The game feels so bizzare. Aesthetically, the game is extremely polished, but the quality of life, the controls, and the presentation of the story felt like it got neglected. Can't change my zoom speed, disparity between X and Y axis mouse camera movement, can't remap my keys, can't turn off controller vibration, can't seemlessly swap between mouse & keyboard and controller, lack of lip sync, lack of main character voice acting, uneven voice acting quality (probably down to voice direction more than anything), etc. And from what I've heard, there are only really two zones in the game thus far. This game definitely needed more time in the oven. Seems like it was shoved out the door because of a corporate mandate, or because the team was running out of money.
I wish I could turn off the UID display number in the bottom right of the screen.
Can't turn off controller vibrations, huh.
Hopefully with the profits they're making from this game (IF they are making profit - yes, gacha games reap in huge amounts of money, but the cost of marketing the game is astronomical), they can afford to hire more cutscene animators and afford more voice work. The game is weak on the story presentation. Also wish that the NPC dialogue would be reworked; either gave them a dialogue portrait, or when you talk to them, move the camera in close on their face (like in Trails of Cold Steel 3). But I suppose I might be barking up the wrong tree, looking for a proper JRPG in this game.
The lack of voice acting for the main character really bugs me. Feels like Paimon exists so that the company only had to pay for one voice actor, instead of two (male and female protagonist). Maybe they'll go back and add voices for the main character later on.
The town feels really empty with only a dozen NPCs populating it. Maybe more NPCs and crowds could be added in the PC version? Obviously characters are high poly, so having a lot on screen would require a lot of power, power which mobile phones won't have to run the game at 60 FPS (well, it should be easier for phones since they are rendering the game at like 1080 or 720, vs a computer that is running at like 1980 or 2440 or 3960, so maybe they could handle it).
Also feels disappointing that there is such a wide disparity in the quality of the NPC character designs, and the playable character designs. Wish that more effort was placed into making the NPC designs more unique, like in the Trails series where NPC have designs on par with the playable main characters.
Hm... there are a lot of fat people in Mondstadt. Must be all of the drinking. Beer makes you fat. If you drink one bottle of bear a day, by the end of a year you will have put on 35 pounds of fat!
Hm... a god of wind. It'd be interesting if the meaning of this wind worship was actually fleshed out, rather than just being a gimmick. What does it mean to worship the god of the wind? What makes him different from the god of water, or earth? Mondstad seems to pride itself on Barbatos worship, but I have yet to see what that actually means, how it differentiates itself from other towns that worship other gods.
The gliding could be a little better if they borrowed from GW2's glider mechanics, where you could choose to 1. do nothing and go forward at a constant speed, 2. hold down the back button to slow down, losing energy at a slower rate, or 3. hold the forward button to go faster, losing energy at a faster rate.
Don't breathe fire on the town please.
Rey: "You've actually got the power to fight the dragon!" no, that was Paimon who gave me the magical machinegun, AND gave me infinite glide.
There is a lot of menu busy work. Whenever I unlock some new feature or a new item, I get a popup that won't go away until I open up my menu and navigate the menus to that thing, and it gets really tedious after a while, claiming all of my items and achievement stuff.
The game feels quite bizzare. It feels like it wants to be a JRPG, with an open world... with a gacha system thrown on top. Story wise, you're supposed to be travelling in a party of characters... but you can't play as them in gameplay unless you are lucky enough to draw them from the gacha system. And the game is always online, even though it is functionally a singleplayer JRPG with very light multiplayer elements.
Interesting how Lisa's character design is a fusion of classic anime witch... and a qipao?
Yeah... the localization dialogue could be better.
So uh, Ms. Librarian, you seem to be in the know. What do you know about Stormterror? Was he a dragon sleeping in the area? Where is his lair? If he isn't from around here, then where did he come from? If he came out of nowhere, how do you know he's called Stormterror? Is that temporary name you guys have ascribed to him?
Jean, why are you announcing your plan to stop the crisis with an outsider like me? Shouldn't you summon all of the knights and tell them the plan? Seems weird to entrust this to me over your trusted men.
Can Lisa's detection magic be used to detect my brother and that evil goddess lady who kidnapped him?
"Abandoned four winds temples" okay, hold up. This town prides itself on the worship of Barbatos, the god of the wind. Why the hell have sacred places that worship Barbatos been abandoned? Shouldn't the church be maintaining those places? If these wind temples have power, shouldn't they be guarded? In fact, if these wind temples have power, then why is Barbatos worship in the region centered in the cathedral in Mondstadt, which presumably doesn't have that same power?
"We need to go to four wind temples. I trust you understand why we are only dealing with three". Um, no. I don't. Mind explaining this to me? Sounds important.
"There is no point in maintaning a defensive position" well DUH. Castle walls are useless against giant dragons. Not sure what the tornado has anything to do with this, though.
It's also annoying when I open a menu JUST as Paimon or another character starts saying something, so I close the menu... only for the voice line to not continue, so I don't know what I missed. They should implement a backlog like in the Trails series so you can read and listen to a transcript of the 500 last lines of dialogue that played.
This wind temple doesn't feel like... a place of worship. It feels like a nonsensical video game level. Oh well.
So Kaeya is the cavalry captain... but he doesn't ride a mount or lead cavalry...
... Dude, you look and act like a teenager. What, have you been a dependable knight since you were eight?
Isn't that just basic competency?
But... Mondstadt isn't in existential danger, is it? The dragon only briefly flew past and spawned a single tornado that didn't cause any damage. Plus, I'm not the only person trying to quell the disturbance; I have Amber and Kaelya with me, and presumably Jean and Lisa are doing stuff too. Feels a little early to try flattering me.
My gosh Kaeya stop trying to act cool by standing back and speculating and playing the pronoun game when Dilluc showed up.
Uh, no. I still don't. What, is Dvalin not able to channel his opposite wind direction - the Wind of the West?
Is this going to be a situation like Tiamat from Granblue Fantasy, where in ancient times, the people of Port Breeze once worshipped Tiamat, and she blessed the people with ripe harvests, but after the advent of industrialization and globalized economy/trade with other islands, the people slowly stopped worshipping Tiamat until she was forgotten, and now she's angry? Except that doesn't really work here, because, again, the people of Monstad keep going on and on about how they worship Barbatos. Hm...
Sure would be nice if I could set my own waypoints on the map.
So... what IS Paimon supposed to be? A fairy? Are there other fairies out in this region? Why has Paimon been the only fairy we've seen thus far? Is there a fairy village or something?
Okay, so I've been seeing these Fatui delegates around in town for a while, and I teleport back to town and see two Fatui diplomats talking about claiming credit as the people who aided the Knights of Favonius in stopping the storm. They seem to be cartoonishly silly evil. Maybe they are the secret faction that is being everything? Too obvious, I'd like to give the writers more credit... but the story thus far hasn't inspired confidence in me. I hope they just remain cartoonishly silly evil. Also, are the Fatui another nation? Or are they a NGO like say, a Church?
He says, 5 feet away from another knight.
Obviously "the city in the lake" is the Mondstadt. The "three six-armed giants" are the windmills. "Two guard the statue, one guards the treasure" means that that the treasure is near the windmill on the edge of town, away from the cathedral. Also, what happens if you ask Kaeya for the answer? The riddle is plainly obvious. The picture only spells it out. What, does Kaeya mock you for asking him? Or does he just straight up tell you the answer? If you're going to do a riddle sidequest, at least make the riddle(s) harder, like in the Trails series.
Okay, now THIS is an interesting riddle.
Annnnd then they gave us a map that just told us where to go. Damn it guys!
When looking out across the vast valley of grassy hills and trees, with a deep blue night sky and clouds and the moon, it reminds me of Shadowmoon Valley from WoW.
THIS WHOLE THING WAS A STING OPERATION? Okay, this is cool.
I like how one of the answers you can pick lampshades you using a walkthrough.
Can I please actually get the gliding manual as an item I can read?
Oooo I like this cinematic and the lore.
That's an example I want to read!
Wait, hold up. There is a PENAL CODE? Yes, medieval kingdoms DID have formal laws and regulations... but "penal code" wasn't really used until the 19th century. This is... rather anachronistic.
That is a nice phrase.
Can't you guys use the detect magic Lisa used to track down the source of Stormterror's power to the wind temples to find Raptor?
So... I have to ask. Why are they called "The Knights of Favonius"? Who or what is Favonius? Favonius the first renowned knight in the region, the person who founded the order/whose name in which the order was founded?
What's the big deal about gliding regulations? So far, it seems like I and Raptor are the only people who have been gliding around over the last few days. Hardly enough air traffic to justify heavy regulation of air traffic, and so far I haven't seen any NPC dialogue that suggests that there is actually heavy air traffic in lore.
Just looked at the cooking menu again. Holy crap 66-95 attack buff for all party members for 5 minutes? Seems like cooking is actually worthwhile in this game for once.
The bombing mission was fun.
Um... I still don't know the rules. For one, you mentioned something about landing zones? Where am I supposed to NOT land?
Oh, so NOW they give me the rulebook... after I got my license. Better late than never I suppose. A quiz on the rules would have been fun, though.
Haha the violation cases were funny.
If the guild doesn't collect membership fees, then how does the guild make money? Who pays your wages for manning this booth? What, does the guild take a cut from the contracts they distribute? That's usually how it works, right? The guild hooks up adventurers with jobs and gets a finder's fee.
Again, what is their status in this world? If they have enough clout or power to motivate a city-state to alter it's national defense policy, then that implies the Fatui are either an NGO or a nation in their own right. Which is it?
Why do the Fatui covet Barbatos' power? Is the god of Cryo not strong enough for them? Wouldn't that make them heretics? Or do they have (or interpret) a divine mandate from the god of Cryo to conquer the power of other gods? And why target Barbatos' power specifically? Is Barbatos more powerful than the other gods?
So Mondstadt and Snezhnaya have the same status, but Mondstadt is a city state with no villages or holdings to speak of. So I'm guessing that Snezhnaya is a small nation and that Mondstadt is canonically a large city state.
So... Venti... are you the Archon of eld? The one who strummed the lyre? You have a strikingly similar character design, and seem to be knowledgeable of ancient lore.
Welp, I just purified Dvalin's teardrops of pure hate. Guess we're going to walk up to him and give him headparts of comfort to calm him down... only for the Fatui to waltz in and screw everything up.
Okay, I've been reading the books in my inventory. If I understand this right, the "Winds" are actually just folklore figures, "champions", and not actual divine beings (except maybe Dvalin. Might be a similar situation to Ragnard and the Divine Beasts of the Trails series. Actually, it's probably a lot similar, since Dvalin was a friend of the bard, who may or may not have been Barbatos, but I doubt that it is Barbatos because I doubt a being of such ludicrously high powerlevel would join our party). I wonder from what did the Liontooth Knight liberate Mondstadt from.
So let me get this straight:
- Venessa: the first knight. Founder of the Knights of Fanovius. The Wolf and Lion knights became just as renowned as Venessa that they came to be regarded as equals with Venessa in the canon as Winds themselves.
- Wolf Knight: dead (either the original or his last heir died, leaving no heirs left to inheirt the name). Don't know the bloodline/line of succession died out. Maybe there is an heir who is still alive, but in hiding?
- Lion Knight: probably dead (at the time of the war 100 years ago, the last living Lion Knight was alive, but he had no heir)
You'd think that these guys would have prominent tombs I could visit.
Also, why doesn't Mondstadt have a harbor? The city is literally right next to a river and the ocean!
Ah, now I get what they're going for Mondstadt is supposed to be a city of LIFE, of FESTIVITIES. It is a bustling city of constant festivity, of drink and song and dance, in a place that should be dead and desolate. But you don't really see this portrayed in the game. You don't really see the city populated, or see signs of festivals, or hear people singing songs, or see feasts, or see wheat fields to provide wheat and flour for the wine and the cakes, or windmills to grind the wheat, or cattle grazing in the fields to be fattened for the feasts, etc. Great story idea, but it falls flat without proper execution.
I am curious though. What is Mondstadt's government? The highest ranking official I have heard of its the Knights of Favonius' Grand Master (who is presumably elected by the knights, or anointed by the pope?). So is Mondstadt ruled by a martial dictatorship? The book mentions royals, but we don't see any castles/palaces and there has been no mention of royalty. Surely not all of the aristocrats fled? Perhaps Mondstadt is a theocracy, ruled by a bishop? Or is it just a town with a mayor? Or is democratic with town councils and stuff?
Mondstadt being the city of freedom doesn't really work. There is a heavy emphasis on Mondstadt's government comprising of an Orthodox Church-esque institution, and the Knight of Favonius, two strict hierarchical organizations.
If I had to guess what the Fatui, what Snezhnaya is going for, it would be indifference and/or jealously. Snezhnaya is cold and harsh. The people have grown up in spartan conditions. The people don't have much and it is very uncomfortable. People lose their loved ones. The people endure it with stoicism. They have become a pragmatic people. This stoicism and pragmatism has allowed them to just casually suggest slaying the demigods of another country without a second thought, because it's the easiest way to stop the crisis. Or, they might be jealous. Like how "cold" temperature is actually just an overabundance of highly excited particles being transferred to an relatively inert object, so the Snezhnaya are jealous and want to take from others what they don't have.
Okay, if Barbatos is a man, than who is this woman? The one who has a statue right out in front of the Church of Barbatos? The woman who has statues across the land? Is she supposed to be Venessa? That would imply that she has a higher place in the canon of the Four Winds than the other three Winds. Shouldn't the holy statues in Mondstadt be of Barbatos, not Venessa, though?
On the note, how old is the setting anyway? We know that Venessa liberated Mondstadt from...
something 100 years ago, but we don't have a timeline on when Barbatos created a divine wind that made the land of Mondstadt habitable, or when Mondstadt was settled, or when the gods arrived on Teyvat.
"Dandelion wine"... hm. It's a stretch, but maybe Dilluc is the heir of the Liontooth knight? In any other setting, I'd say that the Dandelion wine was just named after a cultural figure, but so far Genshin Impact has been rather straightforward and blatantly obvious with its lore connections.
Again, WHAT pressure? Are the Fatui threatening a trade embargo? A blockade? An invasion?
Yes, SURELY my white and blue color scheme that is counter to Futai black and red and purple color scheme won't give me away so long as I have this mask on!
Are the Harbingers like the Enforcers from Ouroboros? The Fatui's strongest warriors?
Interesting that Dilluc's ultimate sends out a Phoenix wave, rather than a lion.
LOLOLOL Jean and Dilluc had pet tortoises!
So far, Genshin has been pretty good on not requiring me to use gacha to progress. They could've easily done the Skylanders thing where you were locked out of content out of the game if you didn't have the right elemental Skylanders that you didn't get from the base game.
So far, the localization has been decent. The first couple hours of voice work and dialogue was realy rough, and there are some bizzare lines (and text that doesn't match up with spoken dialogue), but overall it is now okay.
Lackluster presentation of the world and story aside, my main gripe is that it feels like the playable characters are the only characters that matter. The story revolves around the playable teenagers. There aren't any prominent NPCs in the story. Contrast Genshin with GBF. By this point in GBF, we had met a huge array of characters, many of them being important NPCs. Sierokarte, the charismatic shopkeeper who can apparently exist in multiple places at once. Furias, a comedic midget who is also a cunning and ambitious imperial strategist. The Black Knight and Orchid. Pommern, is the crazy evil lieutenant. The archduke, who was Io's master. Etc. The world felt like it had a much, much more varied cast of characters and a world that existed outside of the party.
I guess the Grand Master might come back, but I don't expect her to be important. She will probably just come back and take the reins of the Knights again so that Jean, Lisa, Kaeya, and Amber can leave Mondstadt to travel with the MC.
I don't think I ever told you my age. And, come one dude. Lemme taste the wine!
So... what are the Abyss Mages trying to accomplish? They have appeared as voiceless mobs in the overworld, and they have been repeatedly mentioned as a powerful faction in the setting that even the Fatui are afraid of, and now we get to see one voiced for the first time and it is manipulating Dvalin. Do the Abyss Mages serve the big bad evil goddess that took my brother at the beginning of the game?
What the hell? Is Aether's body being possesed by the big bad evil goddess? Or is he actually being manipulated? If it's the latter, than are Lumine and Aether the survivors of a fallen kingdom? Was the big bad goddess responsible for destroying that kingdom in the first place? And what did the Abyss Mage mean by "your fallen homeland shall return to this world?" I thought that Lumine and Aether came from a different world?
Welp, I've finished prologue act II, and now I've hit a roadblock. I'm rank 14, and I need to be rank 18 to unlock the next part of the story. Guess it's time to grind and sidequest.
Hm... is Katheryne like Sierokarte from GBF, in that she canonically exists in each town at once, manning every guild booth? Or is it like Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny from Pokemon, in that the "Katherynes" are all from one huge family and they all resemble each other and perform the same job and take on the same name, as is family tradition?