Can we talk about how PEAK the boss fight in AQ is
Not gonna lie the last time I felt this hyped was when we had to fight Raiden for the first time. Genuinely had so much fun fighting Dottore I didn’t want it to end.
I honestly agree, this might be one of my favorite gacha fights to date. The sheer spectacle, arena, the stakes, the in-between cutscenes, and to end it the small mechanics throughout the fight. Everything just flowed really well. They genuinely cooked really hard with this fight
Certain-Divide-24312026-01-15 20:14
This was the first fight where I had a feeling I can lose/fail in story mode (last time I had this was in the training by Yae Miko before meeting Raiden)
rekage992026-01-15 20:24
Why? If you die it will auto rez you. Which is good because he does stupid amounts of unavoidable damage.
Zorandercho2026-01-15 20:56
What? I ran around LIKE CRAZY and barely survived with a few HP left? I could have just died lol?
ohoni2026-01-16 06:13
I never had much risk to normal attacks, but I did get killed by that pillar phase because I apparently missed the message that you're meant to hide behind the pillars.
ESGLabs2026-01-16 08:48
Yup. I "died" a bunch of times when I finished it today. I don't think that mix of characters is for me, especially Hydro Traveler.
Also the quest (not just that fight, the entire thing) took me so long to play it interrupted a transition with the Welkin screen a second time.
OrbitalSong2026-01-16 02:39
Unavoidable? Lol I was practically button mashing but didn't know there was a rez mechanic.
electrorazor2026-01-15 20:38
I didn't, had to get auto revived like every 5 seconds
Sentinel102026-01-15 20:27
It was definitely fun, and I loved the music.
Especially that remix of one of Nod Krai's battle themes during the scene of the moon falling.
Cute_Style24452026-01-15 20:28
YESSSSS and he was absolutely stealing the show. The way he moved, the design, the music, the attention to details, I loved every second. Damn they made me root for the 'villain' xd
casper_072026-01-15 20:50
Yep, it’s rare to get someone that talks the talk and then proceeds to walk the walk as well. He displayed proper flairs without compromising on his intelligence as well. Flexes on everyone by opening the false sky up as if it’s nothing, expected behaviour for someone like him with his god complex. Then closes it as soon as he realizes they were summoning columbina. I was like “you’re allowed to do that?” Bro wasn’t about to end up on a compilation for being dumb😭
Slush_Magic2026-01-15 20:30
my favorite part was Dottore talking immaculate amounts of shit
Aerie1222026-01-16 02:51
When it's bribing competition and your opponent is Dottore
PyroSpeedHunter2026-01-16 08:45
“DID YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT WOULD HIT ME?” Dottore - 2026
DottoresPet2026-01-16 08:56
Mick Wingert really nailed making the boss lines iconic
Guy has magical vocal cords
imbusthul2026-01-15 20:31
I especially love how they incorporated sanskrit in the lyrics of his boss theme. I always felt it was a shame that we only had one sumerian style music for the weekly boss and this scratched that itch for me. Still I do want to know the translated lyrics.
Obsidian-Charm2026-01-15 20:37
Agree! I found that weekly boss fight in Natlan annoying and not fun, but with Dottore I enjoyed all of his gimmicks - like, even for a short while, he inverts the controls?? That's so cool! The music is insanely good too, but that's something Hoyo does best in general.
ohoni2026-01-16 06:14
The inverted controls were wild when I was trying to avoid those red laser walls.
mostpodernist2026-01-15 20:37
I was worried the weekly version was going to be difficult but it's not bad at all!
Chris_Z1232026-01-16 01:52
the most straightforward weekly we had in a while
and by straightforward I meant no unnecessary shilling slapped behind boss kit if you want to bypass their mechanism
Raonair2026-01-16 04:13
Wait, what?
ComposedOfStardust2026-01-16 04:19
Like. Chess boss really want you to take freeze teams if you don't want to get one shotted. Gosoythoth really wants nightsoul characters. Knave is technically a Neuvillette shill due to the CA buff but that doesn't really matter imo. Just bring a non-pyro dps and you're good. Similar case with the whale. Just bring a non-hydro dps or be prepared to deal with high resistance. Dottore is the first weekly boss in a while that doesn't require you to have any kind of team composition or character type to bypass some mechanic that shills certain characters or reactions
Raonair2026-01-16 04:24
I never would've gotten the meaning of shilling in this context without the extended explanation, thanks. And yes, I agree. Honestly, he might be the first boss to do that since Childe, maybe Signora. And even before them we got Andrius invalidating TWO whole elements.
Yuki-jou2026-01-16 04:50
Oh, the pain of fighting Andrius back at the start of the game when most of us were still maiming anemo traveler or Kaeya…
r_renfield2026-01-16 05:04
And no flying around for 23456633364 hours like the whale
ohoni2026-01-16 06:10
Yeah, my first attempt was a little long, but not terribly threatening. Once I knew to stand behind the pillars, I didn't encounter any other "oops, you're dead now." effects, which are the only bits I hate in weekly bosses.
MissyIvory20242026-01-16 10:10
The weekly is so much nicer, easiest boss compared ro Natlan and the chess couple. I use Iffa pew pew my way through with Mavuika and Furina off field. Then I was running for my life half the time during the AQ 😂
Elinim2026-01-15 20:38
I really like how his attacks interfere with your controls and audio, as if he was glitching out the rules of Teyvat itself.
6991120267752026-01-16 04:36
Psycho Mantis ahh
ohoni2026-01-16 06:09
I was getting legitimately concerned about my hardware when they were exploring his "animal experiment" and if you got too deep in, the audio started to glitch out.
TetraNeuron2026-01-16 06:44
My audio driver has been having legit issues recently and i couldn't tell if it was Dottore or my PC dying during the fight 😩
LivingASlothsLife2026-01-15 20:40
I love how cinematic it all was, from the gang starting it off, Traveler going solo to Sandrone joining in. Back to Traveler going in solo then with Columbina
The while thing felt so climactic and even had a really emotional yet badass asf sacrifice in the middle. It just felt so complete and satisfying
I've seen people say its "the power of friendship", but the amount of strategy and planning that went into it was anything but a random power up. The build up from so many participants made it all feel earned
FlameDragoon9332026-01-15 21:08
> I've seen people say its "the power of friendship", but the amount of strategy and planning that went into it was anything but a random power up. The build up from so many participants made it all feel earned
I frankly don't understand the power of friendship complaints in Natlan and now Nod-Krai. Or the complaints about Fatui Harbingers having fun (the moon prayer festival) or being vulnerable (Columbina/Sandrone)
Are these people that cynical and miserable to the point they dislike everything that's nice and sweet?
m2gus2026-01-15 21:29
Notice how you do much worse things than you accuse others of. You attack others' characters because you do not like their (often argumented) literary analysis. Nuance does not require defanging, successful nuance in media proves characters can be vulnerable and human without losing their edge or threat level. Critics aren't rejecting "nice things," they are rejecting the narrative bait-and-switch where the specific, ominous danger promised by Childe and Wanderer is dissolved into harmless fluff without ever validating the stakes.
Moreover, there is no need to make everything cute to make it complex. The Harbingers exist to provide friction and moral alienness; flattening them into "misunderstood lonely figures" simply homogenizes the cast and removes the story's necessary tension. Dismissing this as "misery" ignores the core argument: that humanization must be earned through narrative conflict and consequence, not granted by default to facilitate a safe, marketable dynamic.
Chrisarts20032026-01-15 21:57
i don't see your point about childe and wanderer at all. wanderer served his role as a villain and is on his path to betterment, childe was never truly evil (however i do agree that he should've been held accountable for almost destroying liyue, even if it played directly into zhongli's hand), arleccino was abused as a child and wants to offer a better life to her children and columbina was never evil to begin with, the only harbinger i'd say i'm a little dissapointed about was sandrone, i was hoping she'd have more presence, but rerir was a good villain, so i don't mind her switch (i would've prefered if she had more screentime to be antagonistic tho). honestly i prefer that so many of the harbingers aren't just evil, they've mostly served their role as antagonists well enough and we still have other 3 that don't sound like they'll be friendly in snezhnaya
ohoni2026-01-16 06:08
Yeah, NK could not have survived three separate villain arcs. I'm glad they streamlined it. I much prefer tsundere Sandrone to if she were trying to sell the badass angle.
ohoni2026-01-16 06:07
> Moreover, there is no need to make everything cute to make it complex. The Harbingers exist to provide friction and moral alienness;
You're thinking of the Abyss. The Harbingers are meant to represent moral gray areas, where they do objectively bad things, sometimes, but that is not their entire identity, they also do good things sometimes, and have depth to them. Sometimes.
>that humanization must be earned through narrative conflict and consequence,
It generally is. Any harmful or negative actions Harbingers take tends to be justified by the nature of their character and the circumstance they were in (assuming we have any incite into their choices at all). Any positive actions a Harbinger makes tend to also be justified by their nature and circumstances. They are well rounded characters, at least the ones we've had time to explore. People who expected otherwise were just extrapolating their own vision from a tiny scrap of information, they have no reason to be upset if they assumed incorrectly.
Saphir_562026-01-16 01:53
People need to team up to be stronger??? How shocking!
WolfySpice2026-01-16 02:20
> Are these people that cynical and miserable to the point they dislike everything that's nice and sweet?
That's pretty much it. Natlan's story is a fundamentally human story, ubiquitous across pretty much all cultures, about coming together in unity to triumph over adversity. People do it all the time here with bushfires and floods. Anyone who cringes at the thought of a fundamentally human experience simply hasn't experienced much of the world so their criticism of 'the power of friendship' can be easily dismissed as the immature nonsense it is.
I mean, 'the power of friendship and anime' is itself a 'cringe' phrase, so that explains all that needs to be said about those saying it.
OrbitalSong2026-01-16 02:33
Also, that crowd loves to throw in fancy literary analysis terms but it invariably comes across as kiddy's first literary analysis it's so inapt and immature.
The things they work themselves up about simply ooze the teenage energy of I'm not a kid anymore and have to prove it by how serious and adult I am by hating kid stuff.
Zesty_Crouton2026-01-16 09:27
How does that old quote by CS Lewis go?
'When I became a man, I put away childish things - including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown-up.'
Zorandercho2026-01-16 08:09
Thank you! That’s exactly how I feel. If players don’t understand that adversity cam bring you together and in fact it’s the only way to survive…I fear for them if hardship finds them one day
YeetaIta2026-01-16 02:22
Same! These people either refuse or don't understand past the thinnest surface level. There was so much buildup that went into them teaming up against Dottore, it felt incredibly earned. Even in Natlan while it could have been executed a bit better, there was buildup to it and it was also the literal biggest theming of the entire region.
Orangelemonyyyy2026-01-16 04:26
95% sure that's pretty much it. A lot of the criticisms sound like they come from edgy 'teens'.
ohoni2026-01-16 06:01
They just want Traveler to rock up and go Goku on the enemy, as if this isn't a game *about* teamwork.
mraz_syah2026-01-16 06:36
fighting someone with a power like god alone, yeah good luck, hence the "teamwork" aka "friendship" needed
Salt_Report49212026-01-16 08:22
In Natlan? People complain about the power of friendship there? I dislike the final fight in Natlan due to how they sidelined every other character except Mavuika. Played WuWa 2.7 and wished Natlan ended like that instead, so I am very satisfied with the Nod-Krai fight. Like yeah sure give the finishing blow to the shilled character that's fine, but let everyone in on it lol.
Nhosis2026-01-15 20:45
I like everything but the swapped controls.
That will always be a pet peeve of mine.
That said it's nice to fight a boss that feels somewhat threatening.
Kaizyu2026-01-15 20:45
man this whole AQ had been so good, the last time i was this invested was probably sumeru archon quest. Pacing felt good, some great characterizations for Columbina, Sandrone and Dottore. Great character development for Scara. Some very nice development to the plot and lore, and a great boss battle to top it off. Wasn't expecting too much going into the quest, and suddenly 6hrs has passed lol.
regularhope2026-01-16 10:09
It was truly amazing.
No_Act19872026-01-15 20:50
All of the AQ have been peak for me but you can definitely tell since Nod Krai started, the battle scenes are just top tier. The last part where you have the “control” to hit Dottore, especially during Columbina’s, that was so satisfying! Sadly no rewinds lol!
Rare_Marionberry7822026-01-15 20:58
Yes yes, I don’t want that fight to end, love that it has so many “phases” and moments that kept it going and going, and his HP resets and we talk and then fight again, then pauses and restarts the fight and keep on going with new moments with Sandrone’s 😢 and twists and turns like snatching back the moon marrows one by one and epic cutscenes and all… and then Columbina give her all to smash that shield. I wish to be able to replay it again lol…
Raonair2026-01-15 20:58
I was kinda bummed, cause there was no explanation as to what to do or not to do when the red messages showed up
bpmackow2026-01-16 04:02
There was some message about not crossing a line but no indication of which one.
Raonair2026-01-16 04:04
Precisely. And there was a LOT going on, and we weren't given shielders, are we supposed to stay put or not?
ohoni2026-01-16 06:14
I got an achievement at some point for "not following the rules."
markcan_killua2026-01-15 21:04
it’s definitely the most cinematic boss fight so far esp the music and sound design went hard.
but im disappointed they nerfed him so hard as the overworld, hes legit the easiest and most boring boss next to scara
Raonair2026-01-16 04:15
I hate the Scaramouche fight, I suck at aiming arrows fast enough, and those guns take me out too quickly if my shield gets down too soon. One way or another I almost always lose a character to his auto kill.
Yuki-jou2026-01-16 04:55
You don’t need arrows, those things are low enough to the ground that basically anyone can hit them. I took them down with Ayaka.
Raonair2026-01-16 04:56
I'm pretty sure I tried hitting them with Baizhu and Arlecchino and it didn't work
Yuki-jou2026-01-16 04:58
I know I’ve taken them down with Baizhu. You need to be standing almost right under them though.
Raonair2026-01-16 06:11
I might try again
Yuki-jou2026-01-16 06:13
Sorry I can’t give any more solid advice, but what I can confirm is that I have never once brought an archer to that fight (I hate using bows and my only fully leveled bow user is Childe) and I have never once failed to destroy all of those things. I’ve never even seen the auto kill move. So you definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, do not need a bow.
manedwolfoftheplains2026-01-16 07:09
Arlecchino can hit them.
mee8Ti6Eit2026-01-16 11:16
If you have Kirara, she makes it really easy. Just enter cat mode and touch all of them. You can jump to hit the one in the air.
FlameDragoon9332026-01-15 21:05
The Sumeru-style music goes hard.
The rule-and-punishment gimmick is also pretty cool.
EDIT: oh also when he reverses time to heal back up. It felt like a Jojo final boss fight. Mf trying to pull off Bites the Dust
ComposedOfStardust2026-01-16 04:13
+ the reversed music sfx
Just so epic to hear
kaori_cicak9902026-01-16 10:09
Bro its like againts the bankai of >! Current head captain of shinigami!<
Sorry-Candidate-51922026-01-15 21:33
likewise
Cole_James_CHALMERS2026-01-15 21:37
We need the Buddhists or Chinese mythologists to explain some of the symbology in the fight
The fight arena itself is Buddha's Palm and the music has Sanskrit, given the birthplace of Buddha its probably related
I know in the Journey to the West, the arrogant Sun Wukong who had godlike abilities and wanted to be the ruler of Heaven, was met by Buddha. Buddha bet Wukong if he could leap out Buddha's Palm, he could be the new ruler of Heaven.
Wukong accepted the bet, used his godlike abilities to travel to the edge of the universe where 5 giant pillars where located. He proclaimed he won the bet, however Buddha revealed the 5 pillars were his fingers and that Wukong had never left his palm for Buddha is all-encompassing.
Wukong was then trapped and sealed under a mountain for 500 years. Definitely some parallels between Sun Wukong & Dottore in their massive egos and superhuman abilities
TANKER_SQUAD2026-01-16 00:45
Slight elaboration. Wukong, to show that he did it, wrote on the pillar "The Great Saint, Equal to Heaven, came here for a trip" and IIRC pissed on the pillar. So when he travelled back to face Buddha to proclaim his victory, Buddha just asked him to take a good look at his fingers.
TetraNeuron2026-01-16 06:46
\> Traveller pees on the Celestial Pillars at the edge of reality
\> God-Dottore: Eww wtf are you doing Descender
KamiAlth2026-01-15 21:38
The weekly version also have no annoying stall mechanic. Been a long time that I’m looking forward to grinding weekly boss.
tatobson2026-01-15 22:53
It was the most mechanical complex boss fight we had, i still haven't tried his weekly mode but i hopes it remains great.
JewelKnightJess2026-01-15 22:57
It was so good. It's also by far the best weekly boss in years imho
minah_alt2026-01-15 23:22
the fight was so cool, then I went to do the weekly boss and it was so easy lol they Childe'd him 🥹
Raonair2026-01-16 04:09
Better that than Gosoythoth. Childe is the only weekly boss I like, cause it's the only quick one. Even Dvalin takes a little bit more cause I can't get the last bits of health before his shield is back up.
Radaxen2026-01-16 06:30
tbf I'd think it would be interesting to fight his story mode difficulty with your own team without the free revives. In the AQ I probably died 10+ times, if this wasn't a gacha this boss fight would have been a good challenge
PolskiStalker2026-01-15 23:29
It's cool, I agree.
But I miss the times when we could actually die in story boss fights.
Rat_itty2026-01-15 23:33
Haven't played the story yet so no major spoilers please - do we have to worry what kind of team to take for him or do we get a preset team like for Rerir? :)
Raonair2026-01-16 04:10
Preset, and it's the same team iirc. Traveler, Lauma, Nefer and Flins.
Sepulchh2026-01-15 23:33
Absolute cinema.
HoYo still got it.
aravinth132026-01-16 00:03
I wanted to fight him again and it felt like I was fighting childe.
Stunning-Bag2026-01-16 00:11
Lil bro thought he was Phainon, bringing down meteors from the sky. Personally the fight felt pretty anticlimatic and lacked urgency; can't die so just face tanked everything, and do 1 bajillion damage with c3r1 characters but his HP refills over and over till the script kicks in. I will admit it was pretty hype when Columbina "the Son, the Father, and the Holy Ghost" Hyposelenia joins in on the Dottore beatdown
Josh_Addy2026-01-16 00:34
yes yes yes... i lowkey the weekly was same ... he just takes one of our party members ... maybe only 2 and we have to choose who to "sacrifice"
QWERTYAF12412026-01-16 01:40
It was pretty lame. There was unlimited auto revives so you literally could not fail even if you wanted to. Didn't even have to bother dodging at all so it was kind of just watching an interactive cutscene.
ohoni2026-01-16 06:15
That's you taking the fun out of it, not them.
QWERTYAF12412026-01-16 06:46
When you literally can't die and all you do is just spam attacks without any care, all there's left to do is to watch cutscenes and listen to voice lines. Literally was just one long interactive cutscene. Absolutely zero pressure in the fight.
ohoni2026-01-16 06:59
> When you literally can't die and all you do is just spam attacks without any care, all there's left to do is to watch cutscenes and listen to voice lines.
Nope, that's all you *choose* to do. You can *also* choose to engage with the mechanics, even when not absolutely forced to do so. This is a game, take some personal responsibility.
QWERTYAF12412026-01-16 07:17
There were no mechanics. The mechanics were to hit stuff. That's it. There was nothing to dodge because literally none of your characters could die to begin with. He didn't even have any screen wipeouts or oneshot attacks either, not that it would matter since you auto revive and heal with no cooldown. You just spammed attacks until the cutscene played and then repeat the process. He didn't have a second phase either.
You could hide behind the massive pillars but that's literally just walking. Didn't exactly have me at the edge of my seat to walk a few steps being the massive pillars he put down. He very occasionally confused your characters and switched up their directions but it happened very occasionally. You walked completely normally 95% of the fight. Even when he did switch your sense of direction, the mechanic to break out of it was to keep attacking and wait it out.
ohoni2026-01-16 07:24
>There were no mechanics. The mechanics were to hit stuff. That's it.
Oh, we were talking about the *final* boss fight in the AQ. When you get there you'll understand. There were a ton of different mechanics in that fight.
QWERTYAF12412026-01-16 07:35
I am talking about the AQ. It was literally just spam attacks. He teleported around occasionally but all you had to do was just chase him a bit. Then he sealed a trial character into another place but you just spam attacks until the POV goes back to the main field. Every couple of minutes, another cinematic cutscene would play. There weren't any heavy attacks you absolutely had to stop or block or anything. And you would auto revive if you happened to lose all of your hp. In order to progress the story and right, the only mechanic was to keep depleting his hp bar which he would refill a couple of times.
refance2026-01-16 02:39
It was epic
CryoStrange2026-01-16 02:45
Animation wise he is the best so far. His theme is also so good.
HopelessRat2026-01-16 03:23
just goes to show important a good villain is. Dottore is an actual super villain. I dont mean to be that guy and i'll get shat on for this but I think Columbina is boring as a character but she shines hard because of how good the villain is. This is prolly why I didnt like Natlan nearly as much because the lack of a real antagonist. The dragon boss was boring as shit
KibbloMkII2026-01-16 03:48
my only complaint is hydro traveller
but then again, I struggle with any traveller that's not anemo
LonelyPanda_062026-01-16 04:27
It was absolutely amazing, the music, the cinematic cutscenes, hard boss battle, the AMOUNT of strategizing needed to win against Dotore is PEAK.
6991120267752026-01-16 04:35
Same. I think Raiden was truly the last time there actually felt like a threat. ScaraEVA01 was cool but I don't think he felt that much like a GOD during the battle. Dottore was straight up Safer Sephiroth x Madara lol
issm2026-01-16 04:54
Other than the bit where there are no stakes because you literally can't die, *again*.
ohoni2026-01-16 06:15
Well, they don't want to trap anyone in story mode.
issm2026-01-16 06:48
That's what difficulty settings are for.
You don't even need explicit, user accessible, difficulty settings, just make the boss easier every time the player dies.
ohoni2026-01-16 06:57
Eh. This game doesn't have difficulty settings, aside from World Level, and I don't think it has any need for it. If you seek difficulty, they have separate modes for that. The story doesn't need to be difficult.
issm2026-01-16 07:11
Except Genshin is supposed to be a game, not a movie or a book.
When you have a game, gameplay is part of storytelling. Gameplay influences, for example, the sense of tension in a fight, as much as, if not more than what the text of the story is telling you. If there's no tension in the gameplay, that can undermine the tension in the script.
In other words, no stakes.
"Too easy" can be as much a problem as "too hard".
Also:
> This game doesn't have difficulty settings
Quoting sentence 2 of 2:
> You don't even need explicit, user accessible, difficulty settings, just make the boss easier every time the player dies.
ohoni2026-01-16 07:21
> When you have a game, gameplay is part of storytelling. Gameplay influences, for example, the sense of tension in a fight, as much as, if not more than what the text of the story is telling you. If there's no tension in the gameplay, that can undermine the tension in the script.
But each player experiences tension differently, and what might be perfectly comfortable to you might be oppressive to others. You don't need the chance of failure to create tension, only the *expectation* of potential failure. A lot of these people in the thread didn't even notice there was a revive mechanic, because they were good enough to just not die at all.
>"Too easy" can be as much a problem as "too hard".
Not really. "too hard" can actually block progress entirely, or at least make it very frustrating. "Too easy," so long as it's handled right, does not have any significant problems. Now, you want to provide "opportunities for engagement," things that players *can* get right or get wrong, but how much you *punish* failure is largely irrelevant if it's "too easy." If there are active mechanics, and you choose to ignore them, then that's on you.
>You don't even need explicit, user accessible, difficulty settings, just make the boss easier every time the player dies.
But that would require players to die multiple times before they get the lowered difficulty settings. That wouldn't be a fun experience, and unless they were aware of that feature in advance, they might get demoralized and quit before it even kicks in. It would be better than "only hard mode," but far worse than what we actually got.
Just because the game revives you and allows you to continue, doesn't mean that you can't *play* it as though t doesn't. Again, take a little personal responsibility for your own fun. Don't play "the floor is lava" and then go "the floor isn't *actually* lava, I can just walk across it if I want," and then blame anyone other than yourself if the game isn't much fun.
issm2026-01-16 10:05
> But each player experiences tension differently
Right, which is why difficulty options exist.
If the dev doesn't want to expose those settings to players for whatever reason, dynamic difficulty exists.
> "Too easy," so long as it's handled right, does not have any significant problems.
Other than the game being so boring you lose interest and stop playing it. Kind of the same as "too hard". Either way, you aren't playing anymore.
And yes, by the way, I'm ignoring your "as long as it's handled right" qualifier, since hard games are also not a problem as long as you "handle it right".
> But that would require players to die multiple times before they get the lowered difficulty settings
> they might get demoralized and quit
1) That was just an example. It doesn't have to work off deaths. You could just as easily make the system function off of hits. You could scale the system off performance in past quests - because, reminder, this isn't the first boss in the game. This is a story boss a couple hundred hours into the game, so:
2) Like, even if it did work off of deaths, anyone who would get frustrated and quit off a handful of deaths would have quit a long time ago. That open world without any difficulty settings outside of world levels has a huge difficulty jump in the mid game that people come on reddit to complain about all the time.
> Again, take a little personal responsibility for your own fun
That doesn't absolve the dev of the responsibility of making their game as fun as they can.
You could use that exact argument to argue against having character voices. Just pretend they're talking. Take a little personal responsibility for your own fun.
ohoni2026-01-16 06:00
I thought it was very good, although I hated that they kept making us play as Hydro Traveler, even if she is handed Aino's Burst as a freebie, she's still trash to play as. Storywise it worked well enough though. In terms of gameplay, I enjoyed the fight more as a weekly boss fight with my "proper" team. I did enjoy the "epilogue" fight though, where you had those cool Light powers. Why can't that be in Traveler's kit?
intestinalExorcism2026-01-16 07:19
I was completely blown away by this fight and so many other parts of these archon quests. It's unbelievable how exponentially better and better this game has gotten over the years in every single aspect. Genshin may have its dull periods where there's not much to do but silly minigames, but man, when they're ready to put out the main content, it hits *hard*. What a stark reminder that this has become one of the best stories of all time.
Awkward-Treacle-64072026-01-16 07:37
A great fight but it ends quickly regardless, because it is easy. There's several good reasons for that though. It is in the AQ, so you can't piss off the playerbase by making it too difficult. It also features a set cast and some players might not have some of them and not know how to use them. (I don't have Flins and don't know how he plays so I used him just to ult and skill and swap out.) For plot reasons the team also keeps diminishing in size, so as a real fight it would be pretty damn hard.
It is what I call a spectacle battle. Its purpose is to create hype moments and serve storytelling, which it does brilliantly. I remember similar fights in for example in Final Fantasy XV, where it was actually impossible to lose a boss fight or several, so the story being served to you didn't get interrupted.
meiyachann2026-01-16 08:39
after playing for 4years+, this is the first time i want to replay a boss fight again, just because i want to experience the whole thing again
Goated.
BladeSingularity2026-01-17 02:01
This boss and the full Aquila boss sequence in HSR. Just let me replay the story versions, Hoyo. Please!
Own-Isopod2122026-01-16 09:14
He felt like a destiny 2 boss it made me so happy!!!
mee8Ti6Eit2026-01-16 11:17
They really nailed the "push and pull", where it seems like you have the advantage, then Dottore, and back and forth. Writing 101 but it was executed very well.
Idainaru_Yokubo2026-01-16 12:13
it's very FFXIV
Spartan_117_YJR2026-01-16 12:33
I really like using trial characters, it doesn't rob me of the experience and allows me to engage with the boss during AQ, then wipe the floor with him in weeklies
Commentaires
Also the quest (not just that fight, the entire thing) took me so long to play it interrupted a transition with the Welkin screen a second time.
Especially that remix of one of Nod Krai's battle themes during the scene of the moon falling.
Guy has magical vocal cords
and by straightforward I meant no unnecessary shilling slapped behind boss kit if you want to bypass their mechanism
The while thing felt so climactic and even had a really emotional yet badass asf sacrifice in the middle. It just felt so complete and satisfying
I've seen people say its "the power of friendship", but the amount of strategy and planning that went into it was anything but a random power up. The build up from so many participants made it all feel earned
I frankly don't understand the power of friendship complaints in Natlan and now Nod-Krai. Or the complaints about Fatui Harbingers having fun (the moon prayer festival) or being vulnerable (Columbina/Sandrone)
Are these people that cynical and miserable to the point they dislike everything that's nice and sweet?
Moreover, there is no need to make everything cute to make it complex. The Harbingers exist to provide friction and moral alienness; flattening them into "misunderstood lonely figures" simply homogenizes the cast and removes the story's necessary tension. Dismissing this as "misery" ignores the core argument: that humanization must be earned through narrative conflict and consequence, not granted by default to facilitate a safe, marketable dynamic.
You're thinking of the Abyss. The Harbingers are meant to represent moral gray areas, where they do objectively bad things, sometimes, but that is not their entire identity, they also do good things sometimes, and have depth to them. Sometimes.
>that humanization must be earned through narrative conflict and consequence,
It generally is. Any harmful or negative actions Harbingers take tends to be justified by the nature of their character and the circumstance they were in (assuming we have any incite into their choices at all). Any positive actions a Harbinger makes tend to also be justified by their nature and circumstances. They are well rounded characters, at least the ones we've had time to explore. People who expected otherwise were just extrapolating their own vision from a tiny scrap of information, they have no reason to be upset if they assumed incorrectly.
That's pretty much it. Natlan's story is a fundamentally human story, ubiquitous across pretty much all cultures, about coming together in unity to triumph over adversity. People do it all the time here with bushfires and floods. Anyone who cringes at the thought of a fundamentally human experience simply hasn't experienced much of the world so their criticism of 'the power of friendship' can be easily dismissed as the immature nonsense it is.
I mean, 'the power of friendship and anime' is itself a 'cringe' phrase, so that explains all that needs to be said about those saying it.
The things they work themselves up about simply ooze the teenage energy of I'm not a kid anymore and have to prove it by how serious and adult I am by hating kid stuff.
'When I became a man, I put away childish things - including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown-up.'
That will always be a pet peeve of mine.
That said it's nice to fight a boss that feels somewhat threatening.
but im disappointed they nerfed him so hard as the overworld, hes legit the easiest and most boring boss next to scara
The rule-and-punishment gimmick is also pretty cool.
EDIT: oh also when he reverses time to heal back up. It felt like a Jojo final boss fight. Mf trying to pull off Bites the Dust
Just so epic to hear
The fight arena itself is Buddha's Palm and the music has Sanskrit, given the birthplace of Buddha its probably related
I know in the Journey to the West, the arrogant Sun Wukong who had godlike abilities and wanted to be the ruler of Heaven, was met by Buddha. Buddha bet Wukong if he could leap out Buddha's Palm, he could be the new ruler of Heaven.
Wukong accepted the bet, used his godlike abilities to travel to the edge of the universe where 5 giant pillars where located. He proclaimed he won the bet, however Buddha revealed the 5 pillars were his fingers and that Wukong had never left his palm for Buddha is all-encompassing.
Wukong was then trapped and sealed under a mountain for 500 years. Definitely some parallels between Sun Wukong & Dottore in their massive egos and superhuman abilities
\> God-Dottore: Eww wtf are you doing Descender
But I miss the times when we could actually die in story boss fights.
HoYo still got it.
Nope, that's all you *choose* to do. You can *also* choose to engage with the mechanics, even when not absolutely forced to do so. This is a game, take some personal responsibility.
You could hide behind the massive pillars but that's literally just walking. Didn't exactly have me at the edge of my seat to walk a few steps being the massive pillars he put down. He very occasionally confused your characters and switched up their directions but it happened very occasionally. You walked completely normally 95% of the fight. Even when he did switch your sense of direction, the mechanic to break out of it was to keep attacking and wait it out.
Oh, we were talking about the *final* boss fight in the AQ. When you get there you'll understand. There were a ton of different mechanics in that fight.
but then again, I struggle with any traveller that's not anemo
You don't even need explicit, user accessible, difficulty settings, just make the boss easier every time the player dies.
When you have a game, gameplay is part of storytelling. Gameplay influences, for example, the sense of tension in a fight, as much as, if not more than what the text of the story is telling you. If there's no tension in the gameplay, that can undermine the tension in the script.
In other words, no stakes.
"Too easy" can be as much a problem as "too hard".
Also:
> This game doesn't have difficulty settings
Quoting sentence 2 of 2:
> You don't even need explicit, user accessible, difficulty settings, just make the boss easier every time the player dies.
But each player experiences tension differently, and what might be perfectly comfortable to you might be oppressive to others. You don't need the chance of failure to create tension, only the *expectation* of potential failure. A lot of these people in the thread didn't even notice there was a revive mechanic, because they were good enough to just not die at all.
>"Too easy" can be as much a problem as "too hard".
Not really. "too hard" can actually block progress entirely, or at least make it very frustrating. "Too easy," so long as it's handled right, does not have any significant problems. Now, you want to provide "opportunities for engagement," things that players *can* get right or get wrong, but how much you *punish* failure is largely irrelevant if it's "too easy." If there are active mechanics, and you choose to ignore them, then that's on you.
>You don't even need explicit, user accessible, difficulty settings, just make the boss easier every time the player dies.
But that would require players to die multiple times before they get the lowered difficulty settings. That wouldn't be a fun experience, and unless they were aware of that feature in advance, they might get demoralized and quit before it even kicks in. It would be better than "only hard mode," but far worse than what we actually got.
Just because the game revives you and allows you to continue, doesn't mean that you can't *play* it as though t doesn't. Again, take a little personal responsibility for your own fun. Don't play "the floor is lava" and then go "the floor isn't *actually* lava, I can just walk across it if I want," and then blame anyone other than yourself if the game isn't much fun.
Right, which is why difficulty options exist.
If the dev doesn't want to expose those settings to players for whatever reason, dynamic difficulty exists.
> "Too easy," so long as it's handled right, does not have any significant problems.
Other than the game being so boring you lose interest and stop playing it. Kind of the same as "too hard". Either way, you aren't playing anymore.
And yes, by the way, I'm ignoring your "as long as it's handled right" qualifier, since hard games are also not a problem as long as you "handle it right".
> But that would require players to die multiple times before they get the lowered difficulty settings
> they might get demoralized and quit
1) That was just an example. It doesn't have to work off deaths. You could just as easily make the system function off of hits. You could scale the system off performance in past quests - because, reminder, this isn't the first boss in the game. This is a story boss a couple hundred hours into the game, so:
2) Like, even if it did work off of deaths, anyone who would get frustrated and quit off a handful of deaths would have quit a long time ago. That open world without any difficulty settings outside of world levels has a huge difficulty jump in the mid game that people come on reddit to complain about all the time.
> Again, take a little personal responsibility for your own fun
That doesn't absolve the dev of the responsibility of making their game as fun as they can.
You could use that exact argument to argue against having character voices. Just pretend they're talking. Take a little personal responsibility for your own fun.
It is what I call a spectacle battle. Its purpose is to create hype moments and serve storytelling, which it does brilliantly. I remember similar fights in for example in Final Fantasy XV, where it was actually impossible to lose a boss fight or several, so the story being served to you didn't get interrupted.
Goated.