natlan is so much more beautiful and unique then i thought it would be based on the trailer, much of the region looks like what I had hoped for for sumuru
I think it was pretty big brained of Hoyo to make the Natlán characters feel bad to play outside the nation. Stays in line with the canon of people not leaving. Just hoping that we can repair the ley lines in the end of the archon quest or something in the end and get a bit of the philogsten reaction outside the nation somehow
Honestly. I would love if that is how Natlan characters can appear outside. They literally will suffer amnesia if they leave so maybe an Archon Character quest allows us to let them leave the nation
makes me happy and relaxed just hearing your voice : ] love hearing your genshin thoughts so much!!! also putting mini dinos in abyss was kinda evil from hoyo : x whyyy . also green dino is my fav! he's too cute both mini and adult versions!! I completely agree with you on bounties! I really dislike how there is no resin free mora anymore. I have lots of mora but it's because I was always doing bounties everyweek and 150k every week really adds up over course of years.
@@saurusness aww nooo.. I hope they add more ways to earn mora : ( but I doubt it... I think that's how they will force us into spending more resin on the long run : x Aweeee yw honey xoxo 💖💖
@0:42 I love the thematic "exploring the world for yourself" while Nahida was running around. I done the bare minimum in Natlan to finish the events and archon quest... and haven't explored it very much yet. Waiting for some Downtime so I can fully immerse myself. Your video just got me a lore more excited! Thanks!
The phlogiston issue is very real, outside of natlan during the early days with mualani was so bizarre but now I just stop whenever I see her skill bar get depleted and the weird part is during the sprint switch that enables skill activation when pressing e instead of getting down she restarts her skill😭 it took me quite a while to figure it out Phlogiston is great for exploration but it takes practice to use the natlan charcs outside of natlan
Natlan is gorgeous so far! Hoyo hit another home run with the music and the world (they always do in Genshin). For exploration, I really liked the challenge of NOT using saurians. It's like a mini-game of "how the he11 am I going to climb that cliff?" and I like it. It reminds of being back in Liyue with low stamina and really thinking about how I needed to get around. Natlan has some challenging geography and I like it. :) In fact, I've actually been skipping the new characters. Movement mechanics are not enough of a selling point - see above, I like it when traversal is challenging, like a puzzle - and without the pyro archon I doubt any of them are reaching their potential yet. Once we get the pyro archon, I'll see who to get on a rerun because I'm sure Mualani and Kinich will come alive then. :) I agree with the commentary around 2:00. Those enemies that sap your skill/burst energy are quite possibly the worst enemies Hoyo ever made. In a game where the entire basis of combat is skills/bursts/rotations/reactions, taking that away results in (for me) the most tedious and unfun enemies Hoyo ever made. If they show up in the Abyss, I'm skipping that Abyss.... nobody needs the rewards that badly.
I quite agree with you on the whole, especially about world design and the MUSIC! I cannot wait for Hoyo to release the Natlan album on UA-cam Music (and Spotify I guess) so as to be able to listen to Natlan music while studying. 😍
Don’t know if it’s just me or not but Natlan’s Archon Quests didn’t created that much hype what I got from both Sumeru and Fontaine first patch Archon quests and for over world ost’s same goes as well…sometimes I roaming around Fontaine’s underwater area’s just to relax
Nah I feel the same; the quest was good and I enjoyed it, but it didn't have the same sense of "OOH WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN???" for me. Still they told the story well so it held my attention from start to finish which is always a good sign :D
I agree, but I think this is a good thing. You know, with the sumeru story, the fontaine story and the penacony story in hsr, I was really getting sick of mystery novels with wayy too bloated dialog (08h for fontaine, 10h for penacony 💀) and absolutely no gameplay, and so far, natlan has been able to do a good story with lots of gameplay and custcenes, all with sufficient pacing to make me care, and for the nation of war, it's exactly what I wanted, no bloted dialog, no long mystery solving (capitano being the only one here), just pure action over a precise and concise subject which makes me care for the people Dont worry, the next region will obviously be another mystery one since it's the last teyvat region with every fatui, but for now, enjoy the show
Natlans best aspect by far is the diverse ecosystem and how we are able to interact with it with the saurians. Can't wait for the other tribes so unlock so we get more different landscapes in Natlan!
Natlan is pretty fun so far, and the characters are definitely the best part for me! I impulse pulled Kinich (mostly for ajaw, he’s hilarious) but I’m pretty happy with them not actually turning him into a Sasuke-esque edgelord. He felt like a breath of fresh air in the quiet, dark haired anime boys line up lol, I just hope Mavuika can sort out the clunkiness of their kits :)
i was a little shocked and offended at seeing the comment section so empty. then i looked and noticed this was uploaded six minutes ago. while i have you here, i gotta say that these videos are always of incredible quality, well exited and thought out. as much as i love to watch playthroughs and streams, its nice to listen some well constructed thoughts and criticisms of this game
Hello Saurus, oh I feel exactly the same! I loved Natlan,it gave me life! I enjoyed so much exploring it. I agree with everything you said on the vid. The travel mechanics in Natlan are pain, and it is atrocious we have to fight the saurians! ( I always change into them, so I don't have to fight em)
For me personally the novelty of Natlan music is already gone and I prefer going to older areas if I want to enjoy music. As of fighting saurians, I don't believe we're really killing anyone ever since the Chasm quest with Dainsleif. But I agree meeting the little ones in Abys was still uncanny. The thing I really dislike on the further achievements with local legends, there's no indication of failure. It's frustrating having to repeat whole fight and not even knowing at which point I failed the challenge. About traversal mechanics, I have to agree with you. I'm just happy teleports are frequent enough and placed at high spots that after unlocking them, I can get everywhere using other characters with little problems. Missing on local Natlan perks with Natlan characters anywhere else does feel so bad that I prefer not using them at all if not necessary. I fully expected the artifact crafter to be heavily restricted by elixir scarcity, in fact we're getting more than I expected (there's one more from Imaginarium Theater you forgot about). But the fact that you can only craft one artifact pre set per patch is just silly. Hopefully they'll remove that restriction soon and perhaps add a few more elixirs in various rewards. And one thing I have to say, voice acting in quests was in my opinion way better in Fontaine than it is so far in Natlan. All in all, Natlan is good but I don't see it surpassing previous regions yet. Let's hope further patches wlll change my opinion.
I hate traversal mechanics being tied to characters and then even when you have the characters they only work at full strength in the region. That aside I'm enjoying exploration so far.
Two things that I love the most are the way they made the world quests be short with a good balance between dialogue and gameplay, and the new 50-50 system. I still hate the fact that there's a 50-50, but after 4 years of not winning a single I won it twice in a row and got Mualani (unexpected and unplanned, but welcomed), and Raiden Shogun finally to which I got only Diluc on every of her previous banners. I don't think I'm going to win it 3rd time in a row, so I'll say goodbye to Xilonen for now, but at least I'll have guarantee to Mavuika.
I started a little slowly and didn't play much in the first week or so, but got much more into it after that! 100% agree on the downsides... that's why I've skipped both Mualani and Kinich!
Another change of note is that you can no longer do reputation quests after you've maxed out your reputation with a faction. So unlike before you don't get to look forward extra mora/(would have been)artifact ep every week after the first 3-4 months of play in a year. Plus that chunk of BP xp from completing said reputation quests are locked off by this as well. (Edit: woops it was mentioned, don't how I missed that, still peeves me to no end)
To me story wise, i think the archon quest has been super consistent and a lot of fun but the character story quests were a downgrade in terms of “quality”. Idk it feels like different writers
2:17I suspect that's why they're in a hurry to get Raiden Shogun replay in 5.0. And it's true that recent DPS characters don't rely on burst. 5:17For now, we can only hope that the Pyro Archon will provide phlogiston to the team to liberate Natlan characters. 11:35Hu Tao was pleased.😋
For the transmuter, it would be fixed or at least better if it allowed you to use the elixirs to take an existing artifact and change the set it belongs to. Then all those Gladiator/Wanderer Troupe pieces that are too good to get rid of can be made into an even more usable set.
you get more sanctifying elixirs (the artifact material) from exploration. You can cash in the emblems and get 1 elixir per 10 levels. Still not what we were looking for but its a bit better. Also they send you an elixir in the mail every now and then
I wouldn't be shocked if in the future Hoyo releases a support character that provides phlogiston outside of Natlan to address how clunky characters like Mualani and Kachina feel outside of Natlan. Kinich imo still feels fine outside of Natlan, but he really shines within the nation like the rest of the cast.
I just 36-starred the abyss for the first time. Thanks for your encouragement in the past. :) I also absolutely adore Kachina, but I have to say I'm a little disturbed by the whole child warrior thing.
I really enjoy Natlan overall, I liked the story, loved the Archon, some of the better music and map designs in game and I love Kinich a lot; probably one of the best designed characters in the game for me. The navigation problem outside of Natlan is a big one and I agree that it's kinda false advertising on their part. I have a feeling they'll create that problem just to sell us the solution with Mavuika, maybe she'll have a game mechanic that allows Phlogiston gauge outside of Natlan; either in her kit or a constellation. But I've never had more fun exploring in this game than web zipping around with Kinich and I think his combat is excellent too. I'm hoping we get more out of the region as time goes on and that Pyro traveler will actually be a useful element when it does inevitably happen.
It’s so fascinating what appeals to people - what is mentioned to be highlights of Natlan (music, the Pokémon dinosaurs, character design, etc) all is not attractive or ideal to me so it’s interesting to see that those are some things that others love the most. For me, Fontaine was far more impressive (peak music, landscapes, and character design in my view) and also alongside my own interests and aesthetic preferences so I do understand how other themes can be attractive to others and just not my cup of tea as they say. I just have yet to see the merit or impressiveness of Natlan beyond the scenery and so far it’s not at all what I was hoping for and expecting, and not in a good way of inverted expectations - so far for me it’s been lackluster, I greatly dislike having to use or rely on the Saurians (and most of the quests and daily commissions relate to them and I just don’t care) or Phlogiston, the plot and cast so far has not been gripping (greatly intrigued by Capitano which is the saving grace so I sincerely hope they pull his role and influence off well), poorly designed characters whose personalities and lore also don’t seem compelling, and a nation that seems to have poor overall direction. I wish I felt differently but it’d be lying or making excuses for what I see to largely be missed potential Great objective overview and always enjoy hearing your perspective!
Natlan characters feel bad outside of Natlan because they feel like regular Genshin characters. In fact they're all still well above average for exploration/mobility mechanics. Phlogiston was a compromise, not an ideal one, but the alternative of massively power creeping exploration mechanics across the entire game so that Natlan characters feel mandatory everywhere also would've had drawbacks. (Personally I think they should've just done this, but I understand why they didn't.) Maybe after 6.0 and they continue this new philosophy of designing characters to have fun, unique mobility mechanics in the open world, they'll be able to go back and add some kind of pseudo-phlogiston bar to old areas, too.
The ziplines do help with climbing and such, but alternating between no control and clicking the next waypoint still feels awkward and weirdly sluggish. The Chenyu Vale ones feel a bit better with the aiming and instant acceleration, not sure why they moved away from that. Eventually they'll have to give us some form of actual powered flight, but I guess they're saving that for when the Traveler gets their angel wings back, or something. For the most part, though, it's been great; apparently Natlan's theme is "having the best exploration content." So much variety, practically three (later six) regions mashed together, and so many hidden mini-stories (tied together by the baby-Saurian subplot) that it's almost annoying stumbling into them all the time, plus secret bosses hidden everywhere. I'm nowhere near finishing everything, and it's already almost time for two more archon quest chapters, plus the remaining 50% or more of the region. I don't understand how they keep producing so much material in so little time.
Kachina are the highlight for me in 5.0. Such a sweet kid but unfortunately lack confidence. I'm furious when the loser duo starting to trash talk her in archon quest. Plus some genshin cc said she just artifact holder (which is fair actually) also fueled my desire to build her. After that I swear will build my Kachina so her drill can pierce the heaven! For the meantime, she have place in my Arlle double Geo team.
Natlan isn't doing it for me, I was looking forward to a wartorn region and a return to form after Fontaine veered more into cute and light, but instead it's been pokemon. I also hate the exploration, it's far too guided and unsatisfying :/
The abyss hurt my heart - seriously why did we have to kill the babies 😭 The Wayob fights are so painful - please that energy drain is abysmal. As for the story, I enjoyed that it felt like a story quest for Kachina almost. Lord if they could make the hangouts feel like that I'd want to do them more. They're painful and having to repeat things and just choose one different thing. I think I just want loadouts now since the crafting of artifacts is expensive (those elixirs aren't easy to get) and since the rng for rolling is horrible, I quite frankly hate it. Why didn't they just give us loadouts? Star Rail has a better crafting system, they should have something like Divergent Universe or Elysian Realm from Honkai Impact 3rd, they should actually listen to players basically. We've been asking for things for years for a reason. It feels very much like they don't even look at our survey responses and just do what they want which is sad. The special wish thing was a nice surprise if the theories are true for it - my experience seems to fit the CN Theory post as I lost my 50/50 3 times and pulled the guarantee before I saw it so that was at least one positive of the changes. Also the exploration quest line - an absolutely fabulous change! Have that be a big thing instead of millions of filler fluff words in a world quest. Excellent video as always 🥰
I am yet to find a youtuber who is hating on Natlan. I wonder why is thaaat as irl most people dislike the design of the new characters and the stupid pokemons..
Interesting! I love the Saurians, not a huge fan of the character designs, but most people I've talked to do like them, so my perception would've been the opposite of what you're saying!
Because the new character can only play at full strength in Natlan. As for those Saurians, it's just a temporary replacement for the 5-star character. The hardest thing for me to accept is that the green Saurians can't run, and obviously miHoYo doesn't want it to affect Kinich's C1 because of this
I hate all the dialogue. They need to voice like main world quests and maybe like 1 persons voice at least for side ones I don't know or heavily cut the dialogue. Or have music playing during it I dont know. I swear the game becomes dead and silent and boring and its just endless banter that most of the time I'm like wth are you even talking about? why should I care about this? I loved that random world quest with no dialogue I was just exploring and doing my thing and changed something in the open world it was nice. Natlan is much nicer then I expected it to be
I must say tho the character trials are far improved for natlan characters vs the slop we had before “Archon quest dragged on” Me: FFF why is the archon quest so short 😱🫨
No she saif only the end was a bit dragged long, but she said that the archon quest was very well told with kachina being the goat, and mavuika being a great character and a direct and precise archon. But yeah we need more of the capitano vs mavuika cinema
natlan is so much more beautiful and unique then i thought it would be based on the trailer, much of the region looks like what I had hoped for for sumuru
I think it was pretty big brained of Hoyo to make the Natlán characters feel bad to play outside the nation. Stays in line with the canon of people not leaving. Just hoping that we can repair the ley lines in the end of the archon quest or something in the end and get a bit of the philogsten reaction outside the nation somehow
Honestly. I would love if that is how Natlan characters can appear outside. They literally will suffer amnesia if they leave so maybe an Archon Character quest allows us to let them leave the nation
makes me happy and relaxed just hearing your voice : ] love hearing your genshin thoughts so much!!! also putting mini dinos in abyss was kinda evil from hoyo : x whyyy . also green dino is my fav! he's too cute both mini and adult versions!!
I completely agree with you on bounties! I really dislike how there is no resin free mora anymore. I have lots of mora but it's because I was always doing bounties everyweek and 150k every week really adds up over course of years.
It really does! II was building a lot of characters this patch but i *felt* the lack of bounty mora 😔
Also ty heh! 💜
@@saurusness aww nooo.. I hope they add more ways to earn mora : ( but I doubt it... I think that's how they will force us into spending more resin on the long run : x
Aweeee yw honey xoxo 💖💖
@0:42 I love the thematic "exploring the world for yourself" while Nahida was running around.
I done the bare minimum in Natlan to finish the events and archon quest... and haven't explored it very much yet. Waiting for some Downtime so I can fully immerse myself. Your video just got me a lore more excited! Thanks!
The phlogiston issue is very real, outside of natlan during the early days with mualani was so bizarre but now I just stop whenever I see her skill bar get depleted and the weird part is during the sprint switch that enables skill activation when pressing e instead of getting down she restarts her skill😭 it took me quite a while to figure it out
Phlogiston is great for exploration but it takes practice to use the natlan charcs outside of natlan
As a newer player it’s interesting experiencing this as the first released region while I’ve been playing. Love the music sm
7:30 honestly id gotten to them right away with scara (and climbing)
amazing video! thank you for covering the game in-depth and unbiased!
I knew it, people first impression about the artifacts transmuter will depends heavily on the first artifacts they rolled lmao
Natlan is gorgeous so far! Hoyo hit another home run with the music and the world (they always do in Genshin).
For exploration, I really liked the challenge of NOT using saurians. It's like a mini-game of "how the he11 am I going to climb that cliff?" and I like it. It reminds of being back in Liyue with low stamina and really thinking about how I needed to get around. Natlan has some challenging geography and I like it. :)
In fact, I've actually been skipping the new characters. Movement mechanics are not enough of a selling point - see above, I like it when traversal is challenging, like a puzzle - and without the pyro archon I doubt any of them are reaching their potential yet. Once we get the pyro archon, I'll see who to get on a rerun because I'm sure Mualani and Kinich will come alive then. :)
I agree with the commentary around 2:00. Those enemies that sap your skill/burst energy are quite possibly the worst enemies Hoyo ever made. In a game where the entire basis of combat is skills/bursts/rotations/reactions, taking that away results in (for me) the most tedious and unfun enemies Hoyo ever made. If they show up in the Abyss, I'm skipping that Abyss.... nobody needs the rewards that badly.
I quite agree with you on the whole, especially about world design and the MUSIC! I cannot wait for Hoyo to release the Natlan album on UA-cam Music (and Spotify I guess) so as to be able to listen to Natlan music while studying. 😍
Don’t know if it’s just me or not but Natlan’s Archon Quests didn’t created that much hype what I got from both Sumeru and Fontaine first patch Archon quests and for over world ost’s same goes as well…sometimes I roaming around Fontaine’s underwater area’s just to relax
Nah I feel the same; the quest was good and I enjoyed it, but it didn't have the same sense of "OOH WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN???" for me. Still they told the story well so it held my attention from start to finish which is always a good sign :D
I agree, but I think this is a good thing. You know, with the sumeru story, the fontaine story and the penacony story in hsr, I was really getting sick of mystery novels with wayy too bloated dialog (08h for fontaine, 10h for penacony 💀) and absolutely no gameplay, and so far, natlan has been able to do a good story with lots of gameplay and custcenes, all with sufficient pacing to make me care, and for the nation of war, it's exactly what I wanted, no bloted dialog, no long mystery solving (capitano being the only one here), just pure action over a precise and concise subject which makes me care for the people
Dont worry, the next region will obviously be another mystery one since it's the last teyvat region with every fatui, but for now, enjoy the show
Oh my goodness a fellow dinosaur lover! I too was devastated that we had to fight the saurians. I was so excited to see dinosaurs in Genshin 😭😭
Natlans best aspect by far is the diverse ecosystem and how we are able to interact with it with the saurians. Can't wait for the other tribes so unlock so we get more different landscapes in Natlan!
I definitely had to readjust a little when I realized fighting with Mualani in Natlan has the longest rotation ever and isn’t normal lol.
Natlan is pretty fun so far, and the characters are definitely the best part for me! I impulse pulled Kinich (mostly for ajaw, he’s hilarious) but I’m pretty happy with them not actually turning him into a Sasuke-esque edgelord. He felt like a breath of fresh air in the quiet, dark haired anime boys line up lol, I just hope Mavuika can sort out the clunkiness of their kits :)
the music is crazy good :D sometimes I just chill in Natlan too listen to the music
i was a little shocked and offended at seeing the comment section so empty. then i looked and noticed this was uploaded six minutes ago.
while i have you here, i gotta say that these videos are always of incredible quality, well exited and thought out. as much as i love to watch playthroughs and streams, its nice to listen some well constructed thoughts and criticisms of this game
Thank you so much! 😁💜
Ditto
Sometimes the algorithm just doesn't pick up a video for some reason 😕
Hello Saurus, oh I feel exactly the same! I loved Natlan,it gave me life! I enjoyed so much exploring it. I agree with everything you said on the vid. The travel mechanics in Natlan are pain, and it is atrocious we have to fight the saurians! ( I always change into them, so I don't have to fight em)
For me personally the novelty of Natlan music is already gone and I prefer going to older areas if I want to enjoy music.
As of fighting saurians, I don't believe we're really killing anyone ever since the Chasm quest with Dainsleif. But I agree meeting the little ones in Abys was still uncanny.
The thing I really dislike on the further achievements with local legends, there's no indication of failure. It's frustrating having to repeat whole fight and not even knowing at which point I failed the challenge.
About traversal mechanics, I have to agree with you. I'm just happy teleports are frequent enough and placed at high spots that after unlocking them, I can get everywhere using other characters with little problems. Missing on local Natlan perks with Natlan characters anywhere else does feel so bad that I prefer not using them at all if not necessary.
I fully expected the artifact crafter to be heavily restricted by elixir scarcity, in fact we're getting more than I expected (there's one more from Imaginarium Theater you forgot about). But the fact that you can only craft one artifact pre set per patch is just silly. Hopefully they'll remove that restriction soon and perhaps add a few more elixirs in various rewards.
And one thing I have to say, voice acting in quests was in my opinion way better in Fontaine than it is so far in Natlan.
All in all, Natlan is good but I don't see it surpassing previous regions yet. Let's hope further patches wlll change my opinion.
Yea the one issue I have in Natlan is that I expected the Yumkasaurs to have atleast a sprint so they would be a bit faster.
I very much agree with you here. They are painfully slow.
I hate traversal mechanics being tied to characters and then even when you have the characters they only work at full strength in the region. That aside I'm enjoying exploration so far.
yeah I feel like especially kinich's lack of second skill outside Natlan was a choice.... D:
Two things that I love the most are the way they made the world quests be short with a good balance between dialogue and gameplay, and the new 50-50 system. I still hate the fact that there's a 50-50, but after 4 years of not winning a single I won it twice in a row and got Mualani (unexpected and unplanned, but welcomed), and Raiden Shogun finally to which I got only Diluc on every of her previous banners. I don't think I'm going to win it 3rd time in a row, so I'll say goodbye to Xilonen for now, but at least I'll have guarantee to Mavuika.
I started a little slowly and didn't play much in the first week or so, but got much more into it after that! 100% agree on the downsides... that's why I've skipped both Mualani and Kinich!
Another change of note is that you can no longer do reputation quests after you've maxed out your reputation with a faction. So unlike before you don't get to look forward extra mora/(would have been)artifact ep every week after the first 3-4 months of play in a year. Plus that chunk of BP xp from completing said reputation quests are locked off by this as well. (Edit: woops it was mentioned, don't how I missed that, still peeves me to no end)
Mentioned: ua-cam.com/video/VI-d6nB2MJQ/v-deo.html
100% agreed, it's really sad. Gonna suck when we run out of Natlan bounties to do...
@@raptori woops, edited the post with a correction
@@benjamin1089 Hahah nice! It was an easy one to miss honestly - only touched on a little right towards the end 😁
To me story wise, i think the archon quest has been super consistent and a lot of fun but the character story quests were a downgrade in terms of “quality”. Idk it feels like different writers
Personally, the artifact transmutation is the biggest disappointment for me.
2:17I suspect that's why they're in a hurry to get Raiden Shogun replay in 5.0.
And it's true that recent DPS characters don't rely on burst.
5:17For now, we can only hope that the Pyro Archon will provide phlogiston to the team to liberate Natlan characters.
11:35Hu Tao was pleased.😋
For the transmuter, it would be fixed or at least better if it allowed you to use the elixirs to take an existing artifact and change the set it belongs to. Then all those Gladiator/Wanderer Troupe pieces that are too good to get rid of can be made into an even more usable set.
you get more sanctifying elixirs (the artifact material) from exploration. You can cash in the emblems and get 1 elixir per 10 levels. Still not what we were looking for but its a bit better. Also they send you an elixir in the mail every now and then
I wouldn't be shocked if in the future Hoyo releases a support character that provides phlogiston outside of Natlan to address how clunky characters like Mualani and Kachina feel outside of Natlan. Kinich imo still feels fine outside of Natlan, but he really shines within the nation like the rest of the cast.
I just 36-starred the abyss for the first time. Thanks for your encouragement in the past. :) I also absolutely adore Kachina, but I have to say I'm a little disturbed by the whole child warrior thing.
I really enjoy Natlan overall, I liked the story, loved the Archon, some of the better music and map designs in game and I love Kinich a lot; probably one of the best designed characters in the game for me. The navigation problem outside of Natlan is a big one and I agree that it's kinda false advertising on their part. I have a feeling they'll create that problem just to sell us the solution with Mavuika, maybe she'll have a game mechanic that allows Phlogiston gauge outside of Natlan; either in her kit or a constellation. But I've never had more fun exploring in this game than web zipping around with Kinich and I think his combat is excellent too. I'm hoping we get more out of the region as time goes on and that Pyro traveler will actually be a useful element when it does inevitably happen.
It’s so fascinating what appeals to people - what is mentioned to be highlights of Natlan (music, the Pokémon dinosaurs, character design, etc) all is not attractive or ideal to me so it’s interesting to see that those are some things that others love the most. For me, Fontaine was far more impressive (peak music, landscapes, and character design in my view) and also alongside my own interests and aesthetic preferences so I do understand how other themes can be attractive to others and just not my cup of tea as they say.
I just have yet to see the merit or impressiveness of Natlan beyond the scenery and so far it’s not at all what I was hoping for and expecting, and not in a good way of inverted expectations - so far for me it’s been lackluster, I greatly dislike having to use or rely on the Saurians (and most of the quests and daily commissions relate to them and I just don’t care) or Phlogiston, the plot and cast so far has not been gripping (greatly intrigued by Capitano which is the saving grace so I sincerely hope they pull his role and influence off well), poorly designed characters whose personalities and lore also don’t seem compelling, and a nation that seems to have poor overall direction. I wish I felt differently but it’d be lying or making excuses for what I see to largely be missed potential
Great objective overview and always enjoy hearing your perspective!
Natlan characters feel bad outside of Natlan because they feel like regular Genshin characters. In fact they're all still well above average for exploration/mobility mechanics. Phlogiston was a compromise, not an ideal one, but the alternative of massively power creeping exploration mechanics across the entire game so that Natlan characters feel mandatory everywhere also would've had drawbacks. (Personally I think they should've just done this, but I understand why they didn't.)
Maybe after 6.0 and they continue this new philosophy of designing characters to have fun, unique mobility mechanics in the open world, they'll be able to go back and add some kind of pseudo-phlogiston bar to old areas, too.
The ziplines do help with climbing and such, but alternating between no control and clicking the next waypoint still feels awkward and weirdly sluggish. The Chenyu Vale ones feel a bit better with the aiming and instant acceleration, not sure why they moved away from that. Eventually they'll have to give us some form of actual powered flight, but I guess they're saving that for when the Traveler gets their angel wings back, or something.
For the most part, though, it's been great; apparently Natlan's theme is "having the best exploration content." So much variety, practically three (later six) regions mashed together, and so many hidden mini-stories (tied together by the baby-Saurian subplot) that it's almost annoying stumbling into them all the time, plus secret bosses hidden everywhere. I'm nowhere near finishing everything, and it's already almost time for two more archon quest chapters, plus the remaining 50% or more of the region. I don't understand how they keep producing so much material in so little time.
Would be interested in hearing your opinions on the archon quest for 5.1!
She hasn't played it yet! Probably going to stream it - maybe this Sunday 👀
Kachina are the highlight for me in 5.0. Such a sweet kid but unfortunately lack confidence. I'm furious when the loser duo starting to trash talk her in archon quest. Plus some genshin cc said she just artifact holder (which is fair actually) also fueled my desire to build her.
After that I swear will build my Kachina so her drill can pierce the heaven! For the meantime, she have place in my Arlle double Geo team.
under 1 hour gang. :DD
5:18
sudden American accent, lel
Caught red handed 🤣
Natlan isn't doing it for me, I was looking forward to a wartorn region and a return to form after Fontaine veered more into cute and light, but instead it's been pokemon.
I also hate the exploration, it's far too guided and unsatisfying :/
Well you got the war you wanted. Are you happy now? Its all your fault
The abyss hurt my heart - seriously why did we have to kill the babies 😭
The Wayob fights are so painful - please that energy drain is abysmal. As for the story, I enjoyed that it felt like a story quest for Kachina almost. Lord if they could make the hangouts feel like that I'd want to do them more. They're painful and having to repeat things and just choose one different thing.
I think I just want loadouts now since the crafting of artifacts is expensive (those elixirs aren't easy to get) and since the rng for rolling is horrible, I quite frankly hate it. Why didn't they just give us loadouts? Star Rail has a better crafting system, they should have something like Divergent Universe or Elysian Realm from Honkai Impact 3rd, they should actually listen to players basically. We've been asking for things for years for a reason. It feels very much like they don't even look at our survey responses and just do what they want which is sad. The special wish thing was a nice surprise if the theories are true for it - my experience seems to fit the CN Theory post as I lost my 50/50 3 times and pulled the guarantee before I saw it so that was at least one positive of the changes. Also the exploration quest line - an absolutely fabulous change! Have that be a big thing instead of millions of filler fluff words in a world quest.
Excellent video as always 🥰
Thank you ilerya 🥰💜
I am yet to find a youtuber who is hating on Natlan. I wonder why is thaaat as irl most people dislike the design of the new characters and the stupid pokemons..
Interesting! I love the Saurians, not a huge fan of the character designs, but most people I've talked to do like them, so my perception would've been the opposite of what you're saying!
People really need to stop using twitter as a real metric. Irl the general reception to natlan has been mostly positive.
Because the new character can only play at full strength in Natlan. As for those Saurians, it's just a temporary replacement for the 5-star character. The hardest thing for me to accept is that the green Saurians can't run, and obviously miHoYo doesn't want it to affect Kinich's C1 because of this
I hate all the dialogue. They need to voice like main world quests and maybe like 1 persons voice at least for side ones I don't know or heavily cut the dialogue. Or have music playing during it I dont know. I swear the game becomes dead and silent and boring and its just endless banter that most of the time I'm like wth are you even talking about? why should I care about this? I loved that random world quest with no dialogue I was just exploring and doing my thing and changed something in the open world it was nice. Natlan is much nicer then I expected it to be
Natlan is trash for little kids.
Natlan is worst than Inazuma
Worst concept, worst scenario, what the point of having such useless Saurian ?
I must say tho the character trials are far improved for natlan characters vs the slop we had before
“Archon quest dragged on”
Me: FFF why is the archon quest so short 😱🫨
No she saif only the end was a bit dragged long, but she said that the archon quest was very well told with kachina being the goat, and mavuika being a great character and a direct and precise archon. But yeah we need more of the capitano vs mavuika cinema