Nod Krai's biggest strength so far is that it's not using an entirely new cast.
When it comes to the nation stories, there's usually a whole new set of characters that have to be introduced, expanded upon, and used in the story, and this got pretty old to me after natlan. There were the occasional exceptions like with tartaglia in fontaine, and I consider that a high point of the story as well.
Nod Krai using characters from as far back as mondstadt with albedo, newer mixes like durin, alice, and varka, and other returning characters like scara, arlecchino, and especially dottore, is strengthing the narrative for me immensely over a set of entirely new characters I haven't decided how I feel about. There's a very healthy mix of new characters too with flins, lauma, nefer, etc. The cast after natlan has been (in my opinion) getting far too big to handle. And with how many loose threads they love to make and leave out (so much so that they had to make nod krai it's own region in the first place), it was past due time we revisited them (like with arlecchino's heritage).
These characters get to continue their stories and influence the new ones in a way that I really had wanted from the start. It's more cohesive and less confusing, much more exciting and interesting, and really helps this not feel so isolated. The appearance and integration of Dain outside of his designated yearly quest was a shock to me too, and it worked great.
So I hope they know what they're doing right here, and I think they do given what they said in that nod krai livestream a while back. This major factor regarding the characters, alongside the approach of a story that isn't wrapped up in three versions but rather four our more (depending on what Luna IV has in store) gives me a lot of confidence, which was not long ago shaken a bit by natlan's choices. I hope this continues into snezhnaya and khaenriah, and whatever comes after.
Nod Krai using characters from as far back as mondstadt with albedo, newer mixes like durin, alice, and varka, and other returning characters like scara, arlecchino, and especially dottore, is strengthing the narrative for me immensely over a set of entirely new characters I haven't decided how I feel about. There's a very healthy mix of new characters too with flins, lauma, nefer, etc. The cast after natlan has been (in my opinion) getting far too big to handle. And with how many loose threads they love to make and leave out (so much so that they had to make nod krai it's own region in the first place), it was past due time we revisited them (like with arlecchino's heritage).
These characters get to continue their stories and influence the new ones in a way that I really had wanted from the start. It's more cohesive and less confusing, much more exciting and interesting, and really helps this not feel so isolated. The appearance and integration of Dain outside of his designated yearly quest was a shock to me too, and it worked great.
So I hope they know what they're doing right here, and I think they do given what they said in that nod krai livestream a while back. This major factor regarding the characters, alongside the approach of a story that isn't wrapped up in three versions but rather four our more (depending on what Luna IV has in store) gives me a lot of confidence, which was not long ago shaken a bit by natlan's choices. I hope this continues into snezhnaya and khaenriah, and whatever comes after.
Commentaires
of nod krais big chatacters were introduced in 6.0-6.2 and are being dispersed out across 6.0-6.3 and multiple patches beyond 6.3.
Meanwhile in some games you meet a character then shes seemingly gone forever thr patch after.
When was the last time a waifubait actually had such privilege?
Ayaka? What with who? They made her barely talk with thoma
Mizuki? Again wtf are you talking about
Columbina had sweet moments with Lauma, Sandrone, Arlecchino, some formal talk with flins, aino with some moments too
Its a huge upgrade for what you call a "waifubait"
Mond (Venti, Diluc, Kaeya)
Liyue (Zhongli, Childe, edit: Xiao)
Inazuma (Kazuha, Thoma, Gorou)
Sumeru (Alhaitham, Cyno, Tighnari, Wanderer)
Fontaine (Neuvilette, Wriothesley, Lyney, Childe, edit: Freminet)
Natlan (Kinich, edit: Ororon)
Nod Krai (Albedo, Wanderer, Flins, Durin, Varka?)
Edit: like idk just look at this and come up with your own conclusion or tell me who i forogr 😭
Ororon exists btw
Then thats a tie with Liyue unless Im somehow missing anybody else
natlan had kinich, ororon and capitano
but either way it just depends on how we approach it, there's no incorrect way
How can you not remember that?!!!!
That said 3 of the 4 Male characters they released Did have not so insignificant roles in AQs and all 4 got fully well represented once events are taken into account
Ororon is the main one, having an AQ where he is the main focus, gets a lot of screen time events
Kinich does get a bit shafted in the AQ(but does get a dedicated team up section in the war) but starts getting more screen time in the 5.5 and 5.6 events, with the 5.6 event going more into his backstory than his own TC
Dahlia is a Mondstat character, so not expected to show up in a Natlan AQ, but had a good amount of screen time in the Mondstat AQ that was a part of the patch cycle
Ifa was all over the events in 5.5 and 5.6, and even had his own side quest with Ororon in 5.7
Also, Baizhu was in the Liyue AQ. Even if he released later, we all knew he’d be playable. Kaveh showed up in the Sumeru AQ but i’m cool with not counting him cause he’s just there at the last second for one moment.
Same with Itto and Perilous Trails in 2.X
What a damn shame, because otherwise the vibes are pretty damn cool.
Meanwhile Chisa goes from 'we're in it together, Senpai' to 'talk to Chisa (optional)'. But at least she became friend with Lynae, so they will await Avengers assemble scene in 3.8 together.
Also scrapping character quests in game that is supposed to sell you waifu of the patch, is some 8000 IQ move.
not surprising because Genshin did it, so they followed \:P
Also, Lupa not being in 2.6 is the greatest blunder
Columbina is as old as Varka/Alice.
Though it is true no one expected her to be such an integral character.
Else we had no idea on what she was like.
Nod Krai is more or less made up of characters we could've gotten sooner, but stretched into a whole region to waste a year of our lives by delaying Snezhnaya.
Case and point, Varka, Nicole, Columbina, Durin and Alice.
All of these characters were teased for years with story bits sprinkled through the patches so now they get to take the stage without far less build up than many others.
I know it's a matter of opinion, but I found it easier to follow with Natlan and the concept of Natlan's Six Heroes. There was a connection between them.
I liked Columbine, Lauma, Arlechinno, and Jahoda. Varka was also a good addition, but I don't understand this sudden fixation on Albedo with apparently no Knight of Favonius who could have accompanied Varka, but Durin's presence makes sense.
But I missed some things. I thought Sandrone had done something big with that huge structure, but it's destroyed, then Sandrone shrugs and hands over the piece of the moon she used, then everyone forgets about it as if nothing happened.
And Flinn... He served as information about Wild Hunt, I think. Ineffa and Aino do things and barely appear.
It felt like Sumeru, where characters dictated the things they should dictate and then left the scene. Columbine was a good constant.
It just felt weird.
It's strange that Varesa and Iansan came from Collective of Plenty, but that place is blocked until after the war against the Abyss. Considering how Varesa is treated, she should have something noteworthy alongside Mavuika during the main story, but it's almost as if she doesn't exist.
There are also other characters like Escoffier, never being mentioned during the Fontaine era, but suddenly being very close to Furina. Or Mizuki from Inazumi conveniently being in Natlan most of the time we're in Inazumi, but I don't think they ever talked about her.
Was Albedo one of those? Because the first time I saw him was in Dragonspine, but that region was released after the prologue. Like Dahlia, he is treated as a more influential figure than characters like Jean, Lisa, Kaeya, Diluc... those characters who were there to save Mondstandt at the end of Prologue.
She has the movement and wall-climb ability, but the moment Xilonen was released, Kachina became a side character.
And don't say, "It's because she's a child!", because mHY *chose* to make her a child.
A huge problem that Capitano points out, and Mavuika hand waves, is gathering the Heroes together and convincing them to form up to save the nation — extra emphasis on whether they would even arrive in time.
And yet, that never felt like it was a problem? Chasca kinda conveniently shows up with little fanfare, and Ororon is the only hero to oppose/question Mavuika's plan to any real degree. Meanwhile, the rest of the Heroes were just ready and raring to go before we even got there, it felt cheap.
I sincerely think Varesa (the spiritual successor of Fietena who struggles to showcase her own heroic properties without hiding her face behind her mask) and Kachina should have been their tribes respective Heroes instead. And it should have taken some convincing to get them both to realise they can save their home.
Meanwhile, I feel like Chasca should have (briefly) given into the Abyssal corruption and part of the war should have involved saving her and bringing her in.
There's nothing inherently wrong with how the story went, but it just felt a bit too simple and easy.
I do like Natlan for its straightforwardness actually, but some structure issues make me feel not everything was intentional.
Those two were always gonna be antagonists regardless of Bina or not.
Also, he's managed to come back from a moon gate before, he might come back again.
What's with this unnecessary hate touch grass man
Cyrene herself is a whole problematic character, focusing to be more of a waifuslop shill vs any meaningful interactions with the heirs.
Natlan was bad, but I could at least feel more genuine character interaction between the cast vs Amphoreous.
It feels more like a continuation rather than a new story.
Sure Neuv/Furina don't leave Fontaine, but there's a bunch of chars from every region who don't either.
Inazuma is currently carried by Before Sun and Moon and maybe some Shade crumbs from Raiden’s 2nd story quest and the Omnipresent Statue. But otherwise Wanderer is the only relevant “Inazuman” (who effectively gave up his citizenship by Irminsuling himself) in the main story.
Inazuma hasn’t gotten any expansions past its introduction patch cycle (Enkanomiya 2.4 was the last expansion). The region is by far the oldest atp, with Liyue getting Chenyu Vale in 4.X, and especially since Mondstadt is finally getting Dornmann Port (and Mond has always been main story relevant because of Hexenzirkel and Venti).
Ive been waiting for Inazuma to play a bigger part in the overall story and i'm most interested in Ei's role in it out of all the archons with her potential connections to shades and moons
*laughs in Narzissenkreuz Ordo*
They probably realized that way too much of the lore and connective tissue is just skippable, and thus skipped, hence Nod Krai lol.
Also, Sandrone randomly info-dumping the whole quest-line for skippers at the end of act...4? (3?).
I also wouldn't be surprised if them adding Nod Krai is what makes the inevitable 10 year anni line up with the end of the Teyvat chapter.
He also has one of those immortal ruin graders like the one we fought in an inazuma event on tsurumi
He also has a bunch of pursina spikes that we used to kill the immortal ruin grader and study the mud in the chasm
He also recommended that carter goes to sumeru to get treated and carter's illness sounded simmilar to eleazar
Rene and jakob went to the desert to study khaenrhian tech and jakob became an abyssal human
Rene and jakob are seen collecting a bunch of different things like scarlet quarts from mondstadt
You could even squeeze in albedo+durin and mika but theyre a stretch cuz they have no business in sneznaya other than help varka with whatever that plot would be
For literally 4 years in a row, we were introduced to entirely new characters in every other nation. But somehow its always Natlan that gets blamed for something every other version did.
You dont care about the story because there are new characters in it? Then how the hell do you watch or play ANYTHING NEW?
Hard to sell new characters by keeping a lot of the old ones around.
Makes the story and the characters much more interesting.
I always wished we'd had Yanfei during Fontaine, at least during one court scene. Even if just an advisor.
One of the best part in Genshin back then is the interaction between region. I like wheb Albedo and Klee visited inazuma and the interaction between Klee and Yoimiya was wholesome. Venti and Zhongli interaction on event was comedy gold. Sadly, most of it are locked into events.
This made me felt bad since I like some characters like Ayaka, Yoimiya, Kazuha, Furina and Nilou but they were left behind. Specially Furina since she was the Archon and the highlight back then.