Is Genshin's Story REALLY That Bad?

[@blue-r6z]

isnt it that were not looking for lumine anymore but were travelling through the world to find the secret she was talking about

[@Shane_A_M]

People who still think we’re searching for our sibling are just self-reporting 😂

[@ishi_gami]

Yeh i don't understand how some ppl still think we're searching for our sibling when we've already met them like multiple times Our sibling literally says travel the 7 nations to know the truth of this world and to understand why our sibling made the decision to go against celestia

[@beatxfavsFaa]

Its cuz most people only watch cringe harem memes of aether chasing after girls videos instead of playing the actual game not realizing the fact that he already met her and is basically just following lumines/aether(I said both if you are choosing lumine as mc since aka goes both ways) footsteps to know the real truth of teyvat the abyss sibling was talking about I understand why we don't have skip buttons people can't read nor use their brain😂😂

[@I.disagree]

Yeah, this was already told to us in "We will be reunited" which was near the beginning of the game. I don't know how people still have that misconception

[@TheCsel]

I don’t understand why people still think we are looking for the sibling (other than just being a meme). “We will be reunited”, we met our sibling and the narrative goal shifted we will meet the sibling at the end of the journey. Our goal is to find out why the sibling joined the Abyss Order, and find out what happened 500 years ago. Granted we are still looking to meet the sibling and get answers directly if we can.

[@lwazinkasawe3887]

Funniest thing about Inazuma is remembering how rushed it was, then spending 3 hours in that underwater prison in Fontaine, thinking, "Perhaps I treated you too harshly."

[@matheusbianquincera3104]

the two ends of the same issue spectrum really lol

[@iker9095]

​@matheusbianquincera3104 the only difference is that inazuma at least has entertaining scenes while the fortress has wrio, siegewiene and the three siblings if you like them

[@apoorvjoshi2383]

@@iker9095 THIS. Heck i do not like Sigewinne and Lyney. They probably had more lines than the other three combined that i actually fcking like. Like bruh.

[@iker9095]

@@apoorvjoshi2383 I don't mind them and even I got bored. The worst part is that it lead to nothing in the end, it was almost entirely filler

[@Rozherhn]

I can not compare it because in each region is improving the way they tell the stories as their rhythm of these, in Liyue there was a lot of talk which was reduced in Inazuma that is well written if you read apart Inazuma ends with the 2 missions of the Shogun raiden and does not stay with only the main missions, in sumeru that was changed and they put the third act something that helped a lot although the pace was a little slow, in Inazuma the rhythm was perfect but the part of the submarine fortress they changed the rhythm because they were looking for another way to tell the story since there was no line and it was more open where it depended on you if you were efficient or wasting time, in my case it took me about 2 hours by far all that part, but after that it returned to the same rhythm with that glorious third act. Now in Natlan e change that and the rhythm of the missions are much more exciting being the first part of the second act the knot and therefore a slower part that I did not seem bad.

[@Unfortunateghosts]

I feel like anyone who thinks we're still looking for our sibling shouldn't speak on the lore in the first place 😭

[@Rozherhn]

we found it in 1.4 now we travel to find out the truth behind it all.

[@gamemaster4947]

I thought that we were looking for them but, instead of them being completely lost, we want to find them in order to get them to explain what's happening because they only say "wassup" and then disappear.

[@mk_gamíng0609]

We still are tho, everything we do originated from it and is still the end goal

[@sweatygoblin2335]

@@mk_gamíng0609 No we aren't. We knew where they were and what they were doing by 1.4, and have since been continuing our journey through Teyvat like they told us to in order to understand their motivations.

[@Beenus2622]

​@@sweatygoblin2335 This, literally a verbal word given to us "see the world for yourself, and decide" by our own sibling right

[@yieoacn]

Hey so im 30 seconds into the video and genshin's charm lies in that scattered worldbuilding. Almost all lore players see it and are hence willing to do the hardwork of reading books and obscure texts.

[@snapbug3272]

I'm a minute and 10 seconds into the video and just like the woman says, people have wildly different perspectives on the storyline and world building. Not everyone enjoys exploring every last bit, and collecting every last item to fully understand the story. And I'm pretty sure half the lore players literally get all their information from videos on YT from people who actually went through the effort to scan every last detail within the game.

[@gilgamesh3609]

Yup, all hail Ashikai!!!​@@snapbug3272

[@The_original_one]

​@@snapbug3272you might be wright but still believe it's better this way.its make the world more alive. Plus even those Lores are from the perspective of someone. Genshin use unreliable narrative . And I love that aspect. It's also make room for retcons if needed. Since the lore you in one book is from the perspective of one guys the same events can be observed by another guy differently. It's best example is durin and devalins story. All the skyword weapons described the same even from different perspective. And even then thay were only half true because in durins pov it's different.

[@daerovius7535]

@@snapbug3272 So what you're saying is that a lot of people don't enjoy Genshin story because they're both too lazy and too stupid... Seems about right

[@anshulgowda]

Yup I just watch a ashikai video to know all the intricate details about the story 🤷‍♂️

[@jassychanVO]

I know Genshin is not perfect, but you can't compare it to BG. Genshin's story is far from being finished, so getting options that change the story would be impossible (also it is not intended that way). Baldur's Gate can do that, because it is a finished game. If you make your choices and got through a route, you can start over. Genshin even tried to compromise with the players criticising the unimportance of their decisions by giving you different outcomes in the Natlan war. But I guess complainers will always find something to latch on. Also, there is no story FORCED onto you. My guy, you're playing a story game, you should expect that. This argument always baffles me. It's like going to a strip club and complaining that you're forced to see naked people...

[@Rozherhn]

GI has a lot of foreshadowing, if since 1.0 already had details and stories that are used as stories of artifacts, items and references that until long after or years were used, for example the mask of the hilichurs the story told in the item is used in the chasm in the mission of Dainslief from there, elements seen from the oceanids were used in fontaine, even dialogues of several characters are used in Natlan. it is not a forced story, it is from the beginning and already has an end for this and already knows where the story will go for something there is the trailer of Footprints that came out a day before the official release of GI, but as many want everything already and do not have time.

[@eraba661]

Story is forced on you tho with no skip button, if they add it most of the people won't complain and the choice asking people and story hating people don't belong in the same camp They can do things like WuWa tho, its still same as GI but you get different answers depending on different dialgoues, like if you choose another dialgoue you found out that Jinshi is injured the first time you meet her, the outcome is same but at least you get different interactions and learn little bit about what a character was doing and couldn't meet you before, I do agree tho that its not like BG but they can add small stuff per patch or even make bigger one per patch or region but that would add to more storage on phone so Bran really is right

[@deductionsdiary105]

@@eraba661 mf you play a story game and complain story Is in the game

[@ChaoticBeing]

I think the problem the person in the video has is, that they compare Genshin too much. Like the argument of rich vs. poor. Because they saw it in Arcane, suddenly it has to play a role in every medium where poor people are? People need to look at Genshin more as its own thing and not as a comparison to stuff they love. If you project your favourite narrative on other things, you can only get disappointment. If we still take the Fontaine point: like Bran said, the point of the 'slums', they were never created with an issue in mind, people are just poor sometimes, that is world building. You don't always have to make everything dramatic in a story. Personally I like it better that Genshin is not going the obvious route. If I expect a plot point but it ends up being completely different (within reason), I am so thrilled because that means they have broken the conventions and patterns and gave me something new.

[@saltgay]

Everything in the story should have a purpose, you can't introduce something and then say "oh we added it just because"

[@TheSwampian]

The Arcane comparison doesn't even work if you widen that out to the League of Legends lore as a whole. What happens in Arcane is miniscule and borderline negligible in the whole scheme of the League universe. Fontaine could easily be as good of a story if it were zoomed in on in the way Arcane zoomed in on Piltover/Zaun.

[@ZephyrBluePaddy]

@saltgay it did have a purpose - the issues of Poisson etc were front and centre in Act 1 and 2 of Fontaine.

[@trinityy-7]

⁠​⁠@@saltgayevery “just because” feature adds to genshin feeling like its an actual complete world with history

[@tcaz]

@trinityy-7 No it doesn't, because if its in 'just because' that means it isn't fleshed out. If something is just there and has no effect on anything else, it has the OPPOSITE effect and makes it feel artificial.

[@Linealo]

The worst offenders? Story telling through time limited events like the Albedo event, the recent Masters of the Night-Wind thingy about the Mare Jivari and so on. No new or returning player will be able to get these infos or know where to even look them up.

[@Rem560]

They will like how the False sky was mentioned by Dottore. Lore in items and quests is eventually brought into main quests

[@kaku7398]

​@@Rem560Not necessarely, for example Durin has only been talked about in details during events, and as someone who started during 4.1, I've only heard about him once and nothing about his lore. Same thing for certain precise quotes from events that launch future updates, or even hint at the lore's direction. Events are essential to experience to get the whole picture, and having to rely on recordings is a flaw in genshin's system.

[@Indian_gae_boii]

for me its the black screens with text of 2d images with dalouge over it, youre telling me a 23 + billion dollar company cant animate a few exra scenes? are you absolutely serious

[@eraba661]

@@Rem560 Its funny cause we talk to her about false sky but new players be like, "false sky what?" As a billion dollar company they should add archives of old important quests, there's relaly no urgency in this game, they forshadow crazy stuff but they don't even mention it until it comes again...like false sky? Shouldn't we investigating it as well like to figure out what the hell is going on in this world? That could be a key thing to figure out our sibling and Abyss, my theory is that Genshin either got a bad writer or got alot of writers working on the same project like DC Marvel so its not coherent EDIT: Watched alot of the video and indeed alot of writers are working on it and most of my criticism is already been addressed in it lol

[@mangshu21]

@@Indian_gae_boii well then you don't get to complain about size, you know what they should have uncompressed audio so we have better quality audio right??. Do you even know how Gpu's compresses textures so it can reasonably run without needing 40GB vram?? never talk about shit you don't understand.

[@zente3003]

0:29 on thar matter, I think that's the point, really. Teyvat is one big mystery. That's the appeal, world quests, archon quests, obscure data logs, all hold a piece of this big puzzle.

[@lulufortytwo3884]

I think it's funny that these critiques of story NEVER include discussions about the world quests when it's longer, more in depth, and more detailed than the AQs and character stories. It's not about selling characters, it's about the traveler and exploring the truth of the world, doing the mission their sibling sent them on. People complained about the aranara quest being long, but then you had Jeht's two stories, then the Pari in the oasis. It's way more story than Sumeru's AQ. Want subtext? Your sibling was Nara Varuna and left a scribbled note behind. Want your world to change? Goodbye red sandstorm. One ruin golem lost an arm and one walked. If you didn't play the Narzissenkreuz quest, you're not going to run into the themes people being characters in a story like the fell dragon, princess in tower, the hero. That stacks on Clorinde's story quest to make it more than just a D&D session and the Simulanka event. People being characters means it's possible to call forth their power through their legend, and that ties into Ancient Names in Natlan. There's a lot to critique about Genshin, Paimon is so hit and miss, past story events disappearing into the wind, etc. But if you order a hamburger and then only eat the lettuce, your meal is going to suck. Don't give me a review of it based on that.

[@ZephyrBluePaddy]

@lulufortytwo3884 omg that analogy at the end is so good

[@redithicus]

It's because it's optional, you don't need to do world quests to unlock weekly bosses, they also aren't voice acted and rarely have cutscenes.

[@lulufortytwo3884]

@@redithicus Yeah, I know it's optional. But so is spiral abyss and it doesn't stop people from acting like it makes or breaks a new character. (No shame to CCs, get your $$$) I'm just pointing out that ignoring WQs weakens and sometimes invalidates the discussion of those who bring it up.

[@redithicus]

@@lulufortytwo3884 World quests aren't a part of the main story and have the same problems as archon quests with them having no consequences and reactions from the world. I beat the pari quest and get a tree, The red sandstorm on top of the pyramid is gone but the Hadramaveth one is still there, the ruin golem moves and unlocked an area but that's it. The difference is a world quest unlocks the chasm, and an archon quest takes place in the chasm they don't like locking areas behind archon quests. You can explore every region except inazuma from the start of the game without doing archon quests.

[@lulufortytwo3884]

@@redithicus That has nothing to do with me wanting a review on my hamburger in a sea of lettuce reviews.

[@ekrymeta]

The worst thing about Genshin storytelling? Aranara. The best thing about Genshin storytelling? Aranara. Weird ain't it?

[@ritchsabagkit338]

Was it because the aranara quest was to long?

[@complectogram]

:]

[@Beenus2622]

​@@ritchsabagkit338my case? Yeah

[@pranjalsingh4205]

Their names were hard to remember

[@fyltheold]

18:51 you need not forget that phone playerbase are not just wallets The majority of players are from mobile I have many friends that just straight up dont have a pc in their household or the pc is only good for making documents Yes, phones hold back the devs, but i would 100000% take the trade off So many people would not be able to experience the game without it I personaly have a gaming pc but i had to save up for litteral year and my family paid for half of it, not everyone can afford that All i can say hoyo works quite hard to make their games the best with what they have and being able to run on a litteral potato It might sound weird... But as a person that started off in gaming world with shitty phone pay to win mmos (its not like there were something better at that time), i'd say hoyo realy put the standart high and affordable for many

[@FaiGal]

Why was she constantly comparing an ongoing gacha game, with obvious lore gaps for the next 10 years, to completed movies/tv series and video games 😂

[@YosukeYoshiki]

About the "Skip" button (I respect your opinion, still). IF it was there, I would have left genshin long ago. At the start of game, I was more focused on primo, characters, world etc. But those things became less important as I entered sumeru. But if there was skip button and I skipped the who story up to that point. Sumeru would not have been that great for me. I feel like hoyo knew that we would be focusing on gamble and world building more but they had prepared a rich story for us. They wanted to defend themselves from the saying like the game only has good graphics and world building and forces us to spin for characters. You see many music would not have been loved by us if we skipped the story. And I feel like genshin is 1st RPG game for many anime fans. it was for me. I could not know that a game could have such a interesting story. So I am grateful that there was not any "Skip" button for us. Many people learned to enjoy a story. It might be a reason for many people to hate genshin but it's also the reason for many people to love genshin

[@Tiyac3]

They should add skip button for world quest and events but not for AQ also after skipping the story they should add an explanation thing (my Eng is bad sorry)

[@bencegergohocz5988]

That quote about players optimising the fun out of the game is such an important one for all devs to understand.

[@fyltheold]

THIS ^^^^ The game is intended to take a bit of time to get into it Just like the girl in the video i did not realy care about stroy for almost a year of playing and + to that, im lazy If i did not had to go trough quests manualy i would never get so involved And i can tell it for a fact as in other games that do have the skip i will inevitably use it at some point and then it will just snowball (cause i already dont understand what happened, so i dont care, so i skip more)

[@saltgay]

I'm sure players won't miss on the "rich" story of Genshin if Hoyo at least adds a skip button for npc centered time events

[@YosukeYoshiki]

@@saltgay that's true. They can let us skip the unnecessary NPC talk

[@jadespades4237]

As a writer, this is low-key frustrating to listen to. Is the writing perfect? No. There are arguments for improvement. Its just that her arguments mostly boil down to a matter of opinion and preference rather than constructively pointing out weaknesses in the story's execution. Edit: My biggest point of frustration is that every counter example is a triple A game or a show. Those are completely different mediums and they present different limitations to what can or should be done.

[@GaymerKris01]

Love how a gacha game who's constantly trying to do more with both in your face and searchable lore in patches that are given to you for >>free

[@portal6884]

Just becuase it's free, doesn't mean we can't criticize it. That's like saying if a restaurant serves crap for free, then you should eat it regardless even if it is bad. Free does not equal quality. Also good world-building/story only works if the foundation is good. So even if Genshin is not a 'complete' game, it is complete enough to not have bad writing/storytelling. Sidenote: regardless how 'complete' a game is, it does not excuse bad writing. That is a separate issue imo. There are games with no real story that are amazing.

[@alitguar8907]

@@portal6884 yea but said foundation would be the lore, which is pretty good and has decent depth

[@RareAngelz]

I believe that because Genshin is a very open world and explorative game, the stories are told in a more scattered fashion. Genshin has multiple stories going at once - each AQ chapter, finding the sibling, the Fatui, Hexenzerkel, etc. They're likely to converge, but they definitely feel like separate stories slowly connecting. The world building and lore stories are fantastic though. They're simply scattered between quests, descriptions, optional dialogue, and achievements. Genshin plays out less like a linear story but multiple stories in a vast world of lore. I think it's great, but it's definitely different and not for everyone.

[@Shane_A_M]

In some ways I think so much of the lore discovery being optional is Genshin’s biggest boon and bane for its story. I think it’s easy to say that Genshin’s main quest would be better if you knew about all the lore beforehand and you didn’t have to look up a KZbin analysis to get all the context, but at the same time most people would HATE being forced to learn all the lore before getting to the “good parts”, it takes a lot of time to learn lore and most people skip the world quests just because of the time commitment they demand. I would compare it to Lord of the Rings in some ways, a lot of people love the movies, but very few people actually love the books. Genshin the game is the LotR book, the Genshin anime is going to be the movie.

[@sneakretster]

Biggest thing that kind of both invalidates the whole criticism and also speaks volumes about how impressive Genshin is at the same time is that her comparisons are almost entirely done against AAA games that had probably 4-6 years of development time and INSANE budgets while having stories that are probably only 20-30 hours and they're a finite creation with a beginning and an end. Genshin is limited by business model, platforms for accessibility, time constraints, constant updates, an older game engine, being basically an endless project, etc... A lot of the things being complained about are just entirely unchangeable because it's clearly a successful business model and Hoyoverse would rather they maintain the status quo rather than trying to risk alienating their casual fanbase which probably consists of like 80% of it.

[@AyushmaanAmatya-ny9nh]

Exactly!!!I guess the genshin anime,”if it ever comes out” will do most of the heavy lifting. Hopefully it fixes the pacing issues.

[@Personpersonpersonperson]

Successful game model doesnt mean great storytelling You can have a good business model and bad storytelling just like how you can have a good business model and bad quality of life Your argument is not relevant

[@eraba661]

Honkai Impact 3, NIKKE , FGO and WuWa are all gacha but have better way of conveying the story, there are obv peaks and lows in every single game but Genshin story execution is awful, none of these games repeat the dialgoues and gets on point withought taking a detour turning 9hr quest into 3hr As a side node miHoYo earns more than any AAA studio as of 2024 Square Enix which made Final Fantasy series had a 2.42 billion USD , Rock Star games which made GTA and Red Dead Redemption 2 (the game in this vid) has estimated 2B USD while miHoHo had estimated 3.55-3.83 Billion USD, if you compare this to Kuro Games they are really a small fish with estimated 489.65 mil USD tho that was in 2020 but they still not touching miHoYo in 2024

[@sneakretster]

@@Personpersonpersonperson your entire comment is irrelevant because it doesn't have anything to do with what I said... I didn't claim that it has great storytelling nor did I criticize it, I just said that the person who made the video is making a moot point by comparing things that aren't comparable.

[@sneakretster]

@@eraba661 HI3, Nikke, and FGO are literally just visual novels with some gameplay attached so they aren't comparable since it's quite literally just two PNGs or models with text and your own personal bias might prefer that since it lets the imagination come up with the visuals itself, but that's not "better." And your exaggeration is really ridiculous because there's quite literally never even a single Archon quest that ever goes beyond being like 5-6 hours in length at all, and they genuinely don't repeat information as much as is hyperbolized by you and others. Also, budget is completely irrelevant to the discussion because it's not about money; the game would be better if they were afforded time to genuinely work on it rather than having to keep updating it every 6 weeks but the Gacha business model has bottlenecked them into never having the ability to stop and polish things. And as someone who plays both games, Wuwa isn't actually much better at all and it's very overhyped and it has VERY bad storytelling at many points but because the cutscenes are really pretty people just willingly ignore the clunky dialogue.

[@SoraKH13]

Honestly it's a problem for who doesn't like reading books and play invoiced quests I will start reading them one day

[@Rozherhn]

is RPG normally in these games is read much more where GI is inspired, which would be Zelda in its gameplay and Dark Soul in the part of history, since the game is about exploration and discovering what happened.

[@SoraKH13]

@Rozherhn maybe this is why i like it haha 🤣

[@lisabtheplug5630]

i get what they are trying to say but it's also like for the Fontain part the rich vs the poor wasn't the main focus of the region. It was the prophecy and how to prevent it and how it happened. For graphics part, it's a gacha game made for mobile compared to some of the games she mentioned that are specifically for pc and console which they can push even for beautiful graphics and what not. Like bran said they shouldn't just stop Genshin for mobile especially they are huge in sales already so there wouldn't be a point to stop. Back to the lore stuff so she said natlan coulda had abyssal corrution left around after act 4 but that wouldnt make sense as it was also said in the archon quest we pushed the abyss back basically they are in a corner recovering as natlan is in their corner recovering. The interlued quest basically explained everything isnt back to normal as everyone is waiting to continue the fight but for now the people will recover, remake their homes/shelters as everypne prepares for round 3. Overall the story can have even better improvements as they have since inazuma they just gotta keep going and get even better and better.

[@Shane_A_M]

For the Arlecchino animated short issue: I think whatever mystery might’ve been there without the short wouldn’t have been as valuable as what we got. The question posed by the story would’ve been “How did we get here?” Backstory stuff, but because we got the backstory beforehand the question becomes “Did Arlecchino turn out any different than Crucibina?” Which imo is a way more interesting question. Backstory is just facts, there is nothing inherently thought provoking about it, making learning those facts the driving force of a narrative isn’t enough for someone like me that prefers character driven stories. Wondering if Arlecchino was able to break the cycle of abuse and learning that she really didn’t but still wants to was way more interesting and motivating for me to complete the story.

[@dragonkyuu]

I think the main issue most have with it is that, yes, its a better story with the cutscene and changes how you view the "mystery" from the beginning, however the cutscene was only on yt which makes it inaccessible for the majority. us viewers and the content creators who keep up with genshin wouldve seen it or been told to watch it, but the yt/ hoyolab/ twitter audience (while being quite large) at the end of the day is a small fraction. most players probably doesnt know it exists or only found it way way after, so I do agree with bran in that it shouldve played during the story. as it is, if you watch the video beforehand the quest becomes "why is clervie here? didnt she die? she died older than this so this will show her backstory more probably. arle is being sus but we know she isnt actually evil." whereas without that context is becomes a bad "is she evil or is she not evil? who tf is this child" which is just less compelling in my opinion. I think it wouldve also worked if they actually mentioned the video in game rather then rely on scrolling through the slow notices page, for example when zzz released they had a link to the patch trailer in game and clicking the link gave you a couple of wishes, but even without the rewards showing in game players that there was a video and guiding them to watch it wouldve made it a bit better I think. still enjoyed the quest for the most part

[@trobitman]

The story in this game is so bad it kept me in it for years and has became the main reason why Genshin is my favourite game of all time.

[@StarKiller98K]

The story isn’t bad more so it’s so badly told.

[@Oclur]

​@@StarKiller98KThat would still mean the story is bad. There is a difference between "plot" and "story"

[@saltgay]

I think you should get better taste

[@raiden8063]

@@saltgay I think you should stop judging people's opinions.

[@ThuyNguyen-nh6hi]

Mihoyo story telling is so bad that it kept me waiting for 5 years to confirm a FAN THEORY (both Genshin & Honkai)

[@JustinSchuller]

"I don't think a story should be catered towards people who don't give a shit about the story" Yes! I'm so glad you said this. The people who need Paimon to repeat everything that was just said don't care about the story to begin with, so why care if they are picking up on the story. There's nothing wrong with these people not caring about the story, they are still playing your game so let them skip through the dialogue, and improve the story telling for those of us who really do care about it.

[@Kairos_Akuma]

And they could make Paimons stuff optional. Like if you are interessted in getting an abridged summary again (Because you forgot or whatever) - ask Paimon, and she gives it to you.

[@eraba661]

Nah we care about the story yet Paimon is still annoying not her voice I love her but her dialogues are bad, she's only good in world quests cause she's humorous, barely repeat anything and actually talk things about sense

[@StrongestHumanAlive]

Lol we already met our sibling. But MC knows that he still doesn't know enough to face him/her. That's why the purpose of our travel isn't to find our sibling but to get ready for the day you face her for real

[@hermdude]

One critique of this critique is that it lacks comparisons to more Asian-based games/series. It feels like it boils down to liking Western narratives, and not so much of Asian narratives. But otherwise, it’s a good watch. I do wonder whether they would remake the early stories with better direction like they did with HI3 though.

[@eraba661]

There's no such thing as western narratives, HI3 and other asian games are fine only Genshin has problems, and I'm asian, have been watching asian series, movies and anime since was a kid, we are not that different in terms of narratives of story and world building, there are differences? Yes but Genshin is just bad story execution and story telling with good story and good plot

[@sneakypanda81731]

ALL the problems presented are answered in ONE sentence: "THE GAME IS AVAILABLE IN MOBILE, SO SPACE IS ALWAYS PRIORITY NO.1." Imagine we have ALL EVENTS from 1.0 until 5.2, just how F**KING BIG will Genshin be at that point storage-wise. Even HSR doesn't have ALL events permanent (why they can do it? because the game is NOT open world.)

[@Tiyac3]

True they some time forgot that a lot of players plays in potato phone

[@Kairos_Akuma]

I mean they could do it like Project Sekai/Colorful Stage. If you want to play the Event, you download the necessary data. And if you done you can remove the Data so it shouldnt be to bad on the Space.

[@user-bf2ft2vh2w]

They can just put it as optional download which can deleted later. Tears of themis ( the hoyo otome game ) does it. And its such a small game. Why can't genshin do it? I don't get it xd

[@deductionsdiary105]

Another thing is that HSR's permanent events doesn't have a very big importance to the other areas, most of the events are from AREAS EXPANSIONS. They also don't have multiple acts and animated cutscenes most of the time.

[@eraba661]

@@user-bf2ft2vh2w Even Honkai Impact 3rd do it iirc, I use pc one but even that thing gives you choice to download additional content or not

[@Sora-Gi3]

35:43 I Genshin did something like this, well kinda. In the Natlan archon quest, during the war, if you decide to take things slow or be afk, the number of deaths will increase and the number of npcs in the overwolrd will decrease and choices you make during the war really matter for who will and will not survive.

[@ruumeia]

Baizhu's story quest also made me super emotional. It rly is one of a kind in both story telling and delivery in genshin.

[@ZephyrBluePaddy]

We haven't been looking for the Abyss Sibling for years. Anyone who thinks we're STILL searching is calling themselves out. If Genshin is bloated, wtf is HSR and Penacony? 😂😂 I really enjoy the puzzle pieces of Genshins story telling. I love how in Fontaine and Natlan we've had lore exploding into life and connections. Its not for everyone, sure, but I enjoy it. About Poisson/Fleuvre Cendre and the Court - the difference was explorer. The whole thing with Synthe, Callas and the murders by Vacher in Act 1 and 2 and Navias story quest all brought this forward. Subtext gets thrown out? Maybe I'm too delulu. Theres a lot of subtext, just not all the time and considering the fan-community.... probably for the best. We already have enough people that think we're still searching for our sibling.... Why are we comparing RDR2 to Genshin? Comparing Wuwa (that has a load of issues with people not being able to play) with Genshin is far better but Wuwa story is.... 3/10 to Genshins 8/10. Itto was in almost every patch in 4.x, if we see him before 6.0 I might throw my computer. I just dont care for combat in any game. Theres nothing fun or interesting about combat, its just something I *have* to do. I just want more puzzles or perma potion making event. She wants subtext, but then ignores the subtext about the effects of Liyue AQ and Zhonglis acts as Archon etc..... I do not expect a gacha game to examine the effects of mental health and war when mega-money film's and Tv series (let alone games) dont either. Wanting something that RARELY exists in paid-for games, to exist in the gacha game? We gotta shift expectations here please. I adore RDR2, best game i will ever play - Genshin is my 2nd favourite but my expectations are very different. They've taken most of the story out of time-limited events since 4.4, unfortunately, so aside from the Iktomi event theres not been any importsnt lore in events. Arlecchino animation 100% was better to see before her story quest for me. The quest wasnt about Clervie - missing that point isnt actually Hoyos fault. It was always gonna be a marmite decision from Hoyo. Genshins storytelling isnt RDR2 or BG3, but its far from bad.

[@ZephyrBluePaddy]

This wasn't meant to be an essay.... whoops 😅😅

[@ZephyrBluePaddy]

I will criticise the hell out of Genshin for many, many things - but some of the original posters comments are from.... just not understanding or "getting" what the story is telling you. It is a far from perfect game.

[@Klara_00771]

COOKED🗣️🔥🔥

[@purp1e200]

As someone who played a lot of good story based games like rdr2, Cyberpunk and Bulder's Gate, yes the game's story telling is bad. Like REALLY REALLY bad. Please don't try to sugarcoat it. Hoyo has learned to decieve its own players. They just put their players through 2-3 hours of yapping then, they make a good 20 minute finale and show then a 30 second cutscene and fool their players into thinking they've just played a good story.

[@ZephyrBluePaddy]

@@purp1e200 then don't play it if you don't like it, it's really that easy.

[@readerofalltrades]

It's funny-I never really found the game verbose or dragging when I first started playing. It’s only after getting into university that I began to feel, “Okay, maybe this might be a slight issue.” I think this is one of those things that varies significantly from person to person. Also, people who are indifferent to certain aspects of a game often don't comment much online. As a result, the ratio of players criticizing the 'bloated' dialogue might feel skewed compared to the actual sentiment across the player base. (This, of course, is just a guess, not backed by any data.) Being an open-world, anime-styled game seems like a huge advantage, but in Genshin's case, it might also act as a limitation. When you're creating the story of a single zone in an open-world setting, you can polish every detail to near perfection. But as a live-service game, maintaining that level of quality becomes exponentially harder with each new patch. Now, add the expectation of releasing entirely new zones-like clockwork, with another on the horizon every year-and you can see where compromises might arise. Cracks have appeared here and there in the world-building, which is understandable given the sheer size of the game. That said, I think the world has held its quality remarkably well overall. Would the game benefit from more visual storytelling? Absolutely. Is it always feasible? In my opinion, not really. Genshin took a massive gamble, essentially reinventing the wheel with its approach, pioneering the mobile open-world gaming market. It may not be a masterpiece, but it still outperforms most competitors even after four years. That said, the mobile platform undeniably limits Genshin's potential. As a developer, I’d love to peek under the hood and see the code running the game. But I can imagine that maintaining and expanding on 4-6-year-old code-while rolling out massive new content updates every 40-50 days-is a monumental challenge. Despite its limitations, I think Hoyoverse has always taken feedback about its storytelling seriously. After Inazuma, there’s been noticeable improvement in narrative quality. With Natlan, it feels like Hoyoverse is realizing that to keep the game alive long-term, they need to shift gears sooner rather than later, possibly even before Khaenri’ah. Naturally, Natlan has already introduced significant changes and some “pattern-breaking”. Another artificial limitation comes from the ever-growing cast. Most, if not all, Genshin characters have well-written backstories and immense potential for deeper personal stories. But the need to introduce new characters almost every patch means that potential often goes untapped. In this sense, the gacha system holds Genshin back. Additionally, it seems like Hoyoverse has imposed a self-restriction by avoiding duplicate "personas" of a character in Genshin. Maybe they’ll break this rule in the future-especially given the changes happening in Natlan-but for now, it stands. Also, personally, I don’t mind that character stories often focus more on the broader world of Teyvat (through NPCs and external events) rather than exploring the characters themselves. But I can see why some players might feel disappointed by this approach. So after playing this game for 4 years almost everyday. The only thing keeping me hooked is the story and the world. The dopamine hit I get every time I discover something new from the world quests, or have random revelations in the archon quest is enough to keep me going until the end of this teyvat chapter. There's also the fact that because genshin takes inspiration from so many real world mythos, it acts as a gateway for me to explore those things on my own. This is not everyone's cup of tea, but if it clicks, oh it clicks very well.

[@mattpetty448]

The environmental storytelling is mostly done through world quests.

[@Aman_Mondal]

Nah people of this generation just has skill issue😂. GENSHIN AND EVERY HOYO GAME STORY IS LIKE THIS, ITS THEIR STYLE OF STORYTELLING. Just asking but why does she keep on comparing with games that had the time to make those open worlds for over 2 years also comparing with Western Movies?? Genshin is a game that is made with maybe 6 months of advanced production and it's a constant grind for them since it's a forever expanding story not just a one game one story here you go full package. Also Genshin isn't comparable to western cinematography cuz it uses Anime tropes and situations which are very different compared to Western stories. Also the game is 13+ age rated meaning they can't show much stuff

[@tibowmew]

In regards to the world building in Fontaine with the above and below ground areas, even though it wasn't the focus of the story quest, I think the point she was making is that we still should have seen the effects of it. Having Neuvillette even off-handedly mention that Navia's organization is pushing for certain laws that would help the people more would go a long way, Wriothesley mentioning that the different backgrounds and ways of life that inmates came from caused different cliques or interactions in the Fortress. Seeing people's biases come up more in how the poor think of the rich and vice versa, even in side conversations. All of these things could have been very small additions that wouldn't remove focus from the main quest but would have made it feel more like people live there and have problems because of the current way of life. It could have really even added a whole layer of "the show". How the upper crust really are just putting on shows for each other at the expense of others. So many opportunities to enrich were missed.

[@_Nyxus_]

One of the things that bothers me about this person's comparisons is that they're comparing Genshin, a mobile gacha game that's live service, to fully finished AAA games that are released on PC and console only. Maybe it's just me, but I feel there's a massive difference there in terms of what can be done with cinematography, action scenes, voiced quests, etc.

[@walterwhite4398]

This is similar to when someone compared zenless zone zero to GTA San Andreas for some reason. People do be comparing anything these days and it doesn't even make sense at all.

[@mattpetty448]

For Dune it really helps to read the books

[@FellMaria]

Personally i adore the story. And dont have any problems with the storytelling aside from time-limited events. Thankfully I have KZbin to give me that :>

[@stevek606]

I feel like any game that centres its story around banner characters is inherently going to have ‘storytelling issues’, especially in the MSQ/Archon Quests. The best storytelling in Genshin will always be through WQ’s and the environment itself, as those two things are completely unburdened by having to generate profit.

[@zerozgaming5770]

I think GI story isn't bad, actually on the good side, the problem with the dialogues and pace is not a GI problem but rather a HYV problem, as a veteran of HI3 (played since release), this is nothing new to me. The content is good, like if you say GI story is bad, then what is WW story ? (not saying WW is bad, the story is), just a non-stop dating simulator, no world building where there is so much potential in that world. GI story is probably gonna follow the path of HI3, you really need to fully deep dive into it to fully appreciate it. That's my opinion.

[@Yuna-Moon-0]

I think it is kinda cool that there is lore for almoust everything and that you can find it even befor we realy get interduced to it in the story but often it also can be very frustrating, also with the story events like the one with Albedo, it realy sucks that they put so much lore in it and if you have not played then you just dont know abou all of this exept someone tels you about it

[@ShadowhunterGenshin]

Yeah a lot of people want harder combat and more endgame. But also when you see how many people complain about abyss even though it’s not very hard when you’ve got well built characters and understand a bit about the reaction system, you understand why hoyo decided to pander towards the majority of players who don’t read and built characters properly and complain about ‘difficult content’. That’s also why lots of the qol improvements lately haven’t been useful for the players who understand the combat, but rather are to raise the floor of player combat level and artifact investment. I mean when you still see people putting atk% sands on neuvi or hp% sands on gaming, you can get why hoyo hasn’t made combat more mechanic heavy and challenging. Lots of content creators’ opinions might be creating a bit of an echoing chamber, since ccs usually have lots of time invested and can understand the combat much better than the average player. Once hoyo can can educate the larger player base about how the combat actually works, maybe we’ll get to enjoy some more difficult content. The new local legend challenges are a small step in the right direction, competing them fully was definitely much more skill intensive than most other content.

[@andrewmattar4178]

Mondstadt's story was just the prologue of the game. I am pretty sure that mondstadt is the region that is actually supposed to be the 7th region. While we flashed out mostly the stories of the remaining archons, we basically still know nothing about Venti! All we know is that he is a drunkard who likes to sing and gives freedom to his people while popping from time to time to do something nice for them. Liyue's buildup was very slow but Hoyo always knows how to end a story on a high note. That final battle atop the jade chamber fighting Osial is still one of my favorite scenes. Inazuma was the weakest region in story. I failed to connect with Raiden's POV. However, again, that last part was quite good. Sumeru, Fontaine and Natlan for now are peak. Also, on the matter of finding the sibling, it was clear from the start that our main objective has become to find out the secret of Teyvat. Basically, we found our sibling pretty quickly. But since they were working with the abyss, finding out why has become our main objective. This quest is beyond just a sibling search, it's an investigation on Teyvat's past and finding a way to make the future a bit better. No game is perfect, and there will always be aspects of any given game that you can criticize on the hope that the devs could make better. But Genshin's story is solid and was getting better and better every single patch.

[@chrono732]

Not everyone will get hooked onto the story the same way. If you play and don't get hooked, don't play. That's all I'll say.

[@aikivya]

36:06 kinda like the fatui in mondstadt the ones near the waypoint, everytime something happens with the harbingers they change what they say, more things like that around the world would be awesome

[@Syiepherze]

30:15 This. One thing I wish I didn't notice is how the permanence of the world itself makes any cataclysmic world-changing events feel relatively inconsequential. The teleport waypoints, chests and (non-story) NPCs aren't going anywhere

[@kakanangk4263]

For me, I like what Genshin do with their lore and storytelling. Yes, it isn't perfect (part of it, maybe, because at first the devs want to use manhuwa for the extra lore hub but it didn't work well) but the charm is that the player have to find the extra-lore/information themselves and that make the theory crafting so fun and the community is quite lively. Also, this give me Soulborn vibe as well, in terms of finding lore hidden in item description or in a secret playces by the players.

[@saycosphere4343]

Genshin is one of the Video Game that actually made me tear up and care for the characters. Just like reading book or watching movie. You will not appreciate anything if you didn't invest time on playing story reading and listening get to know some lore and experiencing the moment. yes. there is down moment like long yapping or uninteresting quest. but thats to be expected. every long running media had filler moments.

[@lia-ci8sy]

About cinematografy: no, it is not about engine or mobile player holding the game back, you can create an impactful visual storytelling even with pixel art or polygons if one wishes to. There are are many ways to circumvent the problem with limited resources, it is all about how you use those resources in every shot and the overall composition (as all can see exemplified with the attention given to shot composition with Fontaine and Nathan). It just take a different level of study and care from the creators.

[@Lu-up4on]

I think it’s kinda cool that you have to dive into every single artifact description and book in the game to fully understand the lore. It is part of Genshins charme that you can decide how much you want to dive into the story. You can skip the story and just build your characters. You can pay attention to the archon quests and skip the rest. You can play the side quests. Or you can dive into the lore more deeply. But your way to play doesn’t have an impact on the game. I think that is why Genshin is a comfort game for many people. You‘re decisions don’t matter, so you can play all the time, you can go into the story really deeply, or just play around and skip some things. I somehow see Genshins story almost like reading a book or watching a tv series. You don’t need to decide on anything and just watch. That does miss out on the specialities of video games, but I think that’s fine. Not every game has to be groundbreaking. Sometimes you just want to enjoy some cool shit.

[@apoorvjoshi2383]

36:04 we do the entire khvarena quest, and a tree blooms sooooooooo massives that it is visible from over the hills. No one talks about "OH DID YOU SEE THAT MASSIVE GLOWING TREE THERE? I SWEAR I HAVE NEVER SEEN IT IN MY LIFE"

[@Thedarkbunnyrabbit]

HUGE disagreement from me. First of all, I like the scattered nature of the lore. It rewards you for actually exploring the open world. The main story has what's most important, but if you want to understand that better and how it's all connected, you have to leave the main path and learn the world - which is EXACTLY what your sibling told you to do. The mystery and piecemeal lore is so great to me that games which don't have that hold little interest. My main interest IS the story between the twins, though. Sometimes I enjoy the story of a nation, but I'm playing those to unravel the mystery of Khaenriah and what happened to us. I also just literally do NOT see this thing about 'they just keep repeating themselves' like wtf are you talking about? When? There are story points that are a slog - sneaking around the Academiya instead of just facing them head on, skipping the rebellion and having an unsatisfying conclusion to the confrontation with Ei, the entirety of Fontaine - but it's not because things are being repeated. Gosh, I would not survive if they were just repeating the same thing over and over on top of that. Adding on to that, there is TONS and TONS of subtlety and things left unsaid in the dialog of Genshin. I go back and rewatch early parts of the story and find they left hints of stuff they would later do - or now recognize what's being said are hints that haven't been revealed yet. If you think the writing lacks subtlety, it's because you're missing it and Paimon is there for you. I agree with the chatter - some of the avoidance is censorship. Genshin has to shy away from the leaders of the nations being bad. This is one reason why Inazuma was such a mess - the story required Ei to be bad and the people to overthrow her, but this is a BIG no-no in CN gaming rules - and is even a big issue in the CCP overall, which is why they can flout that with Lisa and Venti's design, but not Ei. And so you have weird situations where Zhongli, Venti, and Ei should be criticized and face more consequences than they do. And even in Sumeru where the rulers were the problem, they limited that scope severely and framed them as being illegitimate. Also, Natlan is full of missing NPCs after the war. She just missed it. We literally have what she's complaining isn't there. There's like a dozen people who are just gone in Natlan after the war. I think the best solution was to have Cleurvi's story at the end when she vanishes, as it would have had maximum impact. And on the final note: hilariously, that saurian quest is one of the few Natlan world quests I did. I kept waiting for some mystery to unravel, something important to be told to me, and there really wasn't anything. I don't care about the dinos, I didn't even see the injured ones, because I used Kinich to just zip past all the outside Fatui down into the cave (I was looking for some of Kinich's local specialty and the map seemed to be pointing there). Compare that to the one with the trapped Khaenriahn soldiers and there's no comparison. In both cases I stumbled into it not trying to actively start a quest, but with the Saurian one I just cleared out a base, ransacked it for lore, and left.

[@lulufortytwo3884]

The really detailed lore of furniture, books, and artifacts are cool little bonus prizes, but I don't keep up with it and I'm still neck deep into enjoying the story. I liked Genshin, but I didn't love it until after Enkanomiya when I realized that Istaroth was also in Ei's story. Realizing that the world quests were part of the main story made me realize I wasn't going to drop the game until the end if it continued like that. I do take breaks so I don't burn out, but yeah. It definitely rewards you pay attention. I started an alt account bc of the 5 star selector and even though I am a Paimon apologist, she's *terrible* early game. All of her worst habits of repetition are on display. Right now, I give her an 8/10 but in Liyue she's a 4. I really think that soured a lot of people on her from the start so the "repeating things that just happened" is really obvious with that bias. It does happen, I wish it wouldn't. But it's way better than it was. Thanks for the perspective on the CN censorship. it's really really obvious now that you pointed it out. When she was talking about the effects of the Natlan's war, I couldn't help but think of the broken moon in the sky. Mavuika broke the shell, that's way more interesting that abyssal filth we've seen in every nation. And people complained about Tsurumi Island having to be played multiple times during the story, so while withering areas post act 4 is a neat idea, people would find it tedious so I don't think it would be well received.

[@Thedarkbunnyrabbit]

@@lulufortytwo3884 Yeah, Genshin just always feels like it's rewarding you fo going looking in the world, and I think that it ends up having the opposite effect if you don't go looking. Not necessarily punishing you, per se, but creating that impression that they're doing storytelling 'wrong' because when you go and watch some lore, you get an entirely different story than what you experienced, which makes you think 'wow they were really bad at communicating it!' but the reality is, most of it is just not in the archon quest YET. That said, I take breaks too, I think that's just normal for playing a gacha game for years. You know, it's been years since I played the beginning, and most of what I see other people play is Mondstadt - where I am distracted by how less painful Paimon's voice is. Maybe that does have a lot of the repetition by Paimon and I've just forgotten it. I never made alt accounts, because I dislike that I can't transfer over pulls between accounts, haha. Yeah, when I realized that it made a big difference too. Yeah, we definitely do changes - like the broken sky - but I do think a more valid criticism is that our changes are usually destructive/subtractive, I wish we had more like the inn where we repair the stairs

[@Eva-pn1yi]

@@Thedarkbunnyrabbit "Yeah, we definitely do changes - like the broken sky - but I do think a more valid criticism is that our changes are usually destructive/subtractive, I wish we had more like the inn where we repair the stairs" ditto to that! like i always found the scenes before change looked better, really miss the tower in the ocean, misty lake of Chenyu Velley and blue sky in ochicannatlan ect.

[@Thedarkbunnyrabbit]

@@Eva-pn1yi I end up not doing a lot of quests so I just don't get the subtraction (like the pyramid, I don't want to turn that cool thing off). Hopefully we'll get more additive stuff - Khaenriah might be a great opportunity to repair things, for instance.

[@loubalto5956]

Think there is a video by cat in blue hat or someone showing the removal of multiple npcs removed after the natlan archon quests and flowers or other remembrance things left behind. Also wasn’t there a whole thing with arlecchino story quest and poisson showing building it back up

[@gianlucagiusti6174]

Story itself? no, it only got better from Sumeru on. Storytelling? Now that's another pair of hands we can discuss...

[@Juffrou_ffoorie]

Genshin is like Naruto, well written but too much filler

[@yogiriakuto]

Well about Story Telling we obviously has our own Opinion,but hear me Out dude no matter what other says SABZERUS FESTIVAL Arc is PEAK ARCHON QUEST in My Opinion it's One of if not The Best 🗿 I will always say that Sabzerus Festival it's just Mcuaaahh Chef Kiss 🗿

[@lemonZzzzs]

On subtext: that is really hard to convey in a story that is intended to be shown in multiple languages. A lot of the way we read subtext is cultural: the word play, the allusions to known cultural assumptions, even a lot of the common facial expressions in how they are applied! Genshin, by the way, despite drawing so much of its storytelling tropes from Japanese anime, still shows some Chinese cultural tropes in its storytelling. That's subtext. Some of it may just be lost on the English speaking consumers of it. That cliché 6 word story meme quoted in that section of the video is, in fact, a great example of how being _too_ terse sacrifices clarity. That story can be interpreted in many ways, most of which aren't sad. If it _were_ originally intended to evoke the sense of loss, it relies on the reader's unwarranted assumptions matching the authors'. Personally, I take it as a clever demonstration of how _not_ to communicate.

[@chimelxatrindad1516]

Biggest problem was Hoyo should have continued the webtoon bc it explains characters I forget existed and the art was good, and Bran it shows how diluc expression's was fitting to his character Arc.

[@karhall1635]

16:25 One of my favorite parts of Zenless Zone Zero is exactly this. They have these long sections of dialogue and comic book storytelling scenes, but if I hit the Skip button it will pop up with 2 sentences that summarizes the entire thing and then I can move on to actually playing the game again. 8-10 minutes of spoken information that boils down to nine important words. I really like that because if I do want to know what it was about, I can replay it and actually listen. But sometimes I just want to get to the next task, complete the objective, etc. and I don't really care to sit there for too long waiting for everyone to get to the point. Genshin is awful about doing this and from what I hear HSR is even worse. I'm a relatively new Genshin player having just started in October, and my desire to play has all but ground to a halt at Chapter III: Act V because I cannot deal with how long this game spends forcing you to listen to people talk in service of something that could be conveyed in a fraction of the word count.

[@apoorvjoshi2383]

30:57 Finally. What neuvilette did, should have lead to a lot of people drowning. Even with the rescue preparations, not everyone could have survived a massive flood of that scale. Yet nothing happens. People just "accept" that whatever happened with Furina, happened. No one questions it, no one is bothered by the fact that they were almost killed during a trial and no explanation was given to people for it. In mond quest, Jean is shown writing a letter/announcement column or something that recounts the events suggesting that the events were explained to the public albeit not the entire truth. Morax's death was a public affair and it remained so. But the end of archon quest was not exactly decisive(aka who gets to control the land now, adepti or humans). It ends with Cloud Retainer proclaiming that she would keep an eye and check up on Liyue from time to time to make sure that Qixing are not abusing their power. And she did that. Cloud retainer canonically visited Liyue quite a few times, even if the reasons were varied. And would definitely have taken action if the citizens were not happy. It was so much better than giving all control to Qixing directly. Similar things were done in Sumeru when Nahida took over academia and started rebuilding it. There was resistance, there were some rebellious elements that showed up etc etc. This is one of the main reasons why i disliked inazuman quest. Even though Kujou clan apologized, their leader changed, etc etc. Nothing was done for the people who were subjected to cruelty. People were tortured for having visions, for being poor, killed in the civil war, etc etc. A lot of lives were ruined. And yet their plight was forgotten after that whole "Help three people for me" quest by Ayaka. I am glad that the last Dvorak event talked about the cruelties of war, and how Ayato and Kokomi banded together to ensure the safety of so many people. Something that should have been Shogun's responsibility as well.

[@erykoman1237]

Multiple characters mentioned that some people died in the flood and it took a lot of effort (and support from the Fatui) to quickly repair all the damage. But it was mostly unvoiced, so people who cannot read wouldn't notice. The people of Fontaine also received an official explanation from Neuvilette that the prophecy has been fulfilled, and he is now the "archon" of Fontaine. As we can deduce from Furina faking it for 500 years, Fontaine has a culture of rarely questioning the divine. As for Inazuma, I think you are forgetting that the Raiden Shogun is a literal DIVINE GOD EMPRESS with ABSOLUTE POWER over her people, so of course she wouldn't apologize to mortal humans, just like a human wouldn't apologize to an ant for crushing it. Besides, there are no Geneva Conventions in Inazuma. For all we know, she did nothing illegal.

[@apoorvjoshi2383]

@erykoman1237 1- the casualties of the flood arent mentioned with nearly enough depth as they ought too. Unlike other nations, where things happened in certain corners of the nation, the whole nation of fontaine was flooded. It was a massive tragedy and it warranted more than that small snippet of charlotte's news headlines at the end of the quest. I dont remember exactly what was conveyed to the people but irrespective of the explanation, there shpuld have been some repurcussions of that court case. We know for sure that no one knows about furina's sacrifice. If they were told Furina was never the "hydro archon" and kept giving them "false hope". Human Furina would have been staked. IF they said that furina was indeed the archon and used up all her powers to save fontaine, then why did Oratrice sent out a capital punishment? This completely puts allll previous trials under suspicion. What if, for years, Oratrice(and possibly even Neuvilette) have been wrongly judging the people and sending innocents to the fortress? Oratricr was the centre of their faith in judiciary, some sort of civil unrest should have been shown. It was a big deal. You cant just wash it up in a few lines. This kind of things deserve a mini quest. As for Raiden, well yes what she did isnt technically "illegal" but it should have sowed mistrust amongst her masses for her. She is not fit for rule. Her own retainers and foreigners were able to make a fool out of her. The fact that only yashiro commission did their duty should have been a massive eye opener for people. Once again, this warranted another quest. Sure no one can replace the archon, but NPCs still revering her is just wrong. She is not a goddess...well she is but she did not act like one. Therr should have been visible actions taken by the tri commissiom to mend their political image AND help the people they harmed. None of that happens. Sure raiden cant just bow down to people and beg for forgiveness, as her station does not allow that. But she should havr made reparations for its people. She should have been more personally involved atleast with the tricommission if not the common masses. Its almost like a raiden story quest 3 is needed to salvage this. In sq1 she finally ventures into the human realm. In sq2 her body rebels for it. Now she shoulf be actively involved but we are too far cutoff from inazuman politics now. What happened in inazuma almost warranted a second rebellion and yet it was shoved aside like yea yea shit happens move on.

[@Juffrou_ffoorie]

The biggest thing that ruins genshins writing is localisation. Alot of things get lost in translation from Chinese to English.

[@NicoleCinnaroll]

I have to be honest. I'm dyslexic and reading Genshin world quests is nearly impossible due to how wordy they are and how the names of things/people/places can be so overly complicated. As for the main story, similarly, it can be hard to keep up with what's happening even if its repeated or if it has a voice over. Because Genshin dumps so many words to make the archon quests longer, it is very difficult for me to follow. I've found story games in general aren't very disability friendly and Genshin has nothing to make it easier like an automated voice that can be used for world quests (think siri or alexa style voice overs). If I were working in the gaming world, I'd work towards making all games accessible for anyone of any reading level or other similar disabilities to dyslexia and beyond. I find the world tends to forget about people like me exist even if one of their content creators (Dish) also has dyslexia and I'm sure she's struggled here and there but dyslexia can be worse for some and may simply be worse for me regarding reading Genshin quests. I just hope one day the gaming world could be more inclusive regarding this specific topic.

[@kiwiseed7563]

just some insight about mobile gaming, i do believe it is restrictive, but personally i would choose them to keep the quality as is so the mobile player can come along for the ride, as for other games that do cinematography better aka wuwa, well to tell the truth i do play many games on my phone, on a samsung note 20 ultra, and the hoyo games just play so much better then other ... example wuwa and infinity nikki dont play as well on my phone as genshin and HSR do ... hoyo has mastered the mobile aspect and i hope they keep to it

[@ProjSHiNKiROU]

Due to myself hating reading walls of text (in general) and liking SF over fantasy, I read bit of text when I'm in a SF setting and hate reading even the core story when I'm in a fantasy setting.

[@mangshu21]

i can nitpick the best movies i have ever watched, it doesn't mean anything. Just because you made a video on youtube don't mean you are right lol. There are loads of video essays on youtube and majority of then are full of BS.

[@walterwhite4398]

I gotta agree most of them if not all are really just nonsense sometimes there some good one but generally it doesn't matter it won't change anything other than the creator community

[@apoorvjoshi2383]

8:32 Amber:- "Now that the threat of stormterror is over, why not I stick to my promise and treat you Traveller? Lets go to KFC for lunch. Why don't you guys join us as well?" Kaeya - "Hmmm. KFC ah? It would be rude to decline an invitation from our esteemed outrider herself...I wonder what kind of drinks they serve.." Lisa - "That is a wonderful idea little munchkin, what do you say Jean, shall we join this little get together as well? A trip to KFC might do you some good, considering how stressed you have been these last few days as if Lord Barbatos himself appeared before you and told you that the world was gonna end..mhmhmm" Jean - "Uh..ah..lord barbatos? Uh..you are right Lisa, i think i need to take it easy. Lets go to KFC everyone, lets celebrate the heroic achievements of our honorary knight there" Paimon - "YAYY!! KFC..OOOOOH PAIMON CANNOT WAIT TO EAT SOME CHICKEN STRIPS, CHICKEN WINGS, CHICKEN POPCORN...with all the sauces. Mhmmhmm Paimon can already see chicken wings flying in front of her, LETS HEAD TO KFC!!! ~insert some song about KFC~ " Traveler - 😄

[@Naynin]

Unfortunately this....feels believeable

[@r1se_1]

yall hatin genshin impact isnt bad and i've seen bad

[@justacat5069]

People skipping Paimon reminds me of why some players think Furina and Focalors are two different people. As annoying as Paimon's summaries are, she does give some clarity on some parts of the story, like where she specifically refered to Focalors and Furina as one person.

[@SunnysLuv]

Idk if I’m healthy bc I finished 3 whole archon quests in 3 days

[@animxplay]

Fontaine archon quest was pure gem.Mostly characters story with emotions

[@kaelmartin9870]

39:22 I never watched the short, I just knew bits and pieces from the Internet. So when I played the story quest, I enjoyed it more imo. I still haven't seen the short.

[@Who_is_Toast]

I'm sorry but is it really fair to compare an open world gacha game to literal movies? Like I get why but they're not nearly similar enough. Also the games and movies she's comparing are already complete while Genshin is a game that keeps updating as newer patches get added. Like idk it just seems weird.

[@walterwhite4398]

That's like comparing Zenless zone zero to say uhh Yakuza or something. I felt like people are just pulling random example for it At least idk used another gacha games for example like limbus Company. That at least even out the story part not to a older or newer triple a titles like Rdr2 or Bg3

[@1Henrink]

I agree with Bran here. Somehow Genshin's lore is more scattered than Dark Souls, it has SO MUCH to read at so many places, with SO MANY threads. It's exhausting

[@FrozenFrost6866]

i can make it more annoying. you remember that genshin released an xbox glider, and that glider has lore on kaneria(i forgot how to spell it)

[@yogiriakuto]

I think that's the whole Point 🗿well maybe they took "Open World" too seriously to the point that even the most unnoticeable thing hides a Huge Lore Bomb v: But It's a Good thing in my Opinion and i think maybe only Genshin with "Open World" gendra that have this level of Lore Complexity. The Archon Quest is Good but the World Lore itself is another lvl 🗿Impresive tbh

[@Tiyac3]

​@@FrozenFrost6866khaenriah

[@DisguisedHaku]

Why are you surprised? It's an ever-expanding game. A live service game. It's not gonna spoonfeed you everything about the lore upon release.

[@Beenus2622]

​@@yogiriakuto yeah, the lore feel like a piece of history (ofc) and actually made it feel like its realistic, not everything need to be laid out in front of you (i rememver traveler said that they know things because they read books and found out about Khaenriah incident), because you want to learn about teyvat, not the other way around imo, exactly like what our sibling want us to know about

[@taigalou]

he always uploads a reaction right after I already watched the og lol

[@panpanicatmhaaaaa]

36:19 from what i've seen, there's only one instance of this sort of this happening with NPCs, and its with the two fatui agents by the main mondstadt waypoint. every time you finish an archon quest, their dialogue changes. since the natlan archon quest isn't finished yet, if you've finished up to fontaine, then they talk about the prophecy. and they do that with each region. but besides those two I have not seen npcs have their dialogue changed because of events in the world

[@number1cheater272]

If your critique video is constantly comparing games/media that are nothing alike then your critique video is inherently flawed and not worth paying attention to. The video makes good points but it's just drowned out by the nonsense. The original creator is trying to sound so smart and sophisticated, but she just proves the opposite with the video she made.

[@walterwhite4398]

Yeah honestly that's why I don't really watch it at all genuinely it so painful to sit through it of her just comparing it to every full triple a titles. Like how can you even compare full games to live service games?

[@windeen]

I agree about the Arle story quest and the short. Below is my personal reasoning (long post- youve been warned, lol): People have told me- "But it gave needed context," .... I also say: It could do that AFTER we play the quest, without spoiling it. Her SQ acted like we DON'T know anything. Like its either a mistery. Or like we are dumb. From the start we knew the kid was not alive, even if we weren't told by the Lyney trio. We also knew who "mother" was... the fact that Lyney's group assumed that she meant Arle "Father" when Freminet was THERE during "Mother's" time... It is beyond my understanding as to why they never stopped and just said: "Wait... you said: "Mother?" (As far as I can remember, they don't, anyway... its been over half a year since I played the SQ on its release day). Anyway- Having it throw non-"mysteries" at me, as if I don't know, didn't make me invested. It made me bored and annoyed to the point of skipping through some dialog because I was bored and wanted new info that was interesting... that never appeared in that SQ. And as a lore addict in this game I HATE skipping (tap, tap, tapping (playing the game on my phone or clicking buttons on my ROG Ally) past the spoken words - is what I call (skipping) it) dialogue, unless its repeated.... even then I sometimes let it play repeated content. I knew Arle wasn't the "mother" she was referring to (that could have been warped, maybe make what she's saying incomprehensible to us & the characters somehow). Also from the short we already knew something of how and why she died (that context AFTER, in the short would have been better... telling us more detail of what lead up to her dying that day, would have been good, as well. Those were the 2 big "mysteries" and I knew most of the context around them, thanks to the short - it would have helped to see the short after as well because I would have known that there was a year between when Clervie kicked the bucket and when "mother" was "dethroned". I would have cared more about the child if how I learned these things was more "organic" in the process of progressing through the SQ. Others have said to me: "How are people supposed to know not to watch it before, without spoiling them anyway, then?" .... Maybe as Bran said: Put it IN the SQ - a perfect spot was when Traveler and Paimon were talking to Clervie at the end. Would have explained how Arle seemed to have lost a bit of a track on time, if that was her reminiscing while they were telling Clervie of their travels. Then afterwards, she realizes the sun is comming up and her own chance to say much more to Clervie was gone. Another option is: They could have done it the same way HSR warned people who might not want to get spoiled, about Harmony Trailblazer in the start of the of trailblazer's "Keeping Up With Star Rail"? That "keeping up with-" episode was released about a week or so AFTER Arle's story quest. So I was still steaming over my anger at the short having taken any surprise or mystery from me. Then I saw what HSR did less than a month later (I realize they are different teams. But they are the same company and I'm sure the teams (not so much sure about Tears of Themis, but I am fairly sure the other 4 games all do this between them) can and do coordinate/communicate between Genshin, HI3rd, HSR and (likely) ZZZ at times). 😅 If you want to see what I'm talking about its at the start of that segment for Harmony TB, around 7 months ago ("Burning In The Embers" came out about 2 weeks before the Keeping Up With- segment that I'm referring to). But if you don't wanna go look that far back, I'll type out what it said, since I was so angry about it that I remember it almost word for word, I think. Here is HSR's spoiler warning: "Friendly Reminder: We recommend viewing this video after experiencing the Trailblaze Mission: - Beauty And Destruction." A to the point warning. It gives away minimal spoilers in telling the player: "Eh.. maybe wait to watch this video-" It's as simple as having the following message (or something like it) shown at the VERY START of Arle's animated short: "A Friendly Notice: We recommend viewing this animated short AFTER experiencing the Character Story Quest For Arlecchino: Ignis Purgatorius Chapter." That message would have done a lot it prevent so many of us from feeling like the SQ was useless or boring. Its short. It spoils nothing outwardly. Leaves the choice up to the player without us stumbling into it thinking it was "SAFE" as usual. If the choice was in our hands, then we'd have no reason to be annoyed or otherwise upset. It would be on us. Before that short none of the promo material had really spoiled a SQ to THAT extent. So none of us would have reason to suspect that, it was a spoiler for the margority of the character's SQ. Previous ones might have hinted at things or shown us stuff that could be spoilers, but none of it ruined an entire story quest for me, before. And my close friends who play also share this same opinion as myself or Bran. Some people who say it doesn't spoil it are likely talking about the side story revolving around what happened to the kids who vanished.... and that was ok. I guess. But I did not even get enough of a reason to care about those kids at all. Or see much to show me the bond between them or the Leney trio. Yeah, they TOLD us about the bond. But I didn't feel it, didnt care about any of them (aside from Lyney trio) because it was TOLD to us. The only new info we got from the SQ was: - Clervie was killed a year before mama got what she deserved. - The other harbingers $#!t talk about Arle, implying things. But she's mostly fine with that. It serves her fearsom persona. - Freminet was a "child" of the house (which we knew, but added to it that it was-) around 6 months - to a year before mama died, since he arrived when he was about 5-7 (assuming he was too young to fully remember things about his mother clearly, but old enough to possibly do/survive missions). It also told us that it occured between the 2 "leaving" the house, forcefully. That in turn puts him around the same age as the twins... give or take, since they arrived about a year or a few months (can't remember which) after mama was "ousted". And: - We know that Dottore was using the "useless" children in his experiments. We could have learned a lot more from it, though. Without that short being shown first. That short would have just added to what we learned in the story quest and been better... but thats my opunion. I just thought I would explain another POV that is similar to Bran's.

[@Jonno92100]

22:07 one could argue the teaser videos when a playable character is releasing covers this aspect of storytelling. It’s sad they’re not included in the game itself, but at least they have an artistic medium where character lore and backstory are shown.

[@illidanST7F]

38:59 but Arlecchino already knew it was Clervie, like from the first time we are tasked to buy time, she already knows but i agree with the part about how it should play after the story quests ends, like in HI3 where they use big cinematics for the end of mayor arcs

[@perfectlyassembled1]

We need a feature to archive the cutscenes

[@apoorvjoshi2383]

Before i start watching this video Story telling - Garbage, I am very sorry I know that a lot of people like it and i do not wish to offend anyone, but Genshin's story telling is like a very small child's fairy tale book and even then it is clunky. Yes even if its canonically a fairy tale(you know with the theory that the entire journey of traveler could just be a fictional story allegorically telling the history of the world or something)...it is still not a fun experience to play for years and years. Lore - 100/10. Genshin's plot is beautiful. The scattered lore, the world building, the mystery, everything is BEAUTIFUL. Best part is, unlike HSR, Genshin's lore is not too vast. It is easy to keep track of and fill in holes. On the other hand,HSR's lore is soooooo rich, but it is based on such a massive world, that the scale is just beyond comprehension. In genshin, we at least know what Archon's capabilities are and we can somewhat imagine how powerful primordial god and sovereign dragons must be. But in HSR, I have no clue what a serious aeon could do. They all are primordial one in their own right, never to be seen, casually bestowing world changing abilities, etc etc. That scale is tooooo massive, and i ll get to it when i m done with genshin. But genshin's is perfect. A pocket full of lore. TLDR - Genshin's story telling, character animations and dialog writing DOES NOT do justice to the brilliant lore and the godly crew of voice actors they have.

[@Kaze8822]

Love your content, keep up the great work

[@Melasfo]

But the part about the saurians still doesnt make sense to me, it doesnt really showcase the cruelty that good considering WE literally farm them for materials, they should not have been made possible to kill, it takes so much from them.

[@eraba661]

Genshin can make story better character animation instead of sloppy and longer and to keep players "longer time" thing they can make Archon quest re-playable with concise dialogue if they make a story playable with good dialgoues I bet people would re-play it more often, cause the files are already on your device, its not a hard feature to make and not only that HI3 has already done that, they can also make CG/cutscenes accessible to watch if they don't want to add feature to replay stories like Hangouts, I absolutely love them, gives alot of depth to the characters

[@user-bf2ft2vh2w]

I think the reason why the animated short of arle wasn't put in-game was because of scaramouche being there as a fatui. It showed the actual past without the change in irminsul.

[@TheCsel]

I think a lot of the story telling was sacrificed for gameplay. It’s an open world game, styled after a live running MMO, so much of the story is contained in quests. Quests in an open world game mean that you have explore and find them and then it’s largely optional to do them. Genshin could easily have told these stories in better ways, but it’s a game and you need things to do in an open world.

[@shadowmeka.5205]

31:00 it this patch 5,3 that have some side effects of abyssal corruption on people and we helped them in the flower feather clan plus a lot of the damage have been medicated by the ode of resurrection (expect chasca sister) the same goes for the power of the dragon sovereign who probably have the power of life and can judge even gods .

[@lemonZzzzs]

To me, the worldbuilding with its multiple stories being in the background, while the character's main story only covering a finite set of focused paths through it is more natural than the entire world and everything on screen serving the main narrative. The latter makes the entire world feel fake, manufactured just for the main narrative. The former feels like a world where a story happens (in fact, multiple, sometimes intertwined stories). Personally, I prefer the former. That being said, while Genshin has truly impressive _worldbuilding_ and _lore_ , its actual main story is hard to slog though. And the side quests are even worse. For me, the biggest problem *is* the combination of the zoomer style repetitive writing and the fact that most of it is fed 1-2 lines of text at a time and at a pace that is just too damn slow. Instead of a skip button, I'd like a summary button, where you just get the paginated text script. I'd then just skim through it at my own (much faster) pace for the 5-6 keywords that the typical meandering 25 minute conversation is desperately failing to convey. This applies mostly to the dialogue sections, of course. Cutscenes, books, and gameplay sections are not as obnoxious.

[@Kxto2]

i personally think world quests are there because they tell stories about the world. Genshin is an open-world game after all. If all the lore was spoonfed to you in the archon quest, then exploration wouldn't be as interesting.

[@quietguyjosh4643]

More info lore and content in less time 10-15 min quests Can be part of a chain of quests Need more voice acted quests Dont hide important lore Any book paper writings should be in log (In Fontaine, there are lots of notes that you can't collect or archive)

[@Shade______dumbnamerestriction]

26:20 until they add an enemy that require damage from natlan character otherwise they have a 99% damage res / immunity :) also a missed opportunity about genshin's combat is that it's heavily focused on reaction yet we have VERY few enemies that actively use reactions against US (without relying on another creature) the only one who come in mind that actually use a reaction against us is that anemo / hydro kitty overworld boss

[@deathtrigger6965]

even if i agree somethings but i disagree most....thing is people mostly forget after playing the quests as they said they don't use lines where we have to read under the lines so yeah books are there also when they do use these things people are like they don't know how to tell the story also the environment setting used in rumeria is still best....i have many more instances so yeah i agree to disagree sort off...

[@hyukaaaaaaaa3915]

I'm just enjoying the lore as it goes

[@RahRizzle123]

I see genshins lore split into major sections Nation lore - all the lore related to new regions like sumeru desert, dragonspine, and Enkanomiya Endgame lore - stuff leading to endgame like information about abyss, khaenri'ah, fatui, or our twin I dont mind this but to be honest its so much lore genshin sorta struggles when to focus on it. Like Mond and natlan are abyss focused, while Inazuma, Liyue, and sumeru are fatui focused. I guess fontaine is fatui as well but as a whole genshin doesnt know jownto focus on both at once. Maybe the game wants to build to merging the ideas but idk

[@DurandalOfAegis]

After playing the main story from ZZZ 1.0 to 1.4 resulting in an insane showdown and intense character moments, yeah... Genshin is really on the weak side in terms of presentation, grabbing attention and just story pacing.

[@NavinRaj-f2r]

i never knew artifacts and ascension stones had lore stuff until after like an year of playing.......😅

[@daniel336600]

Why couldn’t they just of had the main character talk and not had a middle man or paimon because it is annoying and long and it is like she is talking for the traveller and knows what the traveler is thinking. It is up to the player to want to go through the story

[@fowsiyaciisekayse]

Bro i do not care abt half of the points she brought up in the first my biggest complaint is no playble character has died

[@Krelion1]

I feel like every story in genshin starts with an hour of filler (information and interactions that are not in any way important to the story being told). It really makes me think that they have a quota of how many hours a story should take and just try to make it as long as needed. If they were to shorten them a bit, the stories would be more enjoyable to play through and more people would be paying attention to them.

[@portal6884]

People will say that Genshin is not 'complete' so it is unfair to judge the writing, but that is nonsense. It doesn't matter how complete a game/story is if the foundation is not good, then it won't hold well. It can be thought of as a wedding cake. The bottom tiers/foundation could be made of paper (ie bad writing/storytelling), while the above tiers are real cake (good writing/storytelling. It can still work, but is most likely to fail or not be good once you get to the foundation tier. Genshin may not be finished, but its quality is something that can be done in even a non complete state. Of course if they added a skip dialouge button, then i think the complaints of the story would be way less since it isn't mandatory.

[@yuukianimates3318]

Good thing I didn't knew anything about that short and played the story quest first cause its pretty much a spoiler

[@garyscott9328]

my opinion in this is if you like it you like it and if you dont like it you dont like it