I think the Desert's design is one of the places where MiHoYo's environment and level design teams really started to come into their own. The Desert looks, feels, and plays empty, as you would naturally expect it to be. This makes everything you find, from set pieces down to interactive text, feel much more significant in the wastes. It also spectacularly hides what essentially are 1:1 scale dungeons beneath the surface, without relying on Domains to "create" them.
This isn't to refute your points in the video, by the way, just give you another perspective on the Desert. It's also worth noting that the Desert's overall composition relies on worldbuilding from eras better documented in Fontaine and Natlan >!Hyperborean and Remurian!<. It's this worldbuilding that gives the Desert character, which combines well with its music and NPC design. I also think the Desert leaves enough to the imagination to allow for flexible lore- and theory-crafting. :)
Better-Philosophy-402026-01-13 01:27
Thanks for watching the video! I didn't read every document I found, and I was much more interested in the NPC dialogue. I've played through Fontaine recently, and the Pari questline gets significantly better once you know where they came from (Didn't get the connection that the previous hydro archon was involved).
Zanzi-2026-01-13 04:50
I respect your subjective opinion, but I simply cannot condone this video as a 'review'.
One of the biggest offenses in my eyes is the way you kept going on about the desert being 'brown'. Your graphic settings in the video showcased the desert at the lowest level settings which means you missed out on a lot of beautiful details with the lighting and subtle effects like sand occasionally blowing across the surface. Sumeru's desert is my absolute favourite environment in the game visually because despite the huge amount of 'brown' it's still a stunning rendition of a desert environment that parallels that of real deserts. More colour is *not* necessarily better as it can lead to visual clutter and can detract from the coherency of the overall image or feel. Lighting also plays a huge part in its presentation; stand on a high place and look over the landscape as the sun sets and nightfalls, the sky goes through transformations of molten gold, deep saffron, rich purple, and finally a sapphire night sky adorned with rivers of stars, a point that's also lore accurate as students from the Akademiya who study stars find it to be a popular spot for star observation. And this is just me talking about the basic overworld! There's still more to the desert environments like the underground temples and caves, the oasis and coastal areas, and other secret places. Stumbling upon these spots is also a part of the charm of desert exploration.
Your other points were also all over the place. The part where you talked about the quests had cutscenes that didn't always line up with your narration, which made it so what you're saying would disconnect with those who are relying purely on the visuals for context. You don't go into enough detail after stating your opinion, i.e. calling something 'peak' but state vague details that only people who've already experienced those quests can understand, so those who haven't done them would not follow what you're trying to say.
Overall, I didn't find it informative or entertaining. I really recommend putting more thought into what you want the audience to take away from your videos if you want to do better.
Better-Philosophy-402026-01-13 05:48
In hindsight it was a terrible idea to criticize how the game looks when Im playing on mobile and on the lowest setting. I'll try to avoid it in the future and edit clips to align more. Thank you for the feedback!
Commentaires
I think the Desert's design is one of the places where MiHoYo's environment and level design teams really started to come into their own. The Desert looks, feels, and plays empty, as you would naturally expect it to be. This makes everything you find, from set pieces down to interactive text, feel much more significant in the wastes. It also spectacularly hides what essentially are 1:1 scale dungeons beneath the surface, without relying on Domains to "create" them.
This isn't to refute your points in the video, by the way, just give you another perspective on the Desert. It's also worth noting that the Desert's overall composition relies on worldbuilding from eras better documented in Fontaine and Natlan >!Hyperborean and Remurian!<. It's this worldbuilding that gives the Desert character, which combines well with its music and NPC design. I also think the Desert leaves enough to the imagination to allow for flexible lore- and theory-crafting. :)
One of the biggest offenses in my eyes is the way you kept going on about the desert being 'brown'. Your graphic settings in the video showcased the desert at the lowest level settings which means you missed out on a lot of beautiful details with the lighting and subtle effects like sand occasionally blowing across the surface. Sumeru's desert is my absolute favourite environment in the game visually because despite the huge amount of 'brown' it's still a stunning rendition of a desert environment that parallels that of real deserts. More colour is *not* necessarily better as it can lead to visual clutter and can detract from the coherency of the overall image or feel. Lighting also plays a huge part in its presentation; stand on a high place and look over the landscape as the sun sets and nightfalls, the sky goes through transformations of molten gold, deep saffron, rich purple, and finally a sapphire night sky adorned with rivers of stars, a point that's also lore accurate as students from the Akademiya who study stars find it to be a popular spot for star observation. And this is just me talking about the basic overworld! There's still more to the desert environments like the underground temples and caves, the oasis and coastal areas, and other secret places. Stumbling upon these spots is also a part of the charm of desert exploration.
Your other points were also all over the place. The part where you talked about the quests had cutscenes that didn't always line up with your narration, which made it so what you're saying would disconnect with those who are relying purely on the visuals for context. You don't go into enough detail after stating your opinion, i.e. calling something 'peak' but state vague details that only people who've already experienced those quests can understand, so those who haven't done them would not follow what you're trying to say.
Overall, I didn't find it informative or entertaining. I really recommend putting more thought into what you want the audience to take away from your videos if you want to do better.