I must be imagining things... (Imaginarium Theater first impressions)

Live 07/01/2024 - Genshin has a new "endgame" combat mode, so this is my stream trying it for the first time.
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[@Solunerra]

After my initial impressions on IT, tbh I don't really get what Hoyo was going for with it. It's nearly the same exact experience on replaying despite the RNG elements (you can kinda see this in my second run through on my main account, it was the same but less interesting because it was no longer new). Which is to say those RNG elements basically do nothing then (other than not allowing you to use a specific character you may want to use at the beginning lol). So my current impression is that IT was fun while it was a novel experience, and then becomes uninteresting, and I am left being confused as to how _this_ is what Hoyo thought was appropriate as the first additional permanent combat mode to the game in almost 4 years. It feels like its too restricted, and there are so many better ideas they could've done even with the baseline framework of the mode. And fwiw, this is all just my personal thoughts after playing it a little more and reflecting on the experience relative to my enjoyment of Genshin's combat in general--I have purposefully not watched any other creator's impressions of it yet, though I have seen some general sentiments from people about it. Which is to say I believe my perspective is relatively un-skewed by other peoples perspectives at this moment, but despite that I suspect my feelings about it may be similar to many others. Wherein its cool that we have a new combat mode, but it feels so lackluster in implementation for the possibilities Genshins combat could have. I hope Hoyoverse is open to changing how it works in the future, and I hope it means they are working on other new ideas as well.

[@jarrenraves]

we'll see how this mode ages over time but I enjoyed this first go at it, probably moreso than I ever enjoyed abyss. Had a reason to play all my characters again-not just the newest/strongest/favouritest ones-and I got to play them in some scuffed teams that made them feel like valuable additions to my roster. Not to say there's nothing Id like to see changed though. For one, I wish they'd ditch those 6 set starting characters. The mode might have felt more replayable if the entire lineup was randomized instead, especially if they also made the buffs and challenges more diverse and impactful. On a side note, I do hope they bring some of the QoL they added here back into the abyss..

[@PennyLane-lq5fs]

This game mode is also good for the game because powercreep is less significant with having a use case for characters with overlapping roles

[@agzane268]

I think they should've just gone for a Simulated Universe format instead of this, the buffs and stuff feel so unimportant compared to having built characters

[@Solunerra]

@@agzane268 Yeah I agree. I hope it get significant tweaks or they add more interesting modes in the future. Thats my optimistic take for now at least

[@malvoleus]

The billet box is probably the only reward I really wanted as everything else is easy to get while the RNG for getting a billet from weekly bosses is pure pain.

[@jamesnieves1216]

I love this format since it involves strategic planning of teams/characters per act.

[@blackhammerpw]

Nice sigewinne she hits hard

[@happydays8834]

…i ended up with a burning alhathem team i worked surprisingly well

[@browserjunior4707]

I think one of the problems here is that this game mode doesn’t really have fun options in the RNG that aren’t stuff like “this buffs that” or “this actions buffs this” The thing with RNG mechanics in other games isn’t to make a powerhouse that can’t be killed, while that’s a fun part of RNG, another important part about Rogue-like mechanics is that you can use unorthodox builds or be given absolute horrible debuffs and still make it work. Here their method of restriction being element based feels a bit hollow, I think it’d have been awesome if you can trade elements to allow for other reactions but at the cost of reducing the new elements reaction damage by 15%. I feel that it gives players an out for using their built characters that don’t happen to be the element allowed in while also incentivizing the elements prioritized in the IT. I was also hoping the mystery card they give would be the one to apply debuffs and whatnot instead of just general positive effects like more rewards or less cost on cards. It feels weird to have this mystery card just generally be positive with no downsides when you could’ve made it interesting by doing risk-reward stuff that isn’t level inflating the enemies or HP inflating them. Something like “You gain 20% anemo damage bonus, but your anemo characters lose double the vigor” or “Electro-Charged Damage increase but your ER is halved.” Having everything just being generally positive is odd for an RNG mode, especially when other previous events had similar buffs have downsides even if it’s basic like enemy stat inflation.

[@gingervald8601]

Having done two runs I feel like this has potential but needs re balancing and refinement. It works best if you're account is in a state where you could make 2 floor 12 viable teams from the roster of characters you put in, but still have plenty more characters that are good enough to do fun runs of lower floors. I think my account is at that sweet spot and it was fun evaluating where I could burn my less built characters in order to have Arle/Fischl/Bediou/Chevy for the end. Along the way I ended up using Deyha/Kazuha/Venti/Kequing to just barely star a middle chamber, and that was a very fun experience. But if I'd had better built Keqing and Deyha I wouldn't have needed to optimize for the chamber and could just random BS brute force it instead. Personally I think the difficulty should be higher, especially as you get close to the end. I think there should be more encounters overall (my ideal version of this would be no final chamber, they just keep getting harder). I think boons you acquire should be much more impactful, this can offset the difficulty spike and help shore up the less optimal teams you'll need to use at some point or another. Boon should really be on the level of the Abyssal moon blessings and helpful leyline disruptions. Anyways I hope they iterate on this game mode in a meaningful way. I enjoyed it about as much as I enjoyed the combat event where they did something similar with trial characters. It's really not sufficient for being a new endgame as is.

[@mosz1410]

I don't have enough characters to do lvl 7 & 8... but some of my unleveled character are also enough to get up to lvl 6

[@luminous3558]

You need 12 characters total for hard mode and you can switch Traveler to be the right element. The Trial units + a friend's 5* carry like Hu Tao can easily clear even if everyone else is just filler level 70 units with bad artifacts and weapons.

[@mosz1410]

@@luminous3558 yup but they need to be at least lvl 70 to enter in hard mode and that's not the case for my electro/pyro/anemo characters. I only have 8 at or above 70, the rest all are around 20-40 and I wont lvl them all up bc thats just too much work. I'm already quite lucky for this season, most of my invested characters are pyro and anemo. I guess, the theater is not so new player friendly (I've been playing for 6 months only), there's no way to lvl so many character in a short time unless you do nothing but play genshin...

[@mixesforthemasses]

You’re so negative.