• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Genshin Impact |OT| 5.0 (Natlan) - Everything Changed When the Fire Nation Arrived

Pejo

Gold Member
I'd get those if they had them here. Melusines are the best thing from Fontaine.
Actually agree. Sadly underutilized too, considering we barely engage with them outside of the Merusea village stuff. Sure they're cute, but they're also (very kind) sociopaths who don't really understand human emotions so they just kind of fake it in a cute way. There's lots of opportunity there for touching moments and comedy, and they barely explored it.

Damn, this dude went all in on EM:
org6vybqqggd1.jpeg


I'm most concerned about the aspect ratio of this screenshot though. Is bro playing on 4:3?
 
Actually agree. Sadly underutilized too, considering we barely engage with them outside of the Merusea village stuff. Sure they're cute, but they're also (very kind) sociopaths who don't really understand human emotions so they just kind of fake it in a cute way. There's lots of opportunity there for touching moments and comedy, and they barely explored it.
I'm sad they never did anything with Sigewinne with that. She had that one insane line about her liking to play dumb, and being trusted. Now it's just a random line, rather than something to hint at her inner thoughts.

Damn, this dude went all in on EM:
org6vybqqggd1.jpeg


I'm most concerned about the aspect ratio of this screenshot though. Is bro playing on 4:3?
Damn, how is that even possible? I've never gone over 1000, this has to be some insane combination of artifacts and buffs. I assume he's playing on a phone or tablet, possibly one of the foldy ones. Game looks similar on mine.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
This Imaginarium was a little harder than the last one, but still full cleared on a single run with no restarts. Definitely did not bother trying to get all of the flowers this time since I found out that they're just bragging rights.

All thanks to my little tank:
qnARZMX.jpeg


I think this one showed me that I probably should have invested in my Ayaka a little. She was using a level 80 weapon at 9/9/9 but with level 1 artifacts, whoops. Wrio was my major carry this time for the harder fights.

*edit*

Did Qiqi's echo trial and InterMusketeer InterMusketeer you weren't kidding about that fight being a pain. It took me 4 tries to figure out the rotation that they wanted us to use to beat it. Nearly all of the damage comes from Fischl, so you have to be extra mindful of her cooldowns.

Funny enough, I think these echo trial fights are some of the hardest content in the game. They force you into tight mastery of the mechanics and you can't artifact farm your way out of it, mostly.

Also good news for people asking last time: the previous poses you buy with the imaginarium coins aren't limited time, they were still in the shop and you can buy them at any time after they release. I picked up Yoimiya/Yelan/Xiangling this time.

Man I really like Imaginarium. It's not too long, it's not frustratingly hard, and it pays dividends if you've leveled a variety of characters. Good shit.
 
Last edited:

jonnyXx

Member
9ptJ5ib.jpeg


They are decreasing the number of required characters in theatre by 2 for each difficulty and removing the cap on how many characters you can invite.
There is still a minimum required but no maximum. For every charcter you bring beyond the minimum required you get a buff.

Expected that they might increase the number of elements but this works too, it should be easier for everyone to participate while still rewarding horizontal investment. Also should be good for when they expand theatre, the next difficulty won't require a stupid amount of characters.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
9ptJ5ib.jpeg


They are decreasing the number of required characters in theatre by 2 for each difficulty and removing the cap on how many characters you can invite.
There is still a minimum required but no maximum. For every charcter you bring beyond the minimum required you get a buff.

Expected that they might increase the number of elements but this works too, it should be easier for everyone to participate while still rewarding horizontal investment. Also should be good for when they expand theatre, the next difficulty won't require a stupid amount of characters.
That's cool. Sounds like a good change for people having problems with the existing iteration. Also sounds like it will make it easier for me, and I'm no gatekeeper or purist that needs some arbitrary level of challenge to look down on others. All good things.

I assume there will still be a level requirement to bring them in? That way you can't just load up the roster with level 1 unbuilt characters for free buffs?
 

jonnyXx

Member
That's cool. Sounds like a good change for people having problems with the existing iteration. Also sounds like it will make it easier for me, and I'm no gatekeeper or purist that needs some arbitrary level of challenge to look down on others. All good things.

I assume there will still be a level requirement to bring them in? That way you can't just load up the roster with level 1 unbuilt characters for free buffs?
No word yet on any changes to level requirement, I assume that will stay the same.


September and October theater.
jOhyFU3.jpeg
QXcrtYt.jpeg
 

deanote666

Member
Anyone able to beat the imaginarium theater on hard?

Wasn't able to get the seahorse down to half in the time limit and that was only round 3.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
No word yet on any changes to level requirement, I assume that will stay the same.


September and October theater.
jOhyFU3.jpeg
QXcrtYt.jpeg
Damn, Dehya stonks are way up for the next few months.

Anyone able to beat the imaginarium theater on hard?

Wasn't able to get the seahorse down to half in the time limit and that was only round 3.
Yea I used Wrio/Shenhe. Cryo really helps shred his shield. Diona would probably be good too.
 

deanote666

Member
Thanks

Redid it and was able to somehow beat it. Still don't like the mechanics and too high of a chance of getting stuck in a bogus round, like 2 Ruin hunters and a mech drake.
 
Man I watched Juices video on Emily, and while I still won’t be pulling for her, her design has really grown on me. Very nice design.


Edit.
Starting to get a really stupid feeling… Yelan C1 or signature weapon… hmmmm, it’s hard to resist knowing that I will continue to use her…

Edit 2.
Well…. I did a thing



51 pulls total

Edit3
iQ0VjaI.jpeg
 
Last edited:

Pejo

Gold Member
So I spent some time in the Trial with Emilie. I honestly think she's gonna be a sleeper hit character. Probably the best off-field Dendro application out of any character, the burn mechanic isn't even mandatory, but she does gain a significant amount of strength with it. She has >100% uptime on her skill (meaning you can cast it again while it's still out) giving you incredible flexibility with rotations, and her skill hits harder than expected even without the burn. Sure you're paying a preimum for perma-Dendro tied to pretty much a single button press, but I think she's going to improve a LOT of team archetypes.

On top of it, I really like her design, they went full out with the lingerie/garter belts, boob flaps and did a rewind back to Liyue days where she's wearing transparent hosiery on her body. I never thought we'd see that type of design again in Genshin.

So yea, rolled for her and won the 50/50. Hell to the naw on the weapon, but it also looks pretty cool. I'm really pleasantly surprised with her in a good way. Also no HP loss fuckery.
 
Last edited:

deanote666

Member
Did a couple yolo pulls and won 50/50 with perfume girl.

Now I gotta figure out what to do with her.

Her material is in the simulanka region too. Fontaine specialty talents work there too.
 
I'm surprised you all went for her. There was virtually zero hype for this character, and although she's quite powerful/useful, I also think she's just kinda boring.

As for me, I don't have any teams in particular I'd need her for and as an attack-scaling burn character, she's basically tied to Bennett right now. If I ever find myself needing more Dendro in the future, I might go for her. But not on this trash banner.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
I'm surprised you all went for her. There was virtually zero hype for this character, and although she's quite powerful/useful, I also think she's just kinda boring.

As for me, I don't have any teams in particular I'd need her for and as an attack-scaling burn character, she's basically tied to Bennett right now. If I ever find myself needing more Dendro in the future, I might go for her. But not on this trash banner.
She feels a lot like a 'Kazuha' character to me. End of patch release when everyone is looking toward a new region, pretty useful kit (admittedly not to the level of Kazuha) that's undervalued.

I don't think she's gonna make massive waves or shake the meta, but she's going to be a comfort pick in a lot of team comps and modes. We've never had off-field Dendro this accessible before, and it seems fantastic for Burn/Quicken/Spread/Hyperbloom/Bountiful core teams. I only have her to level 60 so far, so I can't be sure about damage numbers, but just as a reaction starter alone, her value is high.

I'm personally looking forward to putting her in my Nilou team to keep up the Dendro end of the equation. I was using Nahida as the Dendro driver in the team previously but I hate actively playing as the child characters, they feel so clunky to control for some reason, to me.
 

Tiago Rodrigues

Gold Member
Man...going from Mondstadt and Liyue which i loved to Inazuma is...something. It's just no clicking. The sidequests are boring, long...the puzzles some of them are more trial and error than you having to think about them and i swear to god you have levels and missions where not only you're fighting but you also have to worry about something else (in this case getting electrocuted or whatever).

Please tell me Sumeru and Fontaine are better. (still haven't reached those in terms of story, but i opened the map entirely and from a level design perspective them seem much better).
 
We've never had off-field Dendro this accessible before
lies-lie.gif


nahida.webp


I get the argument you're making. She might turn out to be very valuable in the future. But she currently lacks teams/characters that benefit from burning. It's probably up to Xbalanque and/or Mavuika to give her a proper place. But those are far off, and I'm uncertain Hoyo cares enough about Emilie to unlock that potential. And well, if it does happen, I can always get her later.

Please tell me Sumeru and Fontaine are better. (still haven't reached those in terms of story, but i opened the map entirely and from a level design perspective them seem much better).
Every region is arguably better than the last. Inazuma was pretty good too. I'm not sure what you're struggling with specifically. Some of the puzzles there were a bit more complex, but folks complained so everything is at baby level difficulty now. As for combat, maybe you just need some more time to level up your characters? We had an entire year to prepare for Inazuma back then.
 

Tiago Rodrigues

Gold Member
Every region is arguably better than the last. Inazuma was pretty good too. I'm not sure what you're struggling with specifically. Some of the puzzles there were a bit more complex, but folks complained so everything is at baby level difficulty now. As for combat, maybe you just need some more time to level up your characters? We had an entire year to prepare for Inazuma back then.
I already have one character level 90. It's the parts of the map whre you're getting electroshocked while fighting that i hate.

But good to know the rest of the game is better. Let me rush through this lmao.
 
I already have one character level 90. It's the parts of the map whre you're getting electroshocked while fighting that i hate.

But good to know the rest of the game is better. Let me rush through this lmao.
I don't even remember those. Are you talking about the areas where you have to pick up the little purple thingies off a bush to protect yourself?
 

Nankatsu

Member
Man...going from Mondstadt and Liyue which i loved to Inazuma is...something. It's just no clicking. The sidequests are boring, long...the puzzles some of them are more trial and error than you having to think about them and i swear to god you have levels and missions where not only you're fighting but you also have to worry about something else (in this case getting electrocuted or whatever).

Please tell me Sumeru and Fontaine are better. (still haven't reached those in terms of story, but i opened the map entirely and from a level design perspective them seem much better).

Well There It Is Jurassic Park GIF


You're starting to wear off from that honeymoon phase.

Sumeru is even worse, probably the worse region by far.

Fontaine gets better, but doesn't differentiate that much.
 

Tiago Rodrigues

Gold Member
I don't even remember those. Are you talking about the areas where you have to pick up the little purple thingies off a bush to protect yourself?
yeah...it's duable of course. it's just not fun to do so.
Well There It Is Jurassic Park GIF


You're starting to wear off from that honeymoon phase.

Sumeru is even worse, probably the worse region by far.

Fontaine gets better, but doesn't differentiate that much.
I wouldn't be mad considering i have spent close to 250 hours on Genshin already lmao. (and i started it in late April)
 

deanote666

Member
I'm surprised you all went for her. There was virtually zero hype for this character, and although she's quite powerful/useful, I also think she's just kinda boring.
I was close to pity and at 50/50. I sometimes run to the 5* for yolo. Worse case, the next one is guarantee. Need Dehya constellations, dang it!
Man...going from Mondstadt and Liyue which i loved to Inazuma is...something. It's just no clicking. The sidequests are boring, long...the puzzles some of them are more trial and error than you having to think about them and i swear to god you have levels and missions where not only you're fighting but you also have to worry about something else (in this case getting electrocuted or whatever).

Please tell me Sumeru and Fontaine are better. (still haven't reached those in terms of story, but i opened the map entirely and from a level design perspective them seem much better).
Inazuma is the last region with actual puzzles. People complained that the puzzles there were "too hard" so all the puzzles that followed were at brain rot levels of complexity. In Fontaine, it's literally use color orb on color thing 5 feet away. The island with the permanent storm, do the big quest there should help out. There's a quest related to the bad shocky trees too. The electro take damage field around the furnace effect is annoying but it actually makes things hard in this easy game.

The furnace island main quests are time locked so make sure you do at least one per day.

The cube puzzles can be done with Zhongli's pillar, Oz, etc. if you don't want to actually do them but some do require rubbing some brain cells together if you want to actually solve them.
 

Tiago Rodrigues

Gold Member
Inazuma is the last region with actual puzzles. People complained that the puzzles there were "too hard" so all the puzzles that followed were at brain rot levels of complexity. In Fontaine, it's literally use color orb on color thing 5 feet away. The island with the permanent storm, do the big quest there should help out. There's a quest related to the bad shocky trees too. The electro take damage field around the furnace effect is annoying but it actually makes things hard in this easy game.

The furnace island main quests are time locked so make sure you do at least one per day.

The cube puzzles can be done with Zhongli's pillar, Oz, etc. if you don't want to actually do them but some do require rubbing some brain cells together if you want to actually solve them.
oh damn...i wasn't asking for the puzzles to be removed at all. It's just that many are badly explained or are more trial / error than skill involved. Shame about that.

Thank you for the last bolded part. I'll check that out for sure.
 

jonnyXx

Member
Sumeru is even worse, probably the worse region by far.
Sumeru was my favorite as a region, it's the most expansive and immersive and also has the best music. I even enjoyed the desert areas, they were a nice change of pace.

Just yesterday I stumbled on an area of the desert I'd not been to before and found there was a Jeht quest I hadn't done yet. It was great.
 

deanote666

Member
oh damn...i wasn't asking for the puzzles to be removed at all. It's just that many are badly explained or are more trial / error than skill involved. Shame about that.

Thank you for the last bolded part. I'll check that out for sure.
There is a platform puzzle in the Sumeru desert located inside a large structure towards the end of a quest line that has no logic to it that I'm aware of. You change the color of the switch and different platforms go up and down depending on the switch color. There's no goal to work the puzzle towards. Once they're in the right position, the quest continues but there's no way to know what that correct configuration is (that I'm aware of).

The majority of the puzzles after Inazuma are thing needs activated, find thing in area to activate it. While most puzzles require trial and error, it felt like Inazuma was the last one that consistently took some thought.
 
Tiago Rodrigues Tiago Rodrigues
Oh dang, I loved Inazuma, the increased difficulty across the board from enemies to puzzles was a welcome change.
Don’t worry though, once you get to Sumeru it’s back to easy mode.
 
Last edited:

Pejo

Gold Member
Day 2 of really enjoying Emilie. So far I've tried her (completely unbuilt and level 50) in my Nilou/Candace/Nahida team and she makes the cores so much more consistent. The team never really felt good to play with either Baizhu or Dendro Traveler in the 4th slot since they couldn't provide enough Dendro app without their bursts, and Nahida had to swap back in every time a wave of enemies died to mark all the new enemies, so you had to manage cooldowns or use her auto attacks to supply Dendro. Now it glides like butter.

Also, I saw a mod that a guy made where he just removed the flaps and skirt and recolored the hosiery parts without changing anything else, and it really illustrates how lewd the design is.

QySB8tt.jpeg

Even with the shorts and hosiery, it's still a big step up from any Genshin design past Inazuma.

Wonder if Mavuika will get the Eula butt treatment instead of the Dehya butt treatment since the pendulum is seemingly swinging back now.

nahida.webp


I get the argument you're making. She might turn out to be very valuable in the future. But she currently lacks teams/characters that benefit from burning. It's probably up to Xbalanque and/or Mavuika to give her a proper place. But those are far off, and I'm uncertain Hoyo cares enough about Emilie to unlock that potential. And well, if it does happen, I can always get her later.
Nahida is great and if you don't mind using her as a driver, she's fine for Dendro app, but I hate playing as the kids, everything feels like they're stuck in peanut butter while I'm trying to maneuver them. Off-field though, she's nothing special for Dendro app. Especially in wave based content where you kill the waves quickly then have to wait for her skill to come off of cooldown to mark the next wave. It really fucks up a Bountiful Cores team.

yeah...it's duable of course. it's just not fun to do so.
It's worth noting that all of the annoying environmental parts of Inazuma get permanently "fixed" once you complete the main quest for each island. Like others have said, cherish that difficulty and dynamic regional stuff, because survey takers made sure that you only need 1 brain cell to complete the rest of the game afterwards.

Sumeru was my favorite as a region, it's the most expansive and immersive and also has the best music. I even enjoyed the desert areas, they were a nice change of pace.

Just yesterday I stumbled on an area of the desert I'd not been to before and found there was a Jeht quest I hadn't done yet. It was great.
Sumeru had some of the best areas in the game, and the all time worst area in the game:
iu


It's a region of contradiction.
 
Last edited:
Also, I saw a mod that a guy made where he just removed the flaps and skirt and recolored the hosiery parts without changing anything else, and it really illustrates how lewd the design is.
Yeah, I noticed that her chest looks very similar to Ganyu's. I hope she does well so Hoyo catches the hint. I just don't like anything else about her.

Off-field though, she's nothing special for Dendro app.
Come on bro, nothing special? She applies Dendro to every character you can see, no matter how far away they are, and damages and CCs all of them. Sometimes her cooldowns don't line up perfectly, but they're pretty short so it's usually not a very long wait. You make it sound like Nilou Bloom teams are unworkable with Nahida there. I'm sure Emilie might feel more comfy in that team in certain situations, but Nahida will provide much more damage with her EM sharing. I assume so anyway.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
Yeah, I noticed that her chest looks very similar to Ganyu's. I hope she does well so Hoyo catches the hint. I just don't like anything else about her.


Come on bro, nothing special? She applies Dendro to every character you can see, no matter how far away they are, and damages and CCs all of them. Sometimes her cooldowns don't line up perfectly, but they're pretty short so it's usually not a very long wait. You make it sound like Nilou Bloom teams are unworkable with Nahida there. I'm sure Emilie might feel more comfy in that team in certain situations, but Nahida will provide much more damage with her EM sharing. I assume so anyway.
Again, I'm not talking damage or QoL or all the other benefits that Nahida offers, strictly Dendro app. I'd say the best comparison to Emilie for that is YaoYao. Even with short cooldowns, DPS characters with infuse get wiped if you have to swap out to reapply Nahida's marks, so it leads to some not-ideal scenarios.

For what it's worth, I don't think Emilie is even in the same ballpark as Nahida for strength, overall usefulness. But Emilie does have her benefits that Nahida can't match, and they probably work well together too, depending on the other two team members.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
Man I have tried and failed like 5 times now to get into this summer event. I just couldn't be any less interested in it. I dunno if it's the theme or what, but I play for like 10 mins and just get so bored that I quit.

How much do you have to do to get the Kirara outfit?
 

jonnyXx

Member
Man I have tried and failed like 5 times now to get into this summer event. I just couldn't be any less interested in it. I dunno if it's the theme or what, but I play for like 10 mins and just get so bored that I quit.

How much do you have to do to get the Kirara outfit?
Quite a bit unfortunately. Maybe half of all the exploration.

You'll have to do the quests to open up the second area. Fully exploring the first area and about half of the second area should get you there.
 
Man I have tried and failed like 5 times now to get into this summer event. I just couldn't be any less interested in it. I dunno if it's the theme or what, but I play for like 10 mins and just get so bored that I quit.

How much do you have to do to get the Kirara outfit?

Just beeline and skip all dialogue
That’s what I did lol
 

deanote666

Member
Man I have tried and failed like 5 times now to get into this summer event. I just couldn't be any less interested in it. I dunno if it's the theme or what, but I play for like 10 mins and just get so bored that I quit.

How much do you have to do to get the Kirara outfit?
The third act actually brings it back to overarching story line. The rest is whatever.
 
New(?) code for some EXP and stuff: MGKH3J3Y9852

Just beeline and skip all dialogue
That’s what I did lol
This made me remember the conspiracy post Pejo Pejo shared a week or so ago. At the end, the poster kind of abandons the whole cuckoldry angle, and just starts ranting about how he thinks Genshin's open world should be. He wants every building to be enterable, and for NPCs to react to changes in the world and such.

Fair enough, but then he says the following:
That is, "pile up" the number of words and stack "non-repetitive" materials. A small text based game with 20MB of text and 100MB of images, Probably a lot more fun than a big game with 20GB graphics and 0.1MB of text

If an NPC has only 1 repeated sentence, he/she is just a dead decoration, if he/she has 10 sentences, that can constitute a short time vivid character. If he/she has 100 words and behavior, he/she is "alive" in this world.
And I just can't believe how perfectly this displays the differences between Chinese and Western audiences. Who the fuck wants to read NPC dialogue for hours? I've read before (Maybe in this thread?) That Chinese writing and literature is all about increasing the word count as much as possible. Fuck me if things ever get worse than they are in Genshin.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
This made me remember the conspiracy post Pejo Pejo shared a week or so ago. At the end, the poster kind of abandons the whole cuckoldry angle, and just starts ranting about how he thinks Genshin's open world should be. He wants every building to be enterable, and for NPCs to react to changes in the world and such.

Fair enough, but then he says the following:

And I just can't believe how perfectly this displays the differences between Chinese and Western audiences. Who the fuck wants to read NPC dialogue for hours? I've read before (Maybe in this thread?) That Chinese writing and literature is all about increasing the word count as much as possible. Fuck me if things ever get worse than they are in Genshin.
Yea I agree with this sentiment. I don't want more trash NPC dialogue, but I'd love more fleshed out characters and character focused stories. Let's go back and see Jean for a while, see what she's been up to with her struggles or whatever. Don't make me interact with Sumeru researcher #238239 who wants me to enter a door and fight stupid shit for 20 minutes.

I think Genshin focuses on the wrong things a lot of the time. I feel this summer event is exactly that, them focusing on stuff that doesn't matter. And I at least don't find the setting fun/good, it's just trudgery for trudgery's sake. deanote666 deanote666 mentions it ties into the main plot though, so I'm gritting my teeth and getting through it.

But yea, no more wordy NPCs and text logs and statue carvings with a 8 paragraph story.

Also, I knew this at one point, but didn't remember it was due for 4.8 - The standard material bosses respawn almost instantly now. You just have to warp away, wait a few seconds, and warp back and they're reset. I spent a lot of time dicking around waiting for the centaur to respawn for Emilie's mats, only to remember that they changed it and I just wasted all that time for nothing.

Well, not for nothing, I got a cool shot of Fontaine at the top of that tower in the southwest. Really great view from up there. If you spin the camera around, you can clearly see the entire region and how it's raised from the rest of Teyvat. Interesting to note that a region in fear of "drowning" and being related to the abyss and water is raised. Gives more credence to the "Teyvat is inverted/upside down" theory.
jt3ACuO.jpeg


*edit*

Best girl official birthday art (in the stupid ugly red on red outfit):
76o6x1ybjrhd1.jpg
 
Last edited:

deanote666

Member
I think Genshin focuses on the wrong things a lot of the time. I feel this summer event is exactly that, them focusing on stuff that doesn't matter. And I at least don't find the setting fun/good, it's just trudgery for trudgery's sake. deanote666 deanote666 mentions it ties into the main plot though, so I'm gritting my teeth and getting through it.
And I 100% the summer event on both accounts (except the fighting part on my 2nd, couldn't get all the rewards).
 

jonnyXx

Member
L4X8C2X.jpeg


That's a shame, going to have to pull to get her.
With the new support set she should be a nice upgrade over geo traveler on my Navia team...at least until Xilonen.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
L4X8C2X.jpeg


That's a shame, going to have to pull to get her.
With the new support set she should be a nice upgrade over geo traveler on my Navia team...at least until Xilonen.
Boy that's lame. Even Fontaine gave us a new 4*. Why fucking Bennett again....
 
Top Bottom