Nod Krai exploration is a step down...
Exploration in a key part of this game. One of the best memories from this game are the unique regions you explore.
Nod Krai is as beautiful as other regions but the exploration part imo is a horribly easy and spoon fed. There are lack of puzzles in general in genshin, Natlan was the first one where there are next to no puzzles just equip saurian and solve it, but the whole Natlan theme is being fast and fun exploration. Nod Krai does have some iconic puzzle mechanics with magnets but the other stuff is extremely easy.
Remember the Inazuma cliff chest which we never know why it locked out when going close, Mondstat chests where you go the unknown island which is not even on map? There is none of those wow moments in Nod Krai. The game heavily focuses on exploration with the compass buff and giving additional rewards, but there has been a feeling the exploration is simply too boring in Nod Krai. You killed one group of enemy here have 3 chests instead of only one which was shown. So many short easy puzzles reward 3 chests and many of them are Luxurious chests, precious chest which are meant to be rare and hard but it is just normal walk in Nod Krai. There is a new abyss corrupted region in Nod Krai which is meant to kill you if you stay to long just like Dragon spine but guess what the bar charges at snail's pace and it doesn't kill you to it decreases health by 0.5%HP, it takes 3 minutes to kill a character. For something meant to be immersive this is not scary not even serious it is a joke.
The time trial challenges got worse, they were already easy to collect particles in some time but some of them made you restart. Nod Krai you just sit there for 5 minutes doing NOTHING btw except pressing T to grab different spiritway. The regions gets explored to like 50% - 60% by doing bare minimum which shouldn't be the case. I never felt 100% was easier but straight up quick now. This is honestly very boring imo. You shouldn't be giving this much chests by doing nothing first of all.
I have no complains about region and music itself, but for waiting 2 full patches this is the most boring and short expansions in today where they hardly release new map. We are in endgame type of regions yet there is so much handholding this late to the compared to Dragonspine, Inazuma, Sumeru which are rather early parts of the game. The Boss fights in general also got hit, most people died to Raiden Shogun and have to restart the fight to defeat her, nowadays they just give you infinite heals, infinite revives by also giving the most boring combination of characters like Traveler+Nefer, this is just drag of fight with no stakes. We have the option to lower world level or even make the fight easier but no they made horribly easy for no reason.
That is it for my rant. This expansion was the smallest, shortest, fastest and most disappointing because there was too little to explore with million luxurious chests/precious chests given so easy they didn't even try much just made everything so compact.
Nod Krai is as beautiful as other regions but the exploration part imo is a horribly easy and spoon fed. There are lack of puzzles in general in genshin, Natlan was the first one where there are next to no puzzles just equip saurian and solve it, but the whole Natlan theme is being fast and fun exploration. Nod Krai does have some iconic puzzle mechanics with magnets but the other stuff is extremely easy.
Remember the Inazuma cliff chest which we never know why it locked out when going close, Mondstat chests where you go the unknown island which is not even on map? There is none of those wow moments in Nod Krai. The game heavily focuses on exploration with the compass buff and giving additional rewards, but there has been a feeling the exploration is simply too boring in Nod Krai. You killed one group of enemy here have 3 chests instead of only one which was shown. So many short easy puzzles reward 3 chests and many of them are Luxurious chests, precious chest which are meant to be rare and hard but it is just normal walk in Nod Krai. There is a new abyss corrupted region in Nod Krai which is meant to kill you if you stay to long just like Dragon spine but guess what the bar charges at snail's pace and it doesn't kill you to it decreases health by 0.5%HP, it takes 3 minutes to kill a character. For something meant to be immersive this is not scary not even serious it is a joke.
The time trial challenges got worse, they were already easy to collect particles in some time but some of them made you restart. Nod Krai you just sit there for 5 minutes doing NOTHING btw except pressing T to grab different spiritway. The regions gets explored to like 50% - 60% by doing bare minimum which shouldn't be the case. I never felt 100% was easier but straight up quick now. This is honestly very boring imo. You shouldn't be giving this much chests by doing nothing first of all.
I have no complains about region and music itself, but for waiting 2 full patches this is the most boring and short expansions in today where they hardly release new map. We are in endgame type of regions yet there is so much handholding this late to the compared to Dragonspine, Inazuma, Sumeru which are rather early parts of the game. The Boss fights in general also got hit, most people died to Raiden Shogun and have to restart the fight to defeat her, nowadays they just give you infinite heals, infinite revives by also giving the most boring combination of characters like Traveler+Nefer, this is just drag of fight with no stakes. We have the option to lower world level or even make the fight easier but no they made horribly easy for no reason.
That is it for my rant. This expansion was the smallest, shortest, fastest and most disappointing because there was too little to explore with million luxurious chests/precious chests given so easy they didn't even try much just made everything so compact.
Commentaires
Please Genshin, give us bigger maps in future. And please make Dornman Port, whenever it is added, as big as Chenvyu Vale.
Like here's the thing.
In the first three regions you had more stuff related to the characters and their elements with the puzzles. Monuments, pressure plates and so on.
Then in sumeru we got dendro and they introduced various puzzles that used dendro characters or used the elements like using dendro and electro on the plants, breaking rocks with dendro charged attacks and so.
Come fontaine all the characters in Fontaine had ousia and pneumia which added to their interactions woth the environment and enemies.
Then came natlan and the character kits were so integrated with the region mechanics and traversal. You could use the saurians or you could use the characters and the night soul transmission made travelling around natkan so much more fun.
But then we go to nod krai and although the characters are integrated with some aspects of the world...they dint benefit the same way mechanically from exploring it. They still work with enemies but you don't get any benefit from using aino or any nod krai units in the over world for puzzles like you would collei/kachina and lynette.
Like this is a small aspect but it feels like something to consider especially since nod krai more or less feels like a sub region pre fontaine who didn't have their mechanics so integrated.
Like here's the thing.
In the first three regions you had more stuff related to the characters and their elements with the puzzles. Monuments, pressure plates and so on.
Then in sumeru we got dendro and they introduced various puzzles that used dendro characters or used the elements like using dendro and electro on the plants, breaking rocks with dendro charged attacks and so.
Come fontaine all the characters in Fontaine had ousia and pneumia which added to their interactions woth the environment and enemies.
Then came natlan and the character kits were so integrated with the region mechanics and traversal. You could use the saurians or you could use the characters and the night soul transmission made travelling around natkan so much more fun.
But then we go to nod krai and although the characters are integrated with some aspects of the world...they dint benefit the same way mechanically from exploring it. They still work with enemies but you don't get any benefit from using aino or any nod krai units in the over world for puzzles like you would collei/kachina and lynette.
Like this is a small aspect but it feels like something to consider especially since nod krai more or less feels like a sub region pre fontaine who didn't have their mechanics so integrated.
Speaking of, the compass is the best QOL Ive ever seen, i love being able to clean the map and get every little thing once i get to 90%. I wish i had this in Sumeru desert..
But yea, the lack of maps, especially maps of a decent size, feels bad.
The new Nod Krai map ? Already 100% within 2 weeks effortlessly. Only used compass after reaching 100% to get the few remaining chest
At times, it does feel extremely easy. Indeed surfing along as a kuuhenki and pressing 'T' twice alon the way is quite boring. I like the use of the mechanic to sort of guide us towards further puzzles or to showcase a region, but it wouldn't hurt if there were also a few more challenging time trials.
Biggest gripe is the lack of depth of the region though. Nod Krai feels small. The new compass system makes it easier to find all there is to find. And what there is to find is often quite easy to get. So it went by too quickly for my taste.
Also fuck getting roped into world quests just by proximity and still not having an accept / decline world quest popup while exploring.
And yes, Natlan feels terrible to explore if you don't have any 5\* Natlan characters or Ifa. The free Saurians are a pain to have to find and use, especially when you have to do it every single time you're in the region even after Waypoints are unlocked. I have alt accounts that have some Natlan characters like Chasca and Mavuika while another alt has none and I used them for about the same amount of time. The experience is so horribly different.