How do you feel about the latest nodkrai archon quest?
For me it was great and act 8 was the best act in not just nodkrai, but the whole game. Dottore is a great villain >!and signs show he may not be dead!< traveler probably got their best character development so far between act 7 and 8, columbinas arc was very well exceeded with lots of plot twists and lore, and I also liked wanderers small arc here too.
\>!also RIP sandrone 🥲!<
\>!also RIP sandrone 🥲!<
Commentaires
A big B.A.D (Unapolagetically evil Bastard)
Tearjerking moments
Moral dilemmas
Lore-nukes that would cause a nuclear winter
Several Peak Moments
Power of friendship (and actual battleplans)
Lastly, Awesome new outfits for Traveler for the 5-6 hours of Cinema.
This quest heavily themed around trust. Trust is a basic element to maintaining a relationship or friendship, and that kept on showing up. >!Albedo and Durin trusted Wanderer with the Traveler rescue mission, and boy did he deliver. Illuga had to put trust into Flins trusting thT Flins would come back safely, especially after being devastated with Flins lack of concern over Illuga's worry after hearing about the curse.!<
It was ultimately the trust in one another that propelled the plans forward. Like the trust they put in Wanderer for the formula is quite insane. It was also mutual.
though there's a possibility that Edgerunners VAs were hired prior to 2022 since the project was announced in 2020 and somehow Genshin knew about the casting lol.
i yawn in fontaine every time that stupid navia show up on screen and yaping boring stuff, jail arc is boring too, and other regions have a lot of yawn moments too but nod crai quests always kept me on edge and it was interesting
So Mary-annette will be okay, she just having a vacation in her birthplace
>!I'm sure he'll appear again!<
Story wise... Yeah it's great. Didn't really like the start of the Nod Krai AQs, but thankfully it just gradually improved.
Oh and Edgerunners fans finally got their happy ending. So that was cathartic.
Can't wait for Snezhnaya now.
Still, it wasn't as bad as what Inazuma, Wuwa & HSR have done with very hamfisted attempts to jam Character Quests into the main quest where they dont belong or completely kill the pacing
Also when it comes to gameplay... Yeah it's a shame the action is taking a step back. Again... Natlan had a great balance between this cutscene/action setup. And though I said I really didn't like the start of the Nod Krai AQs in Luna I, there were the standouts like the dungeon crawling with the Fake/Illusion Sibling, or the Research Facility Infiltration.
Kinda wish Genshin would take a page out of other games where dialogue and story progression is blended seamlessly during player control. Hoyo does that from time to time, but they just don't balance it enough with their VN-style storytelling approach.
But in all seriousness, I feel like the way they executed Columbina's story was much cleaner than Cyrene's, it was easier to understand and the delivery was excellent in how it fit perfectly developed Columbina while fitting beautifully with the lore of Teyvat.
This is the first time I can say Hoyo delivered an excellent archon quest that consistently maintained its quality from beginning to end.
Even now there are still unanswered questions about Amphoreus.
Honestly most boring storytelling possible
GET IT OUT AAAAAHHHH
Like deadass, it feels like the banana monkey patch made a child with 3.7
I feel like this was sorely missing for Cyrene, since Mem was more or less an amnesic companion where you never really learned her true nature or her journey of self discovery until the final patch where they shove everything into a long-winded exposition. She never bonds on screen with the other chrysos heirs, and you don't really buy into her unconditional love of Amphoreus and companionship with TB unless if you read deeply into the subtext and assumed these intimate moments happened off screen.
Part of it is also that Amohoreous tried to have too many twists and they don't really connect.
The reason why sonnet and aria are not reincarnated is because both their moons are destroyed.
So in a way, she chose nod krai as her birth place, though the timing of her birth is unexplained (probably Cataclysm shenanigans, like the firmanent weakening allowing the frostmoon to birth a new frostmoon goddess on teyvat)
It's honestly really cool seeing this contrast between Dottore and Columbina. As Traveler pointed out, Dottore can't trust anyone, while Columbina really put her whole faith in others in not only discovering her message, but bringing her back to the present. Dottore believes in contractual relationships of mutual benefits while Columbina hated it and wanted to feel truly normal relationships and friendships which Dottore sees as frail and pathetic.
And that's why Traveler just kept on refusing Dottore's offer to join his side. It's like the contrast in the journey between abyss sibling + Dain and Traveler + Paimon.
Traveler and Paimon have like the truest friendship in all of Teyvat, and the one thing that God-tore couldn't provide Traveler is a meaningful real friendship, one that he has maintained with Bina.
Makes me think- would Abyss Sibling accept Dottore's offer and join him? Likely so, as he can bring about New Khaenriah or wind back time for her, and they are also selfish like what they did with leaving Dieredyth to churlify.
The story should not be any larger than it needs to be or could be.
The devs only understand the personal level so they should stick to writing stories on the ground with the characters they have. The more they deviate from small stories the more nonsensical and crap their writing is.
The more you try to expand the scope the less important the story you were telling feels which makes the audience think you wasted their investment of care in what was already written because it now isn't important.
Think about it this way. If you start out writing about normal characters who are good at martial arts but then start talking about characters who can blowup planets then you diminish the story about the normal characters who are good at martial arts because no matter how good they are at martial arts they won't be relevant when the planet busting characters you just talked about become the focus of the story.
I like how Dottore, a pragmatic character who saw relationships as hierarchical and transactional, was a clear foil to Columbina, who strived to build genuine relationships. Also, one is a false god who saw things as a means to an end, while the other holds the true trilunar authority and gave the Traveler back some of their power as a kind gesture rather than base reciprocity. Dottore manipulates his own reality, Columbina sees through the lies. Dottore is stubborn, Columbina is willing to grow, the contrasts go on and on.
There are also numerous dichotomous themes of life/death, past/future, real/fake. Like the phases of the moon, the story loops on itself, never-ending. I like how the foreshadowing from previous quests reaches a payoff.
Some of the Traveler lines with the Doctor were a bit cheesy and hypocritical, although I understand that in the moment the Traveler acted on emotion due to Columbina's disappearance. It was interesting to see the Traveler being unable to deny some of Dottore's views. While the Traveler wants to believe they're like Columbina, admittedly there is a little bit of Dottore. Of course, ultimately the Traveler will play the noble role in spite of Dottore's offer because of Columbina.
The Doctor's demonstration of his reality-altering abilities was cool; he basically got the infinity stones. The final fight was also hype. It was cool to hear Dottore warp the music and screen during the battle. Columbina's absolute power over the three moons being able to overcome Dottore's synthetic power (who couldn't fully master it yet) seemed like a fair way to defeat him. To me, it felt a bit too well-timed that Sandrone had to die right before her calcs hit 100% and before the moon was brought down, but I admit her calculation plan was good. I would have liked to see more of the implications of Sandrone's death.
Overall, the quest was quite good. The literary components were good. There were some narrative and storytelling elements that I felt weren't perfect, but still solid. Lore drops were very interesting. Cutscenes, audio, and visual effects were big improvements compared to previous archon quests. The characters played their roles in the story and felt impactful, which was nice (lmao CPU Wanderer). I'd say Nod Krai is top 2 for me.
Entertaining, felt high stakes, insane visuals everywhere.
Great stuff.
Genshin after Nodkrai: The tallest mountain and the longest river in gacha game industry.
Other than that, it's perfect. Sadly, because of its abrupt ending, it still does not surpass Fontaine AQ for me.
Once the aq ended it was like the flood never happened
But exactly same was in Sumeru. Academia hold capital city for 180 days in loop - only one person almost died from exhaustion, rest just shrug it off and nobody from outside even asked why city was closed for six months.
I did like the overall story though and the characters involved. Though I would've liked more specific character interactions and development of dynamics. For example it would've been cool to see the harbingers get ACTUALLY suspicious and wary abour Wanderer but instead they were just casually curious.
But yeah, had they not made Dottore compketely untouchable and instead just stronger and controlling an army or something I would've really liked it.
Also I REALLY hope that Dottore is dead. I'm kinda tired of him by now lol. Time for a new villain.
And I can't believe the showed the moon sisters alive just for Columbina to murder them lmao.
It's a typical Asian bitter sweet ending troupe. Their plotline is complete imo.
I was really interested to see what Tholindis was gonna do in the portal she jumped into and what her plan was and while we hear about her plan... her just being stuck there was such a disappointing end to her plot that was sort of hyped almost even. And Rerir goes from this crazy madman to.. just a normal guy who figured out his issues on his own lol. At least make Columbina be the reason he returns to his senses so it wouldn't feel like the concern of him returning eventually was wasted. It's not a big deal but just a bit underwhelming finish to their stories.
But yeah I don't actually expect to hear anything about them again. Maybe some future villain will go there and steal Rerir's powers or something but that's probably the most they'll contribute in the future.
Rerir struggled against the futility of eternity. I dunno how long you can rage for but being in an inescapable prison will likely mellow you out eventually. Plus it seems the abyss hold on him (the source of his madness) was much weaker in the moons reflection.
Rerir will probably make a return in some way. While he can't escape himself, it's possible Columbina could bring him back.
I understand WHY Rerir mellowed out, I just find it incredibly disappointing imo. And I don't recall if they said how long he has been there so it could've just been the few days/weeks/whatever since the fight against him.
Even though I hope we'll see them later, I doubt it. Perhaps there will be some villain who wants all the sinners etc and goes there to collect him or steal his powers but that's probably it.
Rerir himself did not know how long he had been there. He only knew that he was angry for a very long time until he realized the futility of it. Kind of hard to gauge any semblance of passing time in that space. Columbina herself might have spent centuries or millenia even with her shortcuts to finally reach the end.
We know that time flows backward in that space while moving, but does it flow forward in a fixed space? I feel like it has to for Rerir to see Tholindis afterimage where he is at. And if that is the case, since Rerir said he can't move and is not seen when Columbina first arrives...we might be able to assume he escapes. Unless there is another explanation for the afterimages.
Yeah time fuckery is always confusing lol.
>And if that is the case, since Rerir said he can't move and is not seen when Columbina first arrives...we might be able to assume he escapes.
I think that's just Columbina being free to move in the realm and when she made a portal to the realm she was simply sent to a different location from Rerir. She clearly travels in different locations there like to where Tholindis is.
Its hard to know if the locations are actually different or if it is the same location at different points in time. You also can't really know how big the space is given that traversing it moves you through time and there aren't really any great landmarks to accurately gauge it.
Nahida did say anything about making more segments, I think he sent one back home, and stayed behind to enact the plan.
And yes it is a trope but you have to keep in mind that Dottore was "becoming a god". He had godlike powers but not absolute control over them due to inexperience and because he was integrating the marrow power through a technological mechanism. Even the 3 moon goddesses mentioned that their powers are incompatible with each other, so it's reasonable to believe that this incompatibility likely created an imperfect godhood for Dottore and increased his difficulty of perfectly controlling his power.
Plus, for all of Dottore's power, he is riddled with character flaws which have been the undoing of countless gods in Teyvats history.
Sure but it doesn't make it feel any less like nonsense imo lol. It didn't even take him much time to make it. It would've been much cooler and interesting if he made a replica that isn't seemingly perfect imo.
I do agree that the ability to manufacture an artificial moon marrow trivializes them a bit, especially without significant time to study them. But I think you hit the nail on the head with the "seemingly perfect" part. We don't know how much of the way things went are due to character flaws, lack of control, or the imperfect nature of his artificial moon marrow.
I'm also not rejecting the idea that we aren't just trapped in a samsara of Dottore's making right now, which could explain the distortion at the end of act VIII.
I would personally be quite annoyed if this was some samsara stuff lol.
Yeah...I'm really hoping that isnt the case as it would be the mother of all invalidations lol. Also, there would be about 10 million questions on what was real versus what wasn't and a big fat what was the point.
I do think at the very least...it will be something interesting. I just cant remember any other instance of that distortion happening outside of the Samsara...can you?
I don't know if you've seen the anime Bleach but there is a character with the ability of perfect illusions or something (it's been a while so I don't recall the exact thing) and I absolutely hate it because everything is now a "is it real?" type of situation lol. And at any point the writer could've just pulled the rug from under the story and it wouldn't even be an "asspull" technically as it's the established ability of the character lol.
I don't even remember what the distrortions looked during Samsara, I've tried to eliminate that plotline form my memory as much as possible lol.
If you are referring to Sosuke Aizen's complete hypnosis, then yeah the implications can get pretty trippy. I do think ever since the concept of a Samsara was introduced, everything in Teyvat has to be examined through a lens of "is it real?" And in many cases the answer keeps coming up, "No, no it isn't" from the sky to the moon to history to people's memories. I doubt rukkadevhata and the wanderer will be the only two people who have been removed from Irminsul which adds even more layers.
So many questions left unanswered.
Also, I hate what they did to my people Sandrone and especially Varka. Varka was teased as a martial master, a walking powerhouse. He even aura farmed with his 'chat with Rerir', just to find out that the guy simply bailed out of his fight with the Racher. I really hope his story quest makes up for it.
~~For the intentional hype of "I met Capitano and we fought and it ended in a draw" I got NONE of that from the Archon quest so far~~ They never fought, still, was part of the hype as equals.
but i sobbed like six times.
so.
thats all really.
Disappointed we couldn’t see the inside the Traveler’s ship though
A lot of my minor nitpicks before were about how some characters seem to only exist or matter in the context of another, and other characters seem to only matter from the pov of the travellerbor by themselves. This is not the case in Nod-krai, especially in act 7 and 8 where there's a balanced mix of the 2.
I loved how emotional Lauma was in this quest, its very in character for her to get visibly angry at Dottore's comments when he's the one who ripped away her former deity turned close friend. And while mostly everyone knows how it feels to worry about their missing friend, it makes perfect sense to me that she's mainly the one consoling Paimon as she, in my opinion, has the most empathy in the group.
Arlecchino didn't have much of a major role but I loved the tidbits of her personality she displayed. Instead of directly confronting Dottore, she immediately goes on to destroy his research. Her conversation with Tartaglia was a nice bit of fan service, we need to see more of them together in snezhnaya.
Columbina is once again by herself for most of the quest but her development in the past 3 patches actually spurs her on to having more agency, whereas before she would've resigned herself to fate. Paraphrasing what the traveller said (loved how they were mostly voiced btw) Columbina doesn't speak much but she has lots of thoughts going through her head and now she actively puts them into action. It's safe to say that Columbina came back because she chose to be more Proactive.
In much the same way, wanderer's character growth was great to see. You can see how he's slowly regaining trust in certain harbingers but he's hesitant still, absolutely fair. So he consults the traveller about his doubts. Twice he chose not pursue his revenge himself and this level of maturity would've been non-existent in The Balladeer.
Sandrone's contribution speaks for herself. Wonderful character.
My only gripes would be:
- The handling of Rerir. Look I get that the moon prison cured him of abyssal influence, so he's not angry anymore but it seems like they just wanted him to be less angry as soon as possible so he could have that (admittedly nice) moment with Tholindis.
- Columbina's reaction to Sandrone's supposed death. I can understand why Arlecchino and wanderer are less mournful seeing as how they believe Sandrone to have something planned but Columbina doesn't know that. She reacted sadly after the dottore fight ended but her Sadness isn't apparent after that.
- Varka please do something that doesn't involve stabbing the ground.
In conclusion: I'll definitely have to ponder whether this becomes my favourite act over Nod-Krai act 4 and fontaine act 5.
Also - where the horses????
Also, am glad the death wasn't immediately undone (though we know it will be eventually). Good to just let it have some weight for now with the absence, kinda like KH3's ending.
And the camera angle and animation was peak.
My only complaint is how quickly they skipped to the afterparty & getting everyone back to Nod Krai. I feel like they could have put a 30 second cutscene of Sandrone's body getting to Fontaine or people boarding boats from Natlan and Sneznaya to return to Nod Krai. It would've been an sneak peek at some random dock from Sneznaya that I'm sure plenty of people would've been excited about.
My only issue was that I thought the fight against Dottore to be ... Underwhelming... Or just too quick maybe. But it was awesome and full of interesting mechanics.
That glitch at the end of the AQ (OP's image) is ridiculously ominous...
I have a bad bad bad feeling about it...
For those who played HSR too , doesn't it remind you of a certain fight against a certain chicken winged boy?
Best AQ in the history of the game.
I wouldn't use it much, but sometimes I just want to "Yeah yeah understandable, very dramatic but let me just read the short summary", it would help to shorten things, but more importantly - it would remove the anxiety of even starting new quests when they have stockpiled
It was the first time I understood skip button wanters, because I'd watch it on YT at 2x speed instead.
Yeah it was great
The mix of cutscenes/yapyap/fights are balanced it's a good rythmn
The camera is not fixed and there is a lot of cinematography shots
Music peak
Story peak
World design peak
My only disappointment is that Varka was benched af and did nothing despite being one of the strongest.
I really hopes there will be a quest to glaze him because right now there is little incentive to pull for him (except that is he is big)
I really want to stay at your house
I also loved how the traveler was an actual part of the story for once. It didn't feel like he was just a spectator along for the ride, he was central to the entire conflict, and he TALKED! It's everything I have been begging Hoyo to do ever since Inazuma.
Finally, Columbina's story was so incredibly well done. From the start when we got to know her weak self in her little cave, till the end when she became a true badass moon goddess. I was really invested in her story, and it was told in a much better way than Mavuika's was.
Nathan and Fontaine had higher peaks (but Natlan's ending was terrible and Fontaine only peaked at Sinner's finale), but it's a much better quest overall
Columbina both visual and writing is stunning. So ethereal. The three moon goddess section I wish it longer a bit longer but welp, they want to gatekeep the lore, huh?
I also really enjoy the Varka Nicole part. Dottore is a menace.
Wanderer is so-so mature now.
The mvp of Bina rescue mission: Sandrone. The amount of callback and symbolism in Sandrone solution to Narzissenkreuz WQs is just crazy. I even dare to said Dottore was beaten not only by the Nod-Krai cast power of friendship, but there also menacing four genius orphan ghosts cheering behind the scenes as well.
I think my issue with this is that how *lame* I think Dottore ended up being. He was a loser - he was touted to be omnipotent by *everyone*, and he (plot twists in future quests notwithstanding) failed like a cartoon villain in less than one arc. I hated that Columbina just appears in the final fight and crushed him one-sidedly with no explanation, despite the cast bemoaning that a god is really hard to beat. I hated the way Sandrone died. I can go on, but I simply just hated the final boss fight and Dottore, because he's just... unlikeable, unfathomable, and ultimately irrelevant.
Additionally, I hated how the ending points at a 'Nod Krai that will now work together'. I don't recall any point in the story where Nod Krai was divided, ever. I certainly don't think this patch ever used Dottore as a wedge with which to sow discord among Nod Kraians other than the fact that they had to evacuate. I also hate the lack of respect for Dottore's victims, who were given one bodyswapped instance and was never seen again, and given gacha track records I seriously doubt that anything will come off of this.
Otherwise, it's a masterclass in making new characters shine while still reminding us how competent old ones are. Loved the Wanderer here, Albedo was fantastic, Arlecchino was great with Childe as well. Loved Columbina's arc, think it was well written. Didn't like the romantic subtext with the traveller, but eh, what can you do, it's a gacha game. I also loved the extra characterization and introspection we have into the Traveller's character, it's perhaps the only good thing that came out of Dottore.
7/10. Had serious issues as an overall story, but the character arcs are intriguing enough that I'm willing to look past some of it.
The Traveler not getting a moonsign is bad tho.
For an entire patch, we're actually still being mind-fk by Dottore, we just don't know it yet.
For starters, Dottore making a whole ass artificial fully functional moon marrow off screen is crazy. Now, if there is somebody smart and blasphemous enough to do such a feat, that's definitely Dottore, however that should have been a much bigger plot point, there should have been some sort of price to pay to achieve such a thing. Instead, we got Dottore wielding the Trilune in the first ten minutes of the quest.
However, what's much worse is the fact that then he proceeded to do nothing of value with literal shades-level power at his fingertips. He creates his evil energy fields where he does spooky experiments or whatever, and yet even though the characters constantly tell us these energy fields are expanding, they don't move a single inch. Actually, that's a theme throughout the whole quest - characters reiterate how insane he is and how, if they don't contain him now, the rest of Teyvat is doomed. But what do we see of this insanity?
During Natlan's war segment (and I cannot believe I'm using Natlan AQ as a positive example), the entire region is changed - the sky and the whole atmosphere are dark, we go to different spots and see all the suffering and the horrors of war, we are forced to make tough decisions, we see the map slowly get consumed by the Abyss, we see the number of victims rise up - it truly feels like the Cataclysm all over again.
Dottore though? All the characters are planning and scheming his downfall and doing all sorts of stuff, they even evacuate the whole region, and yet the dude with almost infinite power does nothing whatsoever. Now, perhaps this can be excused in Act 7, since he's toying with the Traveller and really the rest of the squad without Columbina and Aether are sitting ducks. However, the fact that he does absolutely nothing from the moment the Traveller is rescued all the way up to the final battle is completely insane - he is arrogant and likes playing with his food, sure, but he is anything but stupid.
And this ties directly into the pacing issues - we spend like two hours watching all the characters plan the final strike against Dottore (as well as Columbina's POV but I'll discuss that later) under virtually no threat nor time constraint. Yes, they tell us that the energy fields are expending and that Dottore is insane, but WE DON'T SEE THAT! We just watch all the characters scheming and whatever, and then at a completely random point Dottore just shows up and the final fight starts. What happened to a finale having a build up???
In Sumeru and Fontaine, the final battles all have huuuge buildups (Jnagarbha Day and Furina's trial) that, like warming up before exercising, prepare you for the climax. Dottore suddenly coming into the town and initiating the final fight was just so jarring, it didn't feel like a final fight, it felt like skipping the final dungeon in a video game, like entering world 8 and fighting Bowser right away. Similarly, after you kick his ass, you just immediately wake up in the Flagship? Like dude, one second Bina's holding Sandrone's lifeless body, the next we are gossiping with Paimon with cheerful background music?
No matter how peak the fight was, I just couldn't get into it because it starts and ends so abruptly. And no matter how awesome Columbina's appearance is (especially the absolutely divine OST, like omg I almost cried??), let's not get even started on how nonsensical her power-up is. The three moon sister put all their authorities into one person, and that just works? No explanation why that doesn't rip her apart, as they suggest it should? And then she transfers their AUTHORITY-LESS bodies back into the world, and still we somehow have the all powerful moon marrows? Like seriously, if they surrendered their authorities, where the hell did the moon marrows and their power come from? Why are there basically two copies of Trilunar authority in Teyvat? And does Bina now have double Frost Moon powers, did Canon double it and give it to the next person?
And the worst offender of all, Columbina then somehow hides this authority in the Frost Moon? How in the actual fuck does she do that? Nibelung built the moon's reflection as an inescapable prison for the Moon Sisters, and yet it seems you can move shit in and out however you please, as long as it is convenient for the plot.
There of course are many other minor problems, which alone aren't too bad but together they do make a nasty pile: Tholindis loses all her agency and becomes a complete plot device, the role of the world formula (in my opinion one of the coolest concepts in Genshin) in rescuing Columbina remains unexplained, many characters are missing from the final fight (Ineffa, Aino...), Varka remains Mr. Potential Man, the pulling of the moon is also unexplained (yeah, Hexenzirkel does have the ultimate power of random-bullshit-magic, but it would have been cool to see some other characters helping out too, maybe Aino and Ineffa helping with a huge kuuvahki magnet, Albedo and Durin with an alchemical array etc.)...
And yeah, that's about it, I guess - I didn't expect to write such a long comment, but I guess I had a lot of frustration pent up with this AQ. I'll probably refashion this into a proper post later, although it will probably get downvoted into oblivion. I love Genshin Impact with all my heart, have so since I started playing in 1.1, and that's why I feel obliged to criticize the developers when they fumble, so that hopefully future story arcs end up being better.
tl;dr - Dottore is only threatening on paper while doing absolutely nothing noteworthy in the story, the pacing is all over the place with the final fight lacking a good buildup, Columbina is overpowered with no good explanation, some other stuff too, still love Genshin but hopefully they write better in the future.
CINEMA