Genshin Impact - Coop RPG - Page 61

So far I am very impressed with Sumeru, the slingshot mechanic to move quickly between places high & low and near & far is a great addition. Bonus points to them for not making it be locked behind a dendro character, anyone can use it.

The MSQ Archno Quest was quite interesting and intriguing as well. We've learnt quite a lot about the world and it sets up even more interesting things to come.
I loved the designs of a lot characters we met in 3.0 Alhaitham, Dendro Archon, Collei & Dehya all look fantastic.

I also initially dismissed the little forest folk as inconsequential and generally annoying to deal with due to their naming conventions & weird vocabulary but they'd got some good info on them about some pertinent topics to us.

I also love how much more nuanced the storytelling has become. We can no longer say for sure who is on our side and who is the bad guy here. Everyone is holding their cards close to their chests for now.

Dendro seems to be very compatible with hydro and electro. Currently Tighnari & Collei really love to quicken, aggravate & spread with a lot of electro users. Their bloom with hydro isn't bad either but I'm getting the feeling other characters in the future will do it better than Tighnari & Collei.

It was fine, but my god the dream sequence was long. The new "contemplate" mechanic was a decent attempt at something non-combat, though the execution is pretty basic.

I think my biggest complaint about the MSQ this time around is how wonky the pacing is (as is tradition for the MSQ). The dream starts suddenly and ends suddenly. The start I can understand, but the end is less justifiable. Basically nobody else talks about it except for us and Kusanali, and I think the explanation that the populace is too indoctrinated is lazy. It makes it feel like the whole ordeal had no tangible consequences.

I also disagree that the writing is more nuanced. MSQ writing is about as black and white as it gets. Akademia bad, Kusanali good. The world quests are where the writers really get to stretch their legs. But then again, their hit rate on world quests has been very good compared to the MSQ.

It's kind of amusing how we seem to interact with Aranara way more than humans. I think around 75% of my time in the game has been Aranara-quest related.

Aranara are a bit hit or miss. They have "personality", but it's limited because of their way of speaking. The similarity of their names does not help at all. A lot of the individual quests and actions are kinda whatever, but having everything culminate in the festival and getting all the flowers was a really nice way to wrap things up. Now let me equip the damn garland.

Memory stuff was somewhat cliche, somewhat decently executed. I don't love it or hate it.

That was cool. Didn't think they'd do a vision thing. World quests stay winning.

I also enjoyed the part where you call out the fatui plant. The reveal itself was nothing notable, but they actually let you pick whether you spare or kill. I ended up choosing the more permanent solution just out of curiosity. I suspect it doesn't actually change anything, but the extra freedom is a nice touch.

It looks kinda medium-sized when compared to Sumeru proper, but this thing has essentially double its map size because there are underground tunnels & inverted pyramids EVERYWHERE. There's also the stone tablet that kinda cockblocks you from doing everything at once... Doing >>Golden Slumber<< gives your slate 2 authority and then after every daily reset you can get +1 more authority doing specific world quests at Araru Village.
Man, Scara piloting a Gundam gave me chills, but his backstory was a little wierd. First the Electro Archon discards him and he doesn't snap. Then the blacksmith and he also doesn't snap. Finally a little child dies who made a promise with him and he finally snaps? What gives? Kinda weird to be mad at a kid for dying, lol... I also assume that child was one of Kazuha's ancestors judging by the hairstyle & color.
I'll just assume its the "rule of 3" at work here...

If I understood the cinematics that played, Kusanali = Rhukka but she lost/sacrificed her powers to seal the Abyss/withering, so she is the original Archon. I thought in 3.0 she could've been a reincarnation or a successor to Rhukka (daughter) because of the cycle of reincarnation in Hinduism but I'm glad that's not the case. I'm assuming that also put unimaginable stress on her mind and a child's body could not hold an adult's mind? so she forgot who she was, or the trauma was so great. If you guys did the quest in Liyue, we learnt that Gouba also went through something like this LOL. The god of stoves & hearths used to be quite the chad back in his day...
There is still the line "World [...] forget me." we heard inside the Irminsul, I wonder what the full line is.

It's also pretty on the nose that Cyno/Dehya/Al-haitham are all connected to King Deshret. Cyno has the hood of the high priest and is connected to the Egyptian Anubis, Al-haitham's eyes looks just like the mural depicting King Deshret and him being a scribe would make give him a connection to... Thoth? that Dehya's nickname is "Flame Mane" strongly suggesting a connection with cats so... Bastet I'm assuming? I wonder where all this is going...

Sucked. Progressed way too quickly for anything to stick. Eremite mercenary ambushes are everywhere it seems, and nobody bats an eye. Nahida gets "captured" and we kinda just shrug and move on. Why exactly did we let a random kid tag along again? Oh right, we needed someone to interrupt and cause a scene so Dehya could do some self-sacrifice that doesn't actually happen.

Traveler should be capable of brute forcing their way through all of this shit, but doesn't for reasons. We've literally fought gods and harbingers. Ah well, plot.

Better than the story quests. Abrasive researcher got old pretty quickly, and did a 180 pretty fast in the end scene. Was a bit too sudden to be believable, but whatever.

The lore is... interesting. The characters would have you believe that the previous Eremite kingdoms were grand and noble. The text you get suggests otherwise.

Cool, with caveats.

The desert is a nice change of pace from the rainforest, but it's one-note. There's basically just vast expanses of dunes, which isn't all that interesting when you have to traverse it a bunch of times.

Tons of underground areas that link up with each other. Problem is the map is still unable to handle any of it. I get so fucking lost in the labyrinths because they all look the same. Areas with multiple elevators are particularly bad. Pins aren't even useful because I need to know the exact route to reach certain locations, and it's not always obvious.