having a tragic Backstory to shape who they are or the villian being mischaracterized but The fatui is really starting to feel like a wagon of clowns. Sure Dottore has been hinted to be this big bad, hell even way back since the Genshin manga he was one of the biggest threats, but now he just feels very.... goofy? and a bit out of place like Albedo and Durin (Love both of them, but wrong place wrong story)
So you arent paying any ounce of attention, yet believe you can evaluate something you arent engaging with because muh stakes?
>-Finally, characters whose purpose in the AQ are still up in the air. Honestly, what is the purpose of durin and albedo in nod krai aside from helping others? The same applies to Alice for example.
Albedo is there in representation of Rhinedottir
Durin is there to accompany Albedo, and to dispel Abyssal power
Wanderer for example has done nothing, yet you dont bring him up at all
Alice is there because Nod Krai is quite literally the end of Teyvat, with its borders pretty close to it, any change to the borders is going to be noticed by the person in charge of keeping balance on said borders, something you would know about if you read for 5 seconds when Alice showed up. That and the Hexerzinkel did a promise to Mondstadt of protecting it when the time asked for it, right now most of Mondstadt is on Nod Krai on an expedition
>A cruel lack of stakes and impact.
People expecting stakes and "impact" 6 years into the game, when it was clear since day 1 there wouldnt be any because it affects marketing, are insane
>dottore just spawn after 6 acts of AQ for 5 min of screentime,
Just cause he only personally shows up at the end of Act VI, doesnt mean he hasnt been doing shit on the backend, per usual, to make things go his way
Its quite literally a repeat of Sumeru, screentime wise he was gone after 1 convo with Tighnari, attacking the city to try and trap the traveler and the boat. Like 10 minutes max. Then shows up at the end, claims 2 gnosis, and leaves satisfied
>Basically the same power of friendship problem than natlan but this time, no deaths, no despair in a dark sky, no NPC dying here and there, no mavuika taking risky décision to increase the stakes, just power of 6h of prep time I guess...
Mavuika already took the riskiest possible gamble of waiting 500 years to end a 6000 year long war with the Abyss by getting the right amount of external help(heroes) to awaken the divine throne and borrow Ronova's power once more to repel the abyss
There are a thousand moments it could simply go expectacularly wrong and the entirety of Teyvat would be fucking doomed, not just Natlan
The stakes are there
Power of friendship?
Then I guess every single faction, from fatui, to Spina,to duelist, to even the fucking chief justice and prison nurse coming together to devise a plan to expose Furina as a fraud in Fontaine
Or Sumeru putting together Mercenaries,Mahamattra,Scribe,Dancer,Forest ranger just to save the "damsel in distresss" Nahida from been imprissoned inside the Sanctuary of Surasthana
Or Inazuma putting the power of all Inazumans in the hands of the traveler, with one push from Yae, just to let Ei know what she was doing was wrong
Or Liyue putting every faction together, Qixing and Adepti, onto saving the "damsel in distress" Liyue from been swallowed by Osial
Or Mondstadt that had the Archon,Knights of Favonious, and Wine industry come together to defeat the abyss order corruption of Dvalinn before he destroyed Mondstadt
Its literally always the same patter, groups unlikely to work together, united under a sole purpose, working together to achieve their goal against a higher threat
I personally find Nod Krai to be one of the better regions at pacing and character development. I also really loved Fontaine's story and Sumeru's story. Sumeru with the best story concept, Fontaine with the best storytelling, and Nod Krai some of the best character development. In a way each region has its own genre of storytelling. Perhaps you just aren't a fan of the genre being told on Nod Krai. It's a bit more slice of life (although in a fundamentally exciting world) compared to other regions, I think.
Inazuma: eternity- In order to prevent her country from progressing towards a bad future, Ei halted any progress at all. The story explored the consequences of her decision to pursue eternity, in addition to closely related themes of oppression and rebellion.
Sumeru: wisdom- the knowledge in Sumeru resulted in a lot of useful tech, however that came at a steep price. The sage's desire to pursue a high level of wisdom came at the expense of their people's lives.
Fontaine: justice and lies- The gods of celestial sought to bring justice upon the people of Fontaine for their "sin" of being created. Furina fought against what she saw as an incorrect judgement by creating farcical judgments of her own in order to fuel the oratrice in order to fight back against the prophecy. The story explored how justice can be deserved, but also how it can be used incorrectly and bring untold destruction. Additionally, A majority of characters in Fontaine were not fully honest about their past, motivations, or goals, which added to a veil of secrecy for the nation as a whole.
Natlan: war- I did not find natlan well written in part because it did not really stick to its theme, but originally Natlan was supposed to be about war.
What does Nod Krai have? Lowkey the strongest theme I can really think of is "moon" which really isn't a theme. The environment design and some of the initial conflicts were informed by a "tech/progress versus nature/tradition" type of story but that has pretty much been dropped in the main story. I guess the strongest theme is now "love/friendship," with columbinas relationship with her friends being the heart of the story, and rerir, as the initial antagonist being driven crazy by his love for his girlfriend, but it just feels weak imo. Dottore, as far as I know, doesn't really fit into this theme despite being the big antagonist now, and this theming doesn't really fit into the world design. Additionally, it is very "power of friendship" adjacent, which has already been done in the previous regions extensively. I really feel like if the story had more closely leaned into a specific theme and explored the benifets/consequences of that, we would have had a much stronger region. Oh well... I would totally take Nod Krai over another natlan since at least the characters are interesting and have more compelling dynamics.
My guess is they realised their player numbers are centered on children and younger people and made the story lighter and more superhero-y. There hasn't been as much dark stuff or atmosphere as there used to be.
Nod-krai hasn't had any map expansion since it was introduced. Maybe things will improve when we get more of it and some world quests or special areas.
I think they realised they went too far with the child friendly stuff in natlan anyway.
>! Discovering the hillichurls you'd previously been farming for materials are actually the still living people of Khaenri'ah cursed to deformed and mindless immortality is waaaay darker. Especially when you discover they still have enough of themselves left to hate the reflection of their own faces and sometimes keep dolls or toys with them. !<
"Child friendly"
Yeah fucking right. Genshin has always been on the lighter side regardless, but you're just objectively wrong.
I definitely don't hate Nod Krai and do enjoy it way more than Natlan, but with how they bring in characters "just because" and force them to do stuff together, it feels more like character showcases stuck together with some 'hype and plot' tape rather than a tightly written narrative where everything mattered and has heart. Take Rerir for example, he had a really in-depth chapter that covered his backstory that included other important characters like Dain and the Sinners, but him being part of the AQ is so random and easily forgotten because he was only important in how he made the Nod Krai characters work together. Columbina and Dottore's parts have way more relevance, but my interest is gonna tank once Columbina gets saved and Dottore exits the stage because there's nothing more to look forward to in Nod Krai. Compare that with the aftermath of Sumeru's AQ where there's the anticipation of seeing Sumeru change for the better under Nahida, the bitter loss of Rukkha's existence that you can't tell anyone about, and the potential "burning Irminsul" plot line.
Well, we haven't gotten to the end of Nod Krai's AQ yet so I can still be wrong, but this is how I feel about Nod Krai atm and yeah, I think it's kinda 'meh' too.
Yeah no, I think the reason the new region/s feels so "meh" as you put it is because from Mondstadt to Nod Krai it feels like a different game, the difference in technological advancements between the regions are massive and that put me off from playing the game further.
I stoped at Sumeru because the "magic" element could kind of explain how some of the things work but compared to Mondtadt it looked like Mondstadt was stuck in the stone ages.
Fontaine looks good aesthetically and good on paper but the layout does not make sense since there is no way to support a society in its structure, and HOW CAN FONTAINE FLOOD WHILE SUMERU IS FINE BEING ON THE SAME HIGHT IN WORLD.(sorry im still confused about this)
Natlan and Nod Krai was not what I expected when characters talked, or lore found in game , about the regions before they came out , both are beautiful places but I expected a scorched wasteland and ice-covered rocky plains(almost like Dragonspine). Thus I felt a bit disappointed about what I saw.
Nod Krai also feelslike filler and like the developers are trying to slow down the release before Sneznaya, the last 2 regions you NEED the regions new 5 stars to actually do good against bosses and get the bonuses (like night soul and lunar reactions) basicly making old 5 stars useless and i play the games for characters I like and now im forced to pull for characters i dont like just to progress in the game which takes the fun away.
Sorry again about the rant and thanks for listening to my Ted talk🫣🫣