Hottake but Nod krai is genshins best in everything. (lore, storytelling, designs etc), I just finished the AQ and oh my god??? I need to yap. (TLDR too)
In my opinion, Genshin has always played things pretty safe... They *do* try new ideas, but they’re usually small changes, which can make the game feel a bit safe at times. Nod Krai, though? They didnt really play it safe, from its first announcement instead of being Snez being the next journey.. and I absolutely loved it. new male model for Varka?? New model experiments? Incredible!! We did get some in natlan with varesa/skirk but I think nod-krai is the most telling one. The animations were a huge step up, and the storytelling leaned more into *show, don’t tell E*ach character had such personality.. The voice acting was perfect every VA fit their character so well. The nation’s design, the lore, the characters… and finally seeing Varka and Alice actually appear in game felt so rewarding..
And oh my god the villains.
Dottore was an insane villain, and that’s exactly why I loved him. He was a complete bastard, and it worked. He straight up murdered Sandrone on screen, among other wild things. His boss fight was genuinely fun with great mechanics, and watching him face karma was so satisfying. They knew how to make players hate dottore to keep being engaged to see if he will be brought to justice and when you got to do it.. it paid off ! I know some people were disappointed with his ending, but I honestly think it was perfect. I wouldn’t be against him returning alive but only if it’s meaningful. After everything he’s done, it would feel wrong for the Traveler to just forgive him..
Rerir was also incredible one of the Five Sinners in game?! His design is peak, and his relationship with Thorlindis was so sweet. I’m glad we got to see him again. I know some people are annoyed that he seemingly had a “change of heart,” but I don’t think he did. He simply regained his sanity. Being trapped likely gave him time to reflect. I also appreciated that Bina didn’t instantly forgive him she acknowledged his sins and reminded him what he did, but still helped him out of her own kindness. Him referring to Thorlindis as his *former* love genuinely hurt. Doomed couples always get me.
Sandrone’s death was heartbreaking, and this is exactly what I felt was missing in Natlan. We heard so much about “Mavuika will die,” but nothing ever really happened. Natlan felt too safe. Nod Krai had real stakes especially with that cliffhanger of Bina jumping into the gate in the previous Archon Quest. Natlan never ended on a cliffhanger like that. Sandrone was beautifully written, which made her death hit so much harder. If she ever returns, I’ll be so happy.. and Dottore calling her life’s work “trash” genuinely hurt to hear like thats so mean sob. She reminds me a lot of a character called Peridot from steven universe. If you dont know who that is look scenes of her up on youtube and tell me if you think im right or not ! :)
Speaking of Bina she is genuinely one of the best characters in Genshin. Her lore, personality, and design are all incredible. Watching her reunite with her sisters made me tear up their personalities and designs were so cute!.. I honestly can’t believe some people think she’s just “no personality waifu bait.” I adore her character so much I can barely put it into words.
I also usually *hate* time travel in stories because it gets messy and over complicated but Genshin handled it perfectly here. It was exciting, the foreshadowing was amazing, and the plot twists actually felt earned. Looking back and realizing how much was planned from the beginning was so satisfying.
There wasn’t a single moment in Nod Krai where I felt bored. It stayed engaging from start to finish. Normally, every nation has at least one Archon Quest that feels like a slog, but I genuinely don’t remember that happening here. I loved the character development and watching everyone grow closer over time yk!
I also adored the found family dynamic within the Fatui. You could really feel it and that made their losses hurt even more. Capitano… Signora… I know a lot of people want the Fatui to just be a purely evil organization, but you can’t deny how strong that found family trope was and I think it's better
TLDR;, I think Nod Krai is the best Genshin has ever been. It’s not perfect there are still issues like forced quest progression and long Archon Quests without proper breakpoints but the pros far outweigh the cons. I really hope Nod Krai proves to Hoyo that they *can* take risks experiment more, deliver massive lore, introduce major plot characters, create insane villains, and shake up the formula. I think it also helped that we knew very little about Nod Krai until late Natlan, so there were no expectations that if it didnt come true it would be disappointing to some
If Snezhnaya is even half as good as Nod-Krai, then the six-year wait will have been worth it. I’m incredibly excited but also a bit sad knowing that in less than a year, we’ll be leaving Nod Krai behind. Still, I trust the team to cook.
What do you guys think?
And oh my god the villains.
Dottore was an insane villain, and that’s exactly why I loved him. He was a complete bastard, and it worked. He straight up murdered Sandrone on screen, among other wild things. His boss fight was genuinely fun with great mechanics, and watching him face karma was so satisfying. They knew how to make players hate dottore to keep being engaged to see if he will be brought to justice and when you got to do it.. it paid off ! I know some people were disappointed with his ending, but I honestly think it was perfect. I wouldn’t be against him returning alive but only if it’s meaningful. After everything he’s done, it would feel wrong for the Traveler to just forgive him..
Rerir was also incredible one of the Five Sinners in game?! His design is peak, and his relationship with Thorlindis was so sweet. I’m glad we got to see him again. I know some people are annoyed that he seemingly had a “change of heart,” but I don’t think he did. He simply regained his sanity. Being trapped likely gave him time to reflect. I also appreciated that Bina didn’t instantly forgive him she acknowledged his sins and reminded him what he did, but still helped him out of her own kindness. Him referring to Thorlindis as his *former* love genuinely hurt. Doomed couples always get me.
Sandrone’s death was heartbreaking, and this is exactly what I felt was missing in Natlan. We heard so much about “Mavuika will die,” but nothing ever really happened. Natlan felt too safe. Nod Krai had real stakes especially with that cliffhanger of Bina jumping into the gate in the previous Archon Quest. Natlan never ended on a cliffhanger like that. Sandrone was beautifully written, which made her death hit so much harder. If she ever returns, I’ll be so happy.. and Dottore calling her life’s work “trash” genuinely hurt to hear like thats so mean sob. She reminds me a lot of a character called Peridot from steven universe. If you dont know who that is look scenes of her up on youtube and tell me if you think im right or not ! :)
Speaking of Bina she is genuinely one of the best characters in Genshin. Her lore, personality, and design are all incredible. Watching her reunite with her sisters made me tear up their personalities and designs were so cute!.. I honestly can’t believe some people think she’s just “no personality waifu bait.” I adore her character so much I can barely put it into words.
I also usually *hate* time travel in stories because it gets messy and over complicated but Genshin handled it perfectly here. It was exciting, the foreshadowing was amazing, and the plot twists actually felt earned. Looking back and realizing how much was planned from the beginning was so satisfying.
There wasn’t a single moment in Nod Krai where I felt bored. It stayed engaging from start to finish. Normally, every nation has at least one Archon Quest that feels like a slog, but I genuinely don’t remember that happening here. I loved the character development and watching everyone grow closer over time yk!
I also adored the found family dynamic within the Fatui. You could really feel it and that made their losses hurt even more. Capitano… Signora… I know a lot of people want the Fatui to just be a purely evil organization, but you can’t deny how strong that found family trope was and I think it's better
TLDR;, I think Nod Krai is the best Genshin has ever been. It’s not perfect there are still issues like forced quest progression and long Archon Quests without proper breakpoints but the pros far outweigh the cons. I really hope Nod Krai proves to Hoyo that they *can* take risks experiment more, deliver massive lore, introduce major plot characters, create insane villains, and shake up the formula. I think it also helped that we knew very little about Nod Krai until late Natlan, so there were no expectations that if it didnt come true it would be disappointing to some
If Snezhnaya is even half as good as Nod-Krai, then the six-year wait will have been worth it. I’m incredibly excited but also a bit sad knowing that in less than a year, we’ll be leaving Nod Krai behind. Still, I trust the team to cook.
What do you guys think?
Commentaires
I cannot allow this sorry.
To address the inevitable counterpoint for Nod-Krai being the best region overall, you can definitely tell that the resources they would normally spend on the explorable regions were spent on the main story instead. I haven't done anything in the new expansion yet, but just by looking at the map it seems very small for a main map update and obviously we haven't been getting them as regularly as usual. Personally I don't mind that much, because I'd rather less content of a higher quality than more content of a lower quality, but to each their own.
Little warning here, the rest of this reply is a rant on my perspective of Nod-Krai as a whole and just explaining why I feel the way I do. I've been holding onto these thoughts since the region was first announced, but I haven't had the chance to let it out just yet. So yeah, it's completely unnecessary to read, but if you're curious I appreciate you reading:
I'm going to start by saying I'm still not convinced that Nod-Krai wasn't a very late decision, whether that means it was originally Snezhnaya stuff that was split and rebranded or if it's new stuff entirely - it doesn't really matter. Less content overall, an incredible amount of effort directed to the main story (a.k.a. the biggest complaint in Natlan), and 0 mention of the place before Natlan (as far as I can recall) just screams to me that it wasn't originally supposed to exist. I mean, the devs themselves basically said as much in the livestream when they announced it.
They realized that there were too many concepts and ideas that needed to be brought to the forefront and properly explained and developed, and simply put if we went straight to Snezhnaya after Natlan it would've absolutely broken the pacing of the story. Can you imagine having to explain the Sinners, the Moon Goddesses, the Harbingers, the Abyss, the Tsaritsa's plan, the Hexenzirkel, the Four Shades, and the Heavenly Principles all in one region? While balancing a large cast of characters? On top of whatever else is in Snezhnaya? Yeah, absolutely not.
I think literally every single problem people have with the story of Natlan is the result of too many ideas being shoved into the story at once. Saving Kachina, Capitano's storyline, Mavuika's backstory, the Lord of the Night, all of the Night Kingdom stuff, the war with the Abyss, plus the large cast of characters was just too much for a 5 chapter Archon Quest. Everything suffered because nothing had enough time to be properly developed.
The mentorship of Kachina went nowhere, the Captain's story ended abruptly and felt sidelined, Mavuika is Mavuika, the Lord of the Night and Angels as a whole didn't get enough explanation, and multiple characters didn't get enough screentime because we were constantly switching around. Kinich and Iansan stick out in particular. I think the Night Kingdom and the Abyss War stuff was pretty good though, especially the war. It's just that all of these things made for way too much stuff to focus on.
Nod-Krai has done it's best to fix these problems by spending as much time as it needs to explain as much as possible, including character stories. I am immensely impressed with how Hoyo managed to integrate Lauma, Flins, Nefer, Columbina, Sandrone, and even Arlecchino of all people's stories into the main plot. Of course other characters were present too, some with major roles, but they're obviously being saved for later times (like Varka and Nicole).
Now, none of this is to say that Nod-Krai is bad in any way. Whether it was a last minute decision or not, I absolutely love this region in its entirety - it has surpassed everything else for me based on how much I've been enjoying it. In my opinion, Nod-Krai was and still is a necessity for the health of the game, and I will stand by that. I will happily take an underdeveloped region that aims to give the story the proper amount of care it needs at the cost of everything else falling a bit short, personally. Anyways, that's all I wanted to say. Whether people like the region or not, I think it was a very important precaution to take for the future of the game.
So far Dottore and Signora were the only characters that felt like actual Harbingers...
And she ain't dead...she's a robot that can be rebuilt...and they'll probably tone down her personality when she's back and playable.