The new update is emblematic of modern Genshin's problems (discussion/rant)
I haven't been hyperfixated on the game or anything like that. This is purely from me running around for a few hours here and there between general housekeeping, uni work and playing other games. Got engrossed in a quest and did that, found a mini-quest in an underground area and unlocked all the hangout areas. In just that I have done about half of the exploration given in this update, including having opened one of the treasure rooms.
What happened? I swear there was more to the exploration in other regions. Mondstadt was fairly bare-bones since it's the first region, Dragonspine had puzzles and sheer cold, Liyue had all the cool mountains to climb, Inazuma had tricky puzzles, Sumeru had multiple new types of puzzles as well as a layered map, Fontaine had all the underwater sections and the camera puzzles and Natlan had interesting exploration with the saurian mechanics. Nod-Krai feels so easy and tiny, it's insane, especially with how little we've had in terms of updates.
It's not just me, right? I feel like I'm having to force myself not to explore and drip-feed myself the content so I don't end up with nothing to do. This is one of the highest-grossing gacha games ever, with its exploration being the main selling point- so where is the exploration? If they're going to cut back on the map size and make the "puzzles" as simple as putting some items in a line, then they should at least improve QOL for other aspects of the game so you can actually participate.
TCG doesn't give primogems- why? People complain about literally anything, if they're upset because you can get 20 primos out of 5 minutes of playing cards then let them whine. It won't harm anyone to reward fans of the game for playing it beyond giving them coins that become useless after you inevitably buy everything in the shop.
The resin cap is still godawful. Since the introduction of Imaginarium Theatre, the game wants you to focus on horizontal investment. This sucks because with a maximum of 200 resin every 26 hours- more than a day's wait, which limits how much you can do for a day. You have to balance your resin between getting enough mora, exp books, talent books, boss materials and weekly boss materials. That is not including levelling the weapon or getting artefacts.
The endgame modes rely on either multiple well-built characters (IT) or hyperinvested characters, preferably the currently shilled banners. These are contradictory to the insanely limited resin pool players get, as well as the godawful RNG for all aspects of character building.
Fishing gets boring fast and adds literally nothing to the game. At best you can get a weapon like The Catch and some achievements.
The teapot is... alright. You can get some easy primos and it can be nice to decorate a house for your favourite characters. It is still stuck with annoying time gates, material refreshes and limited placements.
Miliastra is okay, there are some decent modes that can be fun for half an hour, but nothing has stood out since its release.
Am I making sense? The game seems to have forgotten that not everyone plays to get c6 r5 every 5 star with hundreds of dollars worth of resin to make up for the godawful artefact grind. We had multiple patches with no exploration with back to back 5 stars, two of whom were dependant on other 5 star supports and one being highly anticipated since Simulanka or even Dragonspine depending on who you asked. I know it's a gacha game and money talks, but it is insane to me how barebones this update is. You could probably do the archon quest and then spend half a day clearing the map before going back to just doing dailies and waiting for the event to give you content.
What happened? I swear there was more to the exploration in other regions. Mondstadt was fairly bare-bones since it's the first region, Dragonspine had puzzles and sheer cold, Liyue had all the cool mountains to climb, Inazuma had tricky puzzles, Sumeru had multiple new types of puzzles as well as a layered map, Fontaine had all the underwater sections and the camera puzzles and Natlan had interesting exploration with the saurian mechanics. Nod-Krai feels so easy and tiny, it's insane, especially with how little we've had in terms of updates.
It's not just me, right? I feel like I'm having to force myself not to explore and drip-feed myself the content so I don't end up with nothing to do. This is one of the highest-grossing gacha games ever, with its exploration being the main selling point- so where is the exploration? If they're going to cut back on the map size and make the "puzzles" as simple as putting some items in a line, then they should at least improve QOL for other aspects of the game so you can actually participate.
TCG doesn't give primogems- why? People complain about literally anything, if they're upset because you can get 20 primos out of 5 minutes of playing cards then let them whine. It won't harm anyone to reward fans of the game for playing it beyond giving them coins that become useless after you inevitably buy everything in the shop.
The resin cap is still godawful. Since the introduction of Imaginarium Theatre, the game wants you to focus on horizontal investment. This sucks because with a maximum of 200 resin every 26 hours- more than a day's wait, which limits how much you can do for a day. You have to balance your resin between getting enough mora, exp books, talent books, boss materials and weekly boss materials. That is not including levelling the weapon or getting artefacts.
The endgame modes rely on either multiple well-built characters (IT) or hyperinvested characters, preferably the currently shilled banners. These are contradictory to the insanely limited resin pool players get, as well as the godawful RNG for all aspects of character building.
Fishing gets boring fast and adds literally nothing to the game. At best you can get a weapon like The Catch and some achievements.
The teapot is... alright. You can get some easy primos and it can be nice to decorate a house for your favourite characters. It is still stuck with annoying time gates, material refreshes and limited placements.
Miliastra is okay, there are some decent modes that can be fun for half an hour, but nothing has stood out since its release.
Am I making sense? The game seems to have forgotten that not everyone plays to get c6 r5 every 5 star with hundreds of dollars worth of resin to make up for the godawful artefact grind. We had multiple patches with no exploration with back to back 5 stars, two of whom were dependant on other 5 star supports and one being highly anticipated since Simulanka or even Dragonspine depending on who you asked. I know it's a gacha game and money talks, but it is insane to me how barebones this update is. You could probably do the archon quest and then spend half a day clearing the map before going back to just doing dailies and waiting for the event to give you content.
Commentaires
That's it.
So we started getting shorter quests, easier puzzles, less exploration, and easier exploration. It seems as though they started focusing on combat and the endgame modes. It's a shame for players who play more primarily for exploration and such.
The biggest consolation I have, and this is just my speculation, is that a lot of the world quest/exploration time may have been redirected on the AQ instead. The quality of the AQ in Nod Krai has been phenomenal.
But honestly Sumeru was peak Genshin Impact for me and ever since part of me has felt just a bit empty and sad with the game. Not like it isn't still amazing, I love the story so much and have been hooked on every archon quest, and I still love the character interactions and VA work that elevate the story so much...
Still, there was a special magic to the exploration for Inazuma and Sumeru that I feel like they have never been able to recapture. Natlan and now Nod Krai really feels like they streamlined the exploration experience so now the magic of getting lost in a different world brimming with secrets and treasure is kind of... lacking.
Edit: maybe this is random, but for me it's like going from Dark Souls 1 to Dark Souls 3. There is so much to love between the two games, beautifully crafted, and of course they share so much that it is undeniable that they are supposed to be the same "world". Yet in DS1 the devs made the map this interconnected web of shortcuts and secret paths that make you feel deeply immersed in another world where your choices while exploring massively impact your experience, while in DS3 everything is streamlined and your exploration is limited to specific paths that lead from point A to point B, with very few branching paths, which makes it feel less immersive and more like you are just "playing a game". I hope this makes sense to people...
That's like two weeks worth of content for me. Not everyone can put their life on hold and marathon through all this stuff in two days.
Most of early game exploration was taking a long time to kill the enemies because you were weak, stopping at every step to upgrade something, collecting absolutely everything that can be collected because you had nothing.
About endgame, pretty sure if you know what you doing c0r0-r1 is more than enough to beat even fearless SO sometimes even dire. IT is also not dupe check, just general horizontal investment. It let old player like me dust out their powercrept unit.
The modern genshin is the result of modern gacha player base. People do story less and explore less. There is a reason they throw in primogem incentive to story and exploration since natlan. A lot of people quit during sumeru because of how tedious the exploration was.
Sure, they don't cover as mush space as, say, Sumeru or Natlan, but it just always feels like you're doing something out in the overworld to me. The amount of quests, oculi, and treasure and such feels really dense to me.
Also not a fan of lunar mechanic and new character pairs model. People shouldn't have to pull 2 characters just to enjoy 1. 4* with no lunar triggers is lame. Trying to bait people to pull cons just to survive, Lauma C1, is something everyone should be weary of.
The most comical part to me is everyone defends bad/greedy decisions with, "you don't need meta teams for over world content" "just pull for who you like you'll be fine unless your doing abyss, SO"...
But when they give us this little content all you have left is SO, Abyss, IT.. which require all the characters from the current patch. Meanwhile f2p are dying of thirst hoping for another drop of primos just to be able to afford one of the 2 characters they need. Just to complete over world in a day and beg for events
Guess XIao needing a shielder
Venti needing Ganyu and Mona
Ganyu also needing a shielder
Hu Tao glued to Xingqiu
Yae glued to raiden
Ayato/Yoimiya to Yunjin(and a shielder in her case)
Were not also "new character pairs model"
The reality is that this "model" has been a thing since forever, and while you could before just run down 4*s as "second best" options, that didnt take away how reliant on others early characters were
Hell, Xiao's ideal team was full 5* at the time: Zhongli for interruption resistance, Albedo for Plunge damage bonus at C4, Jean at C4 for Anemo Shred and Himself
It really is that simple: the game was tuned more in line with the average player. My personal gripe is the dumbed-down puzzles that basically solve themselves after Inazuma. And why? People complained. Hoyo listened.
And don't forget the vastly improved compass that makes exploration easier and faster.
Mondstadt: As you said, barebones.
Liyue: People complained about having to climb all those mountains.
Inazuma: Puzzles were too hard.
Sumeru: Underground exploration was too hard.
Fontaine: Underwater zzz.
Natlan: Saurians were bad.
Nod-Krai: Oh no… exploration is too streamlined!
It is what it is.
But with the exploration thing each to their own. Some places i like some places i dont
At the end of the day its gacha thats it you think this isnt all done on purpose it is. Dont pull or do its up to you
They are a business could have had the best online game of all time if they cared but went the selfish route it is what it is.
Nod krai is also just generally an easier to explore map, much flatter than natlan, with simpler mechanics and less movement options.
Think of it. Inazuma has its difficult puzzles and extra hostile environment.
Sumeru is absolutely tedious with its desert and mazes and non ending intertwined quests.
Fontaine is a breath of fresh air, but it's sub-water part is kinda awkward and takes away from the original genshin experience....i mean not being able to use your skills and elemental powers.... Its was a little weird.
Natlan has enjoyable exploration moments, but come on, most of the time you are either a suarian or you are forced to pull characters with broken exploration powers.
All of those regions has a flaw.... Nod-krai doesn't.
It brings a unique feel and aesthetic exactly similar to Mondstadt and the old nostalgic days.
And because there is no super flying powers or cars going 100 miles per hour, they made it smaller and compacted so it doesn't feel tedious like sumeru desert.
The music, the scenary, the lush colors, interesting characters and their interactions with each other.
I've been around since 1.1 and Nod-krai is the answer to all my hopes and wishes.
Cast aside all other regions experiences and stop making comparison points with other region.... I'm sure you will grow fond of Nod-krai in no time.
I really hope they keep the same development process when we get to the next region.