The best story so far? Fontaine Archon Quest Review!
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 чер 2024
- Fontaine started with a bang, which gave me high hopes that the archon quests would measure up to the standard set in Sumeru. When the final act was released the response was fantastic, with many saying it stood out as the best story in Genshin so far - but there were always some who claimed it was overrated.
I was extremely busy at the time and wanted to give it the focus it deserved, so I carefully avoided spoilers, and saved it until towards the end of the patch. Some will have finished the story a couple of months ago at this point, but for me it’s fairly fresh and recent.
I played it on stream and loved every minute. A week or two later I started writing a review …and the moment I started looking closer I found myself listing more flaws than I’d expected.
So… was it all hype? Or does it truly deserve all that praise? Let’s take a closer look!
00:00 Intro
00:46 Disclaimer on criticism
01:22 Overall story
02:25 Characterisation
04:05 Pacing
04:44 Act I
06:09 Opening hooks
07:28 Lyney & Lynette
08:59 Act II
10:14 Inequality
12:04 Navia
13:08 Acts III & IV
14:58 What's up with Meropide?
16:33 Wriothesley & Sigewinne
17:19 Cinematography
18:36 Act V
20:25 Lack of closure
21:59 Furina
23:50 Neuvillette
25:03 Traveler & Paimon
25:59 Natlan & the future
26:55 Conclusion
Music by Hoyoverse
Focalors Sacrifice Theme credit to @MidnightCityMusic
• Focalors Sacrifice The...
Genshin Impact is an open-world action/exploration game, available on PC, PS4, PS5 and mobile devices (iOS & Android).
I'm always happy to talk Genshin and other games, streams 3pm UK every Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun
/ saurusness
Genshin rotation app: genshin-rotation.com/
Merch: saurusness-shop.fourthwall.com/
Twitter: / saurusness
Discord: www.thatsaurus.com/discord
#genshinimpact #hoyocreators #genshin #fontaine - Ігри
I thought the same thing about Furina at the ending! So much that it was distracting from other parts of the conclusion. Her words “the prophecy was wrong?” Even paints the idea that she has no idea how she was successful in playing her role to subvert it.
Yeah that's a good point! It's so bizarre that they just left it there...
well yeah because she thought she failed so it was reasonable to assume that prophecy was wrong rather than she succeeded. Neuvillette told us in the final convo that he told Furina everything Focalors told him so that's great, wish it was not offscreen tho and they actually showed that scene ;/
I think that's the whole point, it's so unexplicable for the characters, only us the player know what really happened and why, not even the traveler or neuvillete have the whole context, the traveler knows what happened with furina and neuvillete with focalors, i think that's so cool
I think its because she didn't understand the full plan. Neuvillette even questioned Focalors on why not even Furina knew all of her plan. As far away Furina was concerned, all she had to do was play the part of Archon while Focalors worked behind the scenes to solve the prophecy, a solution of which nobody really knew (except Neuvillette) would look like. Furina thought she failed, and didn't know what success in any case would look like because Focalors never told her. So she simply thought that the prophecy was wrong. That's how I interpret it, at least.
I found two aspects of the story to be both refreshing and very well used: Arlecchino isn't the big secret baddie of the region and the Fatui are not the ones wrecking havoc, and also, the threat this time felt existencial almost, like the entire nation was at risk just from existing, and we couldn't do anything. I should also add that we (the Traveler) didn't have the role of the savior was refreshing as well, we're not helping the world, the people and the archon all the time. I don't like that we're almost tasked with saving every region we walk across.
I agree with Chapter 3 and 4, I couldn't care less about the fortress, and the final cutscene was the only part that was actually good and, while I agree we didn't have a closure for Furina, I think we're seeing her being treated more like a savior and an actual idol in the stories that follow the AQ, and yeah, I'm sure her 2nd story quest is going to be cathartic. Here's hoping that Arlecchino gets more screen time, she seems so cool
Yesss loved those points as well! Curious how the harbinger in Natlan will work, since that nation is supposed to be much more at war... feels like there's more opportunity there for them to be quite aggressive without being painted so much as a villain!
oh yeah, thats a good point i didnt think about re: Arlecchino!! i def agree!!
oh yes a brilliant point! I love that there's been a steady shift in how we perceive the harbingers/fatui in general; they're seeming more mysterious than necessairly all the way menacing - you wonder about their motivations and what there is that we don't know... I also loved alrecchino and hope to see more of her soon!
I’m someone who was quite disappointed with Fontaine as a whole, but I 100% agree with you here.
I think a big theme in Genshin is about the strength of humanity and being stripped of humanity is depicted as one of the worst things that can happen to someone (like what happened to the Khaen’rians). Past archon quests have tried to show this by featuring characters like Teppei and Dunyarzad. Maybe Shenhe too even though she is a vision user, she proves in the story that humanity will be fine without the adepti. These characters actions play a role in changing the state of their nation. Fontaine I feel has done the best job of showing the strength of humanity by having their “archon”, the center character of the quest, turn out to be a non-vision wielding human who despite that manage to save their nation from Celestia themselves through the strength of her will. Gaining recognition from the other archons. Fontaine also has the story of the hydro sovereign turn into a human which in this new form, he comes to understand and appreciate humanity enough to eventually protect them from the primordial sea twice.
very insightful! 👀
Ooo, I didn't even realize that the reason I loved Fontaine's archon quests so much was all the backstory on characters! But you're soooo right!
yeah! when lookin back, those are the things that kept me engaged, and I think it makes sense since I've really not been caught up by the general lore unfortunately, but I AM very interested in the individua character stories 🤔
I didn't think of that either, but it does make so much sense!
I felt like we needed one more archon quest to flesh out the ending more. We had 2 court focused quests, then 2 jail quests and then suddenly THE END. Im honestly not sure how more people didn't find the last one rushed.
yeah the ending was VERY rushed, and I had a strong sensethat things had been changed drastically from original plans at some point
I’m always surprised how people wanted more Furina at the end. I thought leaving her out was a brilliant writing decision. The whole point is to finally get her out of the spotlight and give her some time to herself, and the story structurally reflecting that was, I thought, a great choice. Her other stuff was clearly being put into her story quest - and it was.
Interesting take! I can kinda see that to some extent, but for me it did massively reduce the emotional impact it would've had.
I'd disagree that it's in her story quest though, I didn't get any feeling of closure from it at all sadly... really hoping they come back with a second Furina story quest and it wraps it all up, similar to Raiden's second one!
Hmm interesting! I guess for me is just that during her trial it's painful watching her try to desperately do everything in her power to stop the prophecy while all of fontaine is at her neck accusing her of being unco-operative and selfish (of course they don't know the truth, and form their perspective this is their last hope). That moment wen she thinks she's failed after hundreds of years of torture is heart wrenching... I think a person being falsely accused of something (anything) is a point that hits really close to home for me, so it somewhat felt like an open wound.
THAT said, I also think it was made somewhat worse by all the infor dumping and happy conversations with *other* cast members after, as it truly felt like she was simply completely forgotten. Weird as it may sound, I think it would have worked better for me if the whole denoument had been cut out, despite the fact that that would ahve left many questions unanswered for now 😅
@@saurusnessIt’s definitely a painful and harrowing scene for Furina. I would say her absence is meant to be emphasized by us going around and seeing all the other characters in the denouement EXCEPT Furina. That’s a deliberate choice to highlight what she needs now isn’t to have a heart-to-heart; it’s to reflect and process by herself. For the first time, she doesn’t have to sit under the spotlight for everyone - or for the Traveler.
I wouldn’t have minded cutting away from the Traveler’s perspective to actually see the conversation between her and Neuvillette where she leaves, but I respect the choice to have that told to us instead of being shown as a way to respect Furina’s current emotional needs. Then in the time skip to the story quest, she’s ready for the next portion.
@@raptoriI definitely wouldn’t say no to a second Furina story quest! But they did a lot with the scenes in Poisson to give Furina some closure, plus how she’s able to reclaim what she loved at the end with the help of the Traveler and Paimon. Really, I think the negative impression people have about the quest is mostly related to doing it immediately after the Archon quest. I think it would have worked better if they waited a patch to release it.
@@kylegreen6711 Yeah definitely agree on that - it'd have worked a lot better for me if there'd been some time in between instead of just going straight into it!
I enjoyed all of Fontaine, if they're on the same par as Sumeru to me is yet to be determined because Sumeru was honestly the story that touched my heart the most. BUT - I do love Fontaine and the reason I love Fontaine is that the connections that I've seen between their games stories is starting to be very overtly visible to me. My interest in the overall arc and story they were building in Genshin is what made me try Honkai Impact 3rd (and fall in love with the story) because I've been so interested in what they're trying to tell as the overall story here.
Also fully agree with 3&4 - the prison arc fell flat and left me with soooo many questions (many of which about Sigewinne because please tell me how she's a melusine that looks human? make it make sense to me!), no answers, or answers that were given in a way that didn't feel as connected. I would have loved to have been given the same connected feeling with the main Prison crew rather than a very repetitive (and confusing) map layout.
I was heartbroken that Furina didn't get a chance to get anything more than a throw away line with Focalors. That's the thank you she truly needed, they've had leyline ghosts come visit others in the past why couldn't the ghost of Focalors thank her for all she'd done? It wouldn't be the first disconnected consciousness there's been. Makoto did it - but she had help from Istaroth so maybe that's what was missing? The help of anyone with any godly like primordial power? I hope so much for a second story quest for Furina where the people actually appreciate what she gave up for them. What happened to the poor is heartbreaking but I hope there's a moment where the people of Poisson can say "hey, you know we hate what happened here but we understand that you couldn't do anything at the time." I guess I want the growth from the people? Furina outwardly grew even if she still has that bratty side due to acting as a brat for so long, what she allowed people to see showed growth. I think that's one of the reasons I didn't connect as much with the stories in the Archon Quests until we got to Sumeru. I loved them from a lore perspective and the history they were building for the game but there was something missing until we got to Nahida. There was true emotional depth that started to flourish there and despite the middle acts of this series, I feel like they're building on it in Fontaine. I can't wait for more story 👏
Agree completely! sumer and fontaine have been the only ones that affected me emotionally as I think a good story should. I really hope to see the improvements carry on... (and hopefully once we get far enough i'll finally care about the traveller too 😎)
That scene with Nahida 😭
I loved the little symbolic meanings in Fontaine's arc, like how Furina's "bluff" in the Travail where she seeks to judge other gods is taken out of context.
It's very well done even if some of them didn't land, but I'm biased towards Furina since the beginning so I didn't really "hate" her lmaooo, and it really just elevated my love for her more by the end of Act V.
Hoyo really needs to do storylines where we actually get to experience the characters story first hand (Like Furina's POV etc), instead of happening "off screen".
Genshin had always have massive world building and lore crumbs, but not showing it directly hinders the experience and really robs the story of its potential.
All and all, Fontaine as a whole isn't perfect, but that Act V makes up for it and is definitely my favourite Archon Quest and Patch for the game.
The end makes no sense if you haven't played Nahidas story quest.
@@MrMeisterRoxas I haven't played Nahida's story quest and it made complete sense. What are you talking about?
@@supermonstars The Sovereigns are introduced in her 2nd SQ.
@@MrMeisterRoxas Yes and it's entirely uneeded since Nouvilette summarizes every relevant bit of it in like 2 sentences.
@supermonstars You still need it so you know why it matters.
It's just some random stuff that comes out of nowhere.
Agree with everything you said. The first two chapters are my favourites among the all the archon quests. They were mysterious and exciting. Meropide was a slog, and I could not wait to get over with it. The idea was great, but the implementation was terrible. And we barely interacted or get to know anything about the main gacha character of the patch (Wrio), it was so weird. The last chapter was too long in my opinion, yet some things were still rushed. Having the whole flood thing in a short cinematic and then walking out of the opera seeing nothing of it felt so silly. Some things were not explained properly, like when Neuvilette forgave the sins of the people, I had no clue what's going on, I had to google it after the quest. While Furina's story was quite said, I could not connect with it on the same level as with Nahida's and Rukkhadevata's story. If I had to rank the chapters, then 4.0 > 4.2 > 4.1 with a huge gap between each of them. And overall Sumeru > Fontaine.
You summed up my thoughts perfectly! I also felt a bit unsatisfied at the end, but I couldn't quite understand why as overall I really enjoyed it - but the lack of satisfying conclusion with Furina makes so much sense for how I was feeling! And yeah meropide was a bit of a slog..! Luckily it was bearable for me as I did it in 20 min bites with breakfast every morning haha The cutscene at the end of act 3 is one of my favourites though
yeah the cutscnese 100% saved and carried both act III and IV 😂
I only really have one personal gripe, particularly with how they handled Childe at the very very end of the archon quest. He has been my favourite character since starting the game until Wriothesley was introduced, but Childe’s lore is still my favourite character lore in genshin. The whole archon quest, I was wondering where he was and wondering how we would get him back… only for him to be thrown through a portal and not even addressed until Neuvilette casually stated he was on his way back to Snezchnaya. Like- I was fully convinced he had genuinely just been thrown back into the abyss until Neuvilette said that. Nothing about that final cutscene with him even indicated he had returned, nor did Skirk actually state what she had done when she threw him through that bloody portal.
I am really happy with the lore we got for Childe in the Fontaine archon quest, but his final few moments in the quest were the most disappointing for me. It didn’t feel like a proper conclusion nor fulfilling at all in the slightest, and that actually really upset me. It was extremely vague in visuals, and there was a huge lack of “show, not tell”, and even “telling, not showing” until the final 2 minutes of the quest.
THIS. We barely even had him in this quest despite supposedly being so important to the plot.
It felt like Hoyoverse knew we loved him, so to ensure this region succeeded? They brought him in and yeeted him out when they couldn't get more out of him.
Something I don't see a lot of talk about is the prophecy. I really enjoyed the idea of the prophecy and how the story hyped it up as something that could not be avoided. Like for example when we talk to the mage "N", she literally says "lol there's no way guys can stop this and the prophecy will always come true without exception". I think this makes the story feel like there are more stakes instead just having another fatui harbinger as the main villain. Also the conversation with "N" she says that all hope should not be lost and that something is happening in the background that we don't know about yet. I think this was also well done since it makes the player question previous events or plot points to see if they missed something. In any good story, major events should have a clear link to the conclusion and should feel purposeful. With the exception of act 3, the prophecy managed to link most of what we learned and did in Fontaine nicely together.
Yes I made it this far and I could listen to you ramble for hours. Your tone of voice, your pacing and your well thought out content is just spot on! 😊
Thank you for pointing out about the ending. I felt disappointed not meeting Furina and felt something was missing. I would have so loved to see a scene where Furina meets "Mirror Me" one last time saying how proud she was.
The fortress act was slow.... but it did give me a sense of feeling trapped. I get a sense it was the intended purpose... although risky to do.
The Furina/Focalor dance was amazing. I loved it how Traveller witnesses Furina while Neuvillette witnesses Focalor. That whole scene was pure magic for me.
Overall, I also think it lived up to the hype.
Thank you! 🥰💜 and YES the furina/focalors dance was one of the most beautifully done scenes in the whole of genshin for me (so far)🥺
good video! pretty much agree with most things
i have heard people speculate that act 3 with boring routine is supposed to make you feel like real life prison and that it represents Furina's routine almost samsara like life. some of the major hints to this is Traveler investigating Childe situation(who is heavily related to the Narwhal and naturally the prophecy) while Furina was investigating prophecy but in the end Traveler didn't really discover anything of worth to solve the case but instead Neuvillette came in and ended the meropide conflict then and there, similar to Furina who was investigating the prophecy but she couldn't find the solution.
Another major point being her backstory opera having writings denoting the days gone by just like how prisoners do.
if this is true and it was intended then that's great, makes it seem less worthless but that doesn't mean i won't hate this section because i don't feel like it was intended to be liked similar to how Furina's life was torture, so was this section of the story.
as for no conclusion and catharsis for Furina in Archon quest feels like Ei situation all over again because her conclusion in Inazuma archon quest felt non-cathartic while her 2nd story quest did. same here with Furina because her story quest has that catharsis for me and i hope her 2nd story quest is going to have even bigger catharsis.
Oh yeah I've seen that interpretation before too - feels possible for sure, though IMO if that was their intent then they should've worked at it to make it not be so mind-numbingly boring 😅
Glad the Furina story gave you that feeling of catharsis! It didn't for me sadly, so definitely hoping for a good quality follow-up to it!
YEs very true, I felt exactly the same way about Ei after the inazum archon quest! And even her first stoy quest felt sort of jarring and out of place, whereas her second story quest finally gave us (and her) some proper closure. Really hoping we get that with Furina...🤞
@@raptori well it did to some extent. it dealt with her "acting" plotline in a satisfying way for me with her becoming a director instead of the actor(similar to how Focalors decided to not be the actor of Fontaine's story and instead direct it).
of course there are still things unresolved such as her plotline with Neuvillette,Poisson and her not talking about Focalors and Egeria at all. so i hope those gets addressed and i am also coping that she will get her Archon voice lines after her 2nd SQ
@@motemo8413 Ahh yeah, I liked how they handled giving her a purpose going forward, but yeah that felt like a more minor point, and the whole prophecy and 500 years etc was the part I actually wanted to be addressed!
@@raptori i mean it was very major point to her character i think. considering how her life was just a stage and how she had to act all the time, it felt like a satisifying conclusion to that for me, but yes i agree that i want her 2nd story quest to delve into other stuff about her besides the acting and performances just like how i mentioned
For me the main issue(one of them anyways) was the 2nd act, specifically Childe's trial. In act 1 Furina is the prosecutor in Lyney's trial because she's the one who accused him,, so I figured that in Fontaine when you accuse someone of a crime you have to be present in their trial
However in act 2 Childe, who hadnt actually commited any crime, gets accused by SOMEBODY of being the perpetrator of the Serial Disappearence case but his accuser, whoever they are, isnt present at all. Even besides that the case(against Childe) itself is baseless from the start considering the case was opened 20 years ago. Childe is someone who is at least in his mid-twenties and is From Snezhnaya, meaning at the time the case opened, he would have been in Morepesok Snezhnaya AND A FUCKING KID. Like Did no one do any background checks on him before the trial? Did Neuvilette really accept an anonymous tip about Childe? Even if he did, why would he accept said tip when the only time Childe caused trouble was in self-defense? Like I get they needed an excuse to have Childe on trial but the trial itself was so stupid that I was wishing that Childe just started killing people instead of watching everyone try to convince themselves that he's guilty
That's a really good point! The whole justice system was farcical overall, but the way childe not only got accused out of nowhere but judged guilty as well? He felt so out of place in the overall story. This is why I really expected there to be some kind of a deep reveal about corrupt justice system that send peopel to pison willy nilly, which is the cause for a revolt... and obviously that couldn't have been further from the turth apparently 😅
This is what's interesting to me about the contrast of storytelling pacing & intensity between version 4.0 and 4.1. Just like how we want to write storytelling in music, it cannot be the same pacing all the way. This is because we want to avoid a monotonous composition that exist in a lot of modern music, where once you have felt the incredible pacing of the first half, the second half of the music is basically more or less the same thing. This kind of problem will take away the highlight of importance that was given to Act 1 & 2 if only Act 3 & 4 had the same pacing. Act 3 & 4 serves as the "calm compositions" in storytelling in parallel to how it would've been done in musical storytelling. Again to say, this made sure that the points that were highlighted in Act 1 & 2 to not be overshadowed by the intense pacing that fortunately didn't happen during Act 3 & 4. The writers want to make sure that the story between these two versions can easily be distinguished from one another. That's why I think it is such an incredible decision that they made which I didn't thought about until I watch this video.
Sumeru has the best Archon story for me.
I lost interest with the Fontaine archon quest during the prison Act and when I found out what Fontaine citizens really are, I didn't care abt everyone anymore.
While story quests are supplementary material and not part of the main story, I believe that giving Lyney and Lynette's backstory a special focus in their story quest worked better for the flow of the Archon Quest. Besides, their operations as the Fatui were a vital part of the Meropide plot.
11:30 This similar sort of plot ends up being used for the backstory of Fontaine around 400-500 years ago. That backstory explains why Fontaine, as a region, is structured as it is.
I completely agree that the whole setup with Meropide's mysteries was not worth it at all. Like you said, I wish the Traveller and twins' investigation into the truth was more exciting. However, I absolutely loved the confrontation between Lyney and Wriothesley, and the Fatui siblings were the absolute highlight of that plot. When the evacuation scene began, I completely forgot about the boredom and awkwardness of the time spent in Meropide.
Additionally, I really appreciated that the inmates were not dehumanised and dangerous criminals, and instead formed a community together. For me, it served as a communal/socialist contrast to the capitalistic world on the surface, where the gap between the rich and poor only grows. In the real world, many of those who are wealthy tend to believe that paying taxes is optional, and people are poor because they deserve it. Similarly, a lot of crime is a result of poverty and people not being able to provide for themselves. It's even a stated reason why prisoners often stay in the Fortress of Meropide.
Tl;dr, the Fortress was portrayed as more dangerous than it actually was on purpose. The community aspect of Meropide could have definitely been portrayed better, but the meaning has not gotten lost on me.
Overall, I really loved your analysis and explanation of why this Archon Quest worked extremely well for the most part. The emotional core and backstories of being a central part of the story is exactly why I've been pulling for a lot of them. Meanwhile, I skipped a lot of early characters because I just didn't feel connected to them. The old Archon quests failed to make me get attached to them. The Fatui siblings and Navia are my favourites in Fontaine, but I appreciate and care for each and every one of them. I was also a huge fan of Roses and Muskets event, and while I don't think Wanderer was retconned or fully redeemed, I have the same hopes as you do for the future stories Genshin will bring.
Thanks for the video!
Honestly my biggest problem is how they speedran it all in 4.2. in Sumeru the archon quest was interesting and had lore thorough all the 3 patches, but in Fontaine 4.0 was meh ok, 4.1 was boring as heck and then suddenly there arrives the lore and story bomb that is 4.2. at some points it was hard focusing because everything was speedrunning lmao.
What was also weird is that Neuvi, Furina and Focalors were pretty much the only ones that were doing anything tbh..I really liked that normal people like Nilou were the ones in that group effort in Sumeru and that there were plenty of people/godlike creatures trying to save their nation, but in Fontaine apart from these three there was no one important. I dont mind being a spectator but the focus was only on these three godlike Hydro creatures.
And also while Arlecchino did something in the story, she was a threat to Furina, had that tea party, Skirk has done nothing, she appeared for 5 seconds to drop the lore bomb so people can get hyped and then disappeared. So yea i have very mixed feelings about this archon quest, Sinner's Finale still makes me cry tho
Man! I loved this analysis, there's so much that clicked on me, into lore feeling a little out of place there
I've been thinking Fontaine would have been tough for many, as it's more of a totally different story
I mean, I highly suspect there's so many retcons there, like i.e.
Rhodeia dialogues, The energy problems, polluted waters, Oceanids fled from new archon, the 2 Arlecchinos, hard burocratic law system, the 2 towns like piltover and zaun,
But I... Silenced the thoughts to collaborate with the story I've been hearing,
As I always had the theory that, Genshin writers force themselves a LOT, to not be predictable,
a 90% percent sure, not even honkai hypothesis works well to predict
Nice vid! ✌️✨
Yeah it's kinda wild how different it turned out to be! I've not looked super close into the lore around it, but just a couple of times glancing through at a surface level it does seem like something entirely different... would be cool if someday they release concept art and story sketches for that kind of alternate history, won't hold out hope for it though.
Your analysis was spot on for me. I was sooo hyped for the fortress segment because I also thought it would be a jail break/sneak around the prison type of thing, but it felt really bland. Even the reveal was nothing special, it was just someone selling soda in the prison, which was a huge let down. The rest of the archon quest was a banger though, one of the best imo
I will be honest - if I had to recall what happened in the last of the Fontaine archon quest after the whale appear, I could not. it was just so confusing and a little bit convoluted. I realise they wanted that bit OMG moment but it didn't quite hit me like that. The moment between Neuvi and Focalors ("you're a devious one, Focalors...") still sends shivers down my spine - literally one of the hardest hitting quotes in genshin for me. but besides that, it wasn't that memorable for me. maybe because I didn't really connect with Furina throughout the quest? and I still don't really care for her character, or maybe because the quest was so. insanely. detailed. and soooo extensive. all the court things and whatevert, I felt like we stayed in each of the places for way too long, making me zone out. I dunno, just some thoughts 💙
no i agree so many things felt very out of place and that's even though I paid pretty good attention to this particular story! 😂 With furina is wasn't until that final act 5 that I connected with her and i think it's due to the immense pain i felt on her behalf when the whole world was turning against her when she was trying so hard to do the "right" thing, and then we find out that she's been living this isolated nightmare for hundreds of years 😭
I actually remember when leakers were saying the story would follow a typical steampunk theme, with the main conflict being the rich and poor populations similar to metropolis and furina was a similar character to Marie Antoinette. I totally believe this was the original vision for the story with it being abandoned later.
While i love the story we got, the poor population's living situation goes COMPLETLEY unadressed, despite being a massive elephant in the room. Neither furina or neuvilette imply they will improve their living situation and Navia acts like everything is fine, despite the fact most people in the Spina live in rags and tents. It would have been nice just to have a little closure on that but it very much comes across as an undeveloped vestigial structure remaining from the first drafts of the story that dont serve a real purpose in the plot or worldbuilding
Great analysis, I could hardly agree more with most of your points here!
Act III and IV felt like the writers went back to their old ways of storytelling, which was really unfortunate after the bangers of Act I and II. And while Act V was overall excellent, I definitely feel you on Furina's conclusion - I was holding out some hope that they perhaps saved some closure for the start of her story quest, but alas.
Overall very happy with the upward trend in quality over the course of the game's lifespan. If only they could find a way to weave more gameplay in with all the cutscenes and investigations... But that's a problem that more excellent story-heavy games (like FFXIV) struggle with, so I don't really expect them to solve it out of nowhere.
I can't help but wonder if they scrapped the original storyline -- possibly something to do with the working class underprivileged people rising up against the nobility -- because it would share similar themes with Natlan. We know that Natlan is a broken nation with warring tribes, and while on the surface it doesn't *appear* to have similarities with an uprising, what it comes down to is war: something we've already experienced in Inazuma. Throw in Natlan, and that would make it a 3rd time
I wonder about that too 👀
okay but the way we're so similar though!! i didn't really start paying attention to the story (including main archon quests) until sumeru!! sumeru was the first new whole region added after i started playing, and i feel like that added a lot of appeal for me. it also didn't hurt that i felt there was a lot of intrigue around nahida and her circumstances!! for whatever reason, i didnt feel the impact of nahida's portion of the archon quest as heavily as others, but it was sooooo good.
i really like fontaine though, and i think it might beat sumeru out but juuuuuust a little bit. i feel like with each new addition to the quests, i became more and more interested. the whole mystery theme like you mention makes it all the more interesting for me!! i know i personally didnt see any of the endings coming?? and everything we find out with furina left my jaw on the floor.
I think the story also greatly increased my appreciation and attachment to certain characters, like neuvillette or navia. when their images were first released, i was kinda meh about them. but as soon as they came out, i went for both, and i love them immensely (their incredible power aside). even with the meropide quest line, which i personally felt was a bit lackluster, it gave me a new appreciation for wriothesley despite not pulling for him (yet). so for me, even when the story wasn't at it's best, it still did wonders in letting me experience and enjoy the personalities of all these new characters!!
once again you have put out an incredible video, filled with so much insight and knowledge. thank you for all your hard work and for letting us see a bit inside your mind!!! 💜
Yass absolutely the same on Navia and Neuvillette too - I liked his design a bit more but wasn't entirely sure, and was kinda 50/50 on Navia until actually starting the quests!
Thank you cassie 💜🥰
Also I truly think this is the absolute best way for hoyo to make players "attached" to characters; by showing their full stries and personalities as much as possible during these stories. Previously there have been many character who just didn't particularly care about, until I read their backstory (and sometimes not even after, as the written backstories are much more summarised and overarching, and lack the emotion of a properly acted story quest), vs characters like Baizhu, Navia, Neuvillette, Furina certainly, whose stories being *shown* really made the feel like full characters.
Your criticism of the prison made me laugh out loud 😆 thanks for another great video!
hehe i'm glad 😂 Ty for watching ☺
Thanks for the great video! I'm so happy to finally see someone tackling the flaws simply because I want to talk about the problems I see myself xD. I'm one of those few who somehow enjoyed the act 3 and 4 because the trailer spoiled that there would be a massive primordial water leakege at some point. So the whole time I felt a subtle build-up towards something creepy (the primordial water effect on Fontainians was creepy as heck). At that point the mystery of Childe still seemed pretty important and added to the overall feeling. I don't mind mindless grind if I know that it leads towards something epic. And then we saw the sluice gate. You took one look at it and knew what was beneath and that the nice gauge there would explode eventually. From there the build-up took pace with the creepy leakage and Freminet and then... then we woke up to the shaking Fortress and that sick screepy music, honestly, that was my personal peak of the whole Fontaine. There was primordial sea beneath the fortress, it was leaking, pushing at the sluice gate and if it gets out, everyone in the fortress will just die. We got absolutely epic interactions between Wrio, Clorinde and Neuvi (also some of my peak interactions in the game - they were natural and fun), epic ending, it was amazing. I admit I was a bit upset the trailer spoiled too much. I'd much prefer if they didn't include both the problem and its solution (as the trailer also showed Neuvilette facing the water and pushing it back). But overall, my hype for the ending after experiencing this was MASSIVE. I got a taste of creepiness and action the whole primordial water and prophecy can bring and I was expecting them to build up on it.
Only to see them throw everything in a trash bin in Act5. Literally, Everything I was hyped about was either toned down or removed entirely. My beloved creepy feeling? We only experience a fraction of it when we're exploring the ruins with Navia and climb falling stairs (they used the creepy music again) - because if she falls in the water, she's dead. And then, the whole story gets reduced to Furina and Neuvilette. We were robbed of any other primordial water scenes. Poisson was just described afterwards and the big flood.. we see it after it peaked. I somewhat understand what kind of narrative goal they aimed for there but they teased the flood so much only to not show it coming, people running in fear and screaming? It felt lazy to say the least. Fast forward to my second biggest flaw after removed flood scenes... the absolutely anticlimatic presence Skirk had. If, before that, I believed there was a punishment ordained by Celestia and the narwhal was the executioner and Childe's relevance to the story had an actual meaning... Skirk's lines just destroyed it. Narwhal is suddenly just a hungry misplaced pet of someone with no ties to Celestia. Suddenly the whole concept of the prophecy as a punishment shattered because Celestia's involvement in this cannot be tracked in any way (and no one's talking about it, it drives me crazy T_T). Childe got reduced to... an introduction point. His vision misbehaving was never explained, neither was his trial result, and he ended up being so insignificant that we never even got to talk to him afterwards. Arlecchino also got a very underwhelming presence for a Harbinger.
Well, and you mentioned the epilogue. It was full of rather meaningless dialogues that didn't feel like wrapping up anything in a stark contrast to Sumeru where everyone got a conclusion including all 3 important NPCs. I understand Furina's absence, I think the point was to let the silence speak. I honestly think that any dialogue with her would do more damage than good, we are supposed to imagine what was going on with her afterwards. And then they wrap it up with her story quest and a banger song, I think it was nice.
Such a wonderful video!! I have to say, I think i agree with most of how you feel! I definitely loved the recent Muskets and Roses event, a big part of that being i love character interactions, and I think you're right about the Fontaine archon quests having a lot more of that.
The ending definitely felt confusing for me and left me with even more questions to be honest - for instance, I still don't know if the traveller knows exactly what happened with Focalors. I don't think the people of fontaine know about her or Furina's sacrifice though. Which I understand, but also it does make the part after where Furina has to start a new life in society even harder to make sense of? I just imagine everyone giving her death stares because they don't know the real reason - even in her character story, while I'm glad to see people still respect her, it doesn't quite make sense? I'd love to see how exactly The Steambird reported on it all.
The entire end of the main quest when we were talking to EVERYONE BUT FURINA I was literally shouting at my game "BUT WHAT ABOUT FURINA???" 😂
I ALSO wondered whether traveler actually *knows* what happened with focalors?? and what exactly is it that other people think happened, and how do they view furina now? WHAT ABOUT FURINA 😂
imo Sumeru had a better ending than Fontaine (fontaine felt kinda rushed at the end) and is overall *slightly* better, but I still love both AQs to death.
Imo ; Sumeru > Fontaine > Liyue = Mond = Inazuma (cant think of an order for them but all of them were fun)
IMO Fontaine story has lots of memorable moments, more then all the other regions, moments that i look forward to rewatch others experience.
all the thing said by her about the quest totally align with mine .especially about not getting a proper closure for Furina .I even did here story quest which I normally don't (have never done before).
This was genuinely my favorite archon arc, partly because of the characters being more in focus and partly because of the investigative minigame style, which is actually something i really like. It stems from my favorite anime lol, Detective Conan/Case Closed.
Here they really made use of the fact that traveler is a witness, which is something we've known but hasn't really been genuinely brought to our attention until now cause we've had such a direct role in saving everyone in the previous nations. Yes, in Sumeru traveler remembers the previous archon even tho even Nahida forgets her, and they also remember Wanderer, but that's all we got in terms of that. In Fontaine, the traveler was the witness they were meant to be.
A detail I've noticed that I really like was that Furina and Neuvillette both have red, puffy looking eyes, implying they both cry a lot. The attention to detail was amazing for them and for Navia.
I mostly have the same complaints as you about the prison arcs. I enjoyed the idea behind it, but it fell flat cause we went back again to the traveler having to solve the problem for them and there was no focus on Wriothesley. The Fortress as a whole makes no sense to me, neither does his backstory. How do you become the leader after killing what was essentially child traffickers? How old was he and how old is he now? We just got that dumped on us in his story quest and that was it. Even Lyney and Lynette had more focus on them, even while we were technically busy solving the case from act 1. Wriothesley's introduction in the archon quest felt way too underwhelming, which really sucks 'cause I really love him and I wish we as the traveler could spent more time with him.
Act 5 felt like a very big info dump and it was pretty overwhelming, I'm sure I already forgot some details and it hasn't even been 2 full months since I finished it. A notable detail is that Neuvillette said that he didn't remember much of his life before he was asked to become the Iudex. Tho to be fair, I don't remember whether he said he doesn't remember his own life or if he was born after everything went down so he simply wasn't alive during that time. It's one of the small things that I most likely forgot because of the huge info dump. But I really wish he could have told us more, especially from the perspective of a dragon sovereign rather than a human/archon/adeptus/whatever else. Because apparently Celestia stole the dragon sovereigns' powers? I wanna know why and how. I'll stop not tho, cause if I continue I'll get into theory zone and I don't wanna do that now lol, I'll keep it for discord.
Edit: I remembered something else I enjoyed. Traveler truly felt like they were tired of fixing everyone's problems. They just want to find their sibling, they don't have the time or energy to keep fixing everything. They clearly tried to avoid joining the investigation in act 2, even tho they got pulled into it anyway. And I've seen people complain that they were rude to Furina, but genuinely who wouldn't be? Before act 5, all we knew about her was her bratty attitude. And even then, traveler still stayed polite. They didn't have any level of attachment to Furina the way they did with Lyney and Lynette, hence why they were able to become friendly again after the reveal in act 1. The only thing I didn't like was how in Furina's story quest, when she eavesdrops on the conversation, traveler just goes and physically drags her out and says nothing. Considering the quest happens after act 5 and that traveler had a front row seat (literally) into Furina's trauma, it felt insensitive to me. But that's the only thing. Even when asking her for help, they respected her boundaries.
In general tho, in Fontaine even outside the archon quest the dialogue lines are more geared towards the traveler not wanting to go to such huge lengths to help strangers. They do anyway, of course, since that's how the game works, but I like the change, I like how it gives them more depth. Especially since they're the most mysterious character in the game. The lines are more about payment/compensation, about the trouble those people put them through, it's quite refreshing. There's more of an opportunity to just be rude, which we didn't get much before. Not that it matters in the long run since dialogue choices never do anyway, but it makes traveler feel a little less one-dimensional, at least for me.
(i may be a bit biased towards wriothesley here, i adore the guy hehe)
i feel as if acts 3 and 4 (and SPECIFICALLY meropide) were very flat and boring, but i can see what they were building up to, because in the end it all made sense to me with the connections regarding the primordial sea, even with the connections to childe ... the pacing just sucked. however it didnt really expand on the fortress-or wriothesley even, despite probably holding one of the highest ranking titles in fontaine one could hold (being duke, seemingly different to simply the administrator). i feel like wriothesleys story quest does a PERFECT job at expressing how the fortress and wriothesleys job works better. its a place for "rebirth" provided to those exiled there, and that form of rebirth can be seen through wriothesley himself-being a teenager/young adult around the time of his sentence, truly giving him the time to be "reborn," and later gaining the title of duke, something that seemed to have been controversial considering how much neuvillette fought for the title. MAAAANNNN if only the aq could have handled it a bit better because holy shit does wriothesleys story quest actually make meropide SOOO DARN INTERESTING.
I've yet to do Wrio's story quest but I'm very much looking forward to it!! 👀👀 I was so looking forward to him being in front centre of act 3-4, which probably also contributed to my slight disappointment!
@@saurusness if you like more darker themes and topics wriothesleys story quest may interest you actually because to an extent it does go over stuff like deep psychological torture and stuff embedded in a lot of the people and in general a lot of crazy stuff, all while actually putting gravity on the true light of wriothesleys job, his intentions, how he sees the fortress and its people, and in general his authority in meropide id say
about the whole inequality thing, i really thought that the archon quest was going to be based on the French revolution. It would also make sense with all of the furina and marie antoinette similarities. I also think that arlechinno would be better utilized as a character if hyv went in this direction.
Oh yeah, major French revolution vibes from a lot of the original setup!
I think the antagonist you wish for sounds a lot like the heavenly principals
You are right! alot of points you made i didnt even realize untill i rewtached the archon quests. Love how you explain everything so well.
💜😁
I spent a while looking through the story with a cynical eye and I found whole bunch of flaws but my final conclusion was that the story was good enough that I actually enjoyed it from start to finish and if these flaws did not disturb me during experiencing the story and I had specifically concentrate on finding them, then there's no reason to dwell on them at all. I play the game to have fun and fun I had. I don't want to spoil these beautiful moments by thinking too hard about them.
Whereas for me a thorough analysis and even highlighting flaws doens't ruin a good story at all, but rather it just gives contrast to the things I thuin were done brilliantly! I have a strong feeling the things that felt "off" and that didn't quite make sense were due to some major changes having been made, but there's always the possibility fo some of those things being explained in future stories.
@@saurusness to clarify, what I wrote was not meant as criticism. I love your video, I just shared how I processed the story myself.
About the “Inequality” part of the video. I think this is how Snezhnaya is going to be? Sort of?? Like, we know common people suffer from poverty and they no longer love their archon. Likewise, we know the Fatui are super rich and they don’t use their power to do good. So maybe the common people would try to form a rebellion against the Fatui and the Tsaritsa? I don’t know, is it crazy? It just somehow makes sense in my head haha
If I can be honest? If we went to beat up the giant space whale first THEN interacted with Furina's mind? Things would've felt more cohesive in the ending. Because the whole time, i'm like "Why are you people just standing around talking and worrying? Let's go hunt down the whale like Moby Dick!".
Thanks so much for your review of the Fontaine Archon quest. I feel the same way!! Those Meropide acts really slowed the story down. Especially cause I accidentally swam into the entrance pipe and did the whole quest there first before I did the archon story. Sooo much boring prison time. All in all though; I love the Furina/Focalors story. And neuvilette aswell. Only thing I was kinda disappointed with was Furinas story quests. I wish they’d show us how she dealt with the aftermath instead of letting us see how she directs a random play
Thank you for watching! 💜 I really hope Furina gets a second story quest that offers a bit more closure somehow, kind of like Raiden's second story quest did!
I have a love-hate relationship with Fontaine's Archon story overall so far, and I personally rate it weaker than Sumeru:
The parts I see people including me praise highly are Act 1 and 5, both which were done brilliantly and deserve applaud.
However my biggest gripes which grotesquely soured my mood was the 'story' in between, Act 3-4. I don't care what supposedly genius message they were trying to project, it felt so insulting to be made to go through a filler interview marathon in jail.
I am glad however that Furina managed to prove herself in the end despite the unfair odds stacked against her.
for me sumeru was a big disappointment in comparison to inazuma only due to visual picture. in inazuma we had absolutely easy distinguished areas with interesting lore and super great color choice while sumeru was just a good start with quite interesting areas of dreams yet had overwhelming continuation in the desert which just ruined it all for me, pari area was just so well done, couldn't they have made their main desert parts be like that as well?.. anyways, for me inazuma held the title of my favorite nation for two years.. and then fontaine got released. underwater exploration alone makes this nation so much better, and im not even talking about a great overworld made to be like a fairy tale, those fantasy mountains, those pretty palette colors, those stunning buildings in the wild, the elynas area has even slight smog in it, those incredible areas under water, the flying cubes of water... fontaine has beat all my expectations it is so much in my tastes and was incredibly smooth in exploration, the story felt extremely dramatic which is again to my liking, the character designs just over the top im so impressed... can't believe one day we will have to move on. but what also stood out soooo much is how they fixed their sumerian problem - the archon quest there was just mostly about the only character to ever matter - nahida, everyone else after some time after it all seems a bit underdeveloped and not appreciated or even shown in diverse ways (nilou story quest... even dehya story quest... even alhaitham... i can't say i remember them even, i have to put a lot of mind work to remember the key moments of those three stories...). while in fontaine every character seems to fulfill a very much needed role. without FremiLy (this is how i call the trio) we wouldn't have our first catalyst for the situation in court, without navia we wouldn't solve the vasher case, without childe we wouldn't have a goal to go to the fortress, without wriothesley & sigewinne & chlorinde we wouldn't be able to save fortress until neuvillette came in. without arlecchino we wouldn't have direct doubts in furina, without neuvillette we wouldn't have the verdict of the oratrice, without furina we wouldn't have fooled celestia, without even skirk we wouldn't be able to completely defeat the whale. charlotte here though plays the role of the reporter, observer who cheered us up at the right moment so that's sort of an exception. and still it's all so crystal clear to me, idk this is the best archon quest and all the other quests in fontaine were also very interesting. im a big fontaine fan yet it's not like i hate any other region, i love them all very much including sumeru it's just i would still prefer to come back and stare at my fav areas mostly in inazuma and fontaine while other regions also have a special place in my heart. can I just pinpoint how pretty and ambient it is to approach the fountain of lucine with those pigeons flying away? ART. the duo dancing boss? im still in awe. the main melody in the court de fontaine? my religion. even in meta perspective gameplay of fontaine characters is incredible, I am a delulu fan of this era that's why you will never see me talk sht about it i don't see anything to complain when it comes to inazuma and fontaine ijbol
Yesss I've been loving Fontaine & I loved the archon quest! It definitely wasn't perfect, but it was good. For me genshin's overall story just keeps improving & I'm here for it! FIRST & I love yooouwuwuwuwuwuwuwuwuwu ❤❤❤
I still can't decide whether I loved the Fontaine or Sumeru archon quests more ...which is very high praise 😁
I definitely loved Fontaine more *overall* but honestly they're both very good!
I think it's a matter of translation. The Chinese line at the end is closer to "The prophecy has been cracked?", but the English line is “the prophecy was wrong?”. It's as if people's worries are superfluous
I feel Fontaine was good overall but I thought it was the same level as Sumeru, which is still good but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't overhyped IMO. I wish the Fontainians had been dead people brought back to life or Oceanids turned into the forms of dead people believing they were them instead of just Oceanids that wanted to be human, that would have been more impactful IMO and made the sin just something more.
I also wish we actually saw the flood, it was like 2 seconds and it was over with no damage or anything really, like I wish we came back from the Narwhal and had to swim through the city to Wriothesley's ship and then we actually saw Neuvilette reverse the flood, like that could even have been the moment he gave Furina her vision and we could have seen her walk across the water and both of them could have reversed the flood or something. That was the big climax and it felt like it happened off screen and had no impact, even Wriothesley's ark just popped up, saved a couple people and then disappeared, like they could have at least made the ship appear in the overworld as a new structure after completing that part of the story, it really has no reason to even exist.
I liked the characters in Fontaine a lot but I just don't think it went dark enough, or at least not as dark as their own marketing and story lead up made it seem so it just didn't feel as impactful as it had the potential to be IMO. It felt like they pulled their punches if that makes sense.
I enjoyed the story as well. Good video!
I agree. The first two parts were the best in term of writting even though it still had some plot holes it wasn't as bad as the last parts of the serie, the meropide part was just straight up boring, you could delete almost the whole prison plot and only keep the moment where we start to meet with Arle while Neuvi seal the primordial sea water and nothing would have changed, and for the last parts, while i do like Furina a little Focalors plan have so much issues, how would she have known that the heavenly principles were sleeping and wouldn't just nuke Fontaine off the map the moment they knew that a dragon sovereign was working with the Archon, also, the reveal at the end with Skirk made the narwhale a dissappointing villain and it made it look like the whale was no big threath at all, the reveal of the gnosis wasn't that big compared to what Nahida revealed in Sumeru, but i feel like Sumeru's region's lore revealed so much more than Fontaine but maybe we will get that in Remuria's ruins hopefully, seem like Sumeru will remain the best kind of storytelling, atleast all the Fontaine characters have depth in them in some sort of way even though it was obvious that they mainly focused on Navia, Neuvillette and Furina and the others were kinda left out
Edit: Forgot but the prophecy was a pretty good theme but just one cutscene for it wasn't enough at all, there must have been dead mfs it's sure, like wth about the babies and kids who can't swim, one thing that i saw people complain about that i don't understand is why didn't the other nations sinks, for me it was obvious, because of magic shit that made only Fontaine sink, like it's literraly heaven how come people don't think of that as an option, but i also don't get why hoyoverse didn't just explain it. Overall i still liked the cutscene especially the part with Wrio's Ark popping out of the water
To answer the question, no. It's rated just right, highly.
so you agree then :D
23:49 yeah i was really disappointed that no one apologized for furina about they did
Great video! I mostly agree with what you've said.
But about Furina not getting the praise and thanks for what she did, I expected the writers did this on purpose to further develop her in future patches as shown in the roses and muskets event. Furina's choice to move out of the Palai Mermonia speaks volumes that she just want to be left alone in peace. Furina did what she did out of the inate kindness in her heart, and not because she wants the reward of praise and thanks. Does she deserve these things? Yes, absolutely. But right now Furina needs to heal and rediscover herself and no amount of praise and recognition will help her achive that. But thats just my two cents.
Most people love to say that Fontaine is the best archon quest anf from a writing stand point it is true. But I'm personally very detached emotionally to the story of Fontaine. Sumeru is still number one to me. I still recall the story with fondness, and I can't say the same for Fontaine even though act I and II were the best written acts by far. Unfortunately acts III and IV were just so bad with act V being fine just brought down the story for me. I just feel neutral towards Fontaine compared to Sumeru and even Inazuma.
Yeah I like Inazuma despite being bad. So its weird that I don't like Fontaine as much despite being superior in execution and writing.
But those are just my terrible opinions, have a nice day
Oh i 100% agree that furina wasn't like left wanting for praise, nor did she do anything for prestige or applause, I simply wanted that closure for myself to be honest, as watching people accuse her of various things (not out of malice but because they were desperate too and of course didn't know any better) when she tried so hard was rather painful 😔 I would have liked to see that others recognise at the very least that furina wans't at **fault**, even if it had just been a wordless scene of her being embraced/welcomed amongst her peers or somethign along those lines.
I’ve been upset for a while with Fontaine’s story. Don’t get me wrong I’m satisfied with most of it but the part I was looking forward to the most fell so flat. It was indeed the fortress of meropide, before the fortress was actually revealed I couldn’t shut up about it. I love anything prison related and that’s what the fortress essentially is. And yet anything fortress related is quite dull and doesn’t have a whole lot of depth (excluding siggewinne and wriotnesley). I had a little trouble getting through the quest and I haven’t felt that way ever since the samsara in Sumeru!
OH yes good point, i also suffered during the samsara and just kept wishing the quest would end, and this felt very similar in a lot of ways, even if nto quite as bad just due tot he fdactt hat you could leave and take a break at any point thankfully😅
@@saurusness Wait, seriously? Please explain this opinon if you would, it's seriously so different than anything I thought was possible. For me, Samsara was the only good part of Sumeru and I praise it to this day. I even think the reason the rest of Sumeru fell super flat for me was because it had such a strong hook with Samsara and made my expectations way too high.
@@supermonstars I think it's a combination of a couple of things; I have very low tolerance for repetition in stories (like hearing the same lines spoken multiple times - I kind of hate hangout for the exact same reaosn heh), and the fact that this particular quest fully locked you in for its entire duration which made me feel almost "claustrophobic" in a weird way, and thus made the story feel far logner than it even was" 😅 On top of that I'm not a fan of the thought bubble "puzzles" in general, and again me being alreayd so frustrated and wanting out of the quest made those doubly annoying heh
If it hadn't been for those things I think the story of the quest itself would have been brilliant!
@@saurusness Interesting. I'd consider your gripes features, unironically. The fact it caused claustrophobia and felt longer than it is sounds like a complete success to me, as it delivers the feelings it was going for in a relatively short amount of time.
@@supermonstars Aye they deifnitely are features, just not ones that suit me personally I guess, but you can't please everyone!
I really just wish quests would not lock you in like that.. I understand it was for the 'immersion' but for me it was very unfortunate timing as back then quests would auto start without asking, and this happened at around 2-3 am my time, after which I was essentially stuck in the quest for well over an hour - I could've force quit of course, but I wanted to spend my resin, plus the thought of restarting was too awful hahah
There is a video floating around somewhere that goes through how the Fontanian story and setting has direct ties to the story of Christianity. It gave me an additional perspective to appreciate the story of this one.
OH interesting! Now that you mentioned I can definitely see the similarities 👀
Forgive me if I’m being stupid I don’t pay much attention to the story but why couldn’t the fontainian people just move to another nation or live on boats or even since they have such advanced technology maybe even make a flying city
There is probably an actual lore explanation, but I also don't know that.
Thus, my conclusion is that Fontanians have got the average IQ of 20.
It does not matter if they moved or not. Regardless all of them would drown one way or another due to the prophecy
I will say it's always a shame that NPC's don't get much love from the community. There's always a tug of war that makes me wonder if they were given a unique model if that's all it would take for people to grasp onto them and there stories
I actually liked Act 3 and 4 especially because it felt like a a World Quest with the Institute and Fonta being the Core but I get that people wanted more Childe and Rizzly
I definitely think it would help (unique model), but more so it's the fact that it feels like the playable characters get completley overshadowed? In general I do think there's too big a contrast between how playable characters and NPCs look..
Yeah that world quest feel I think is one of the reasons I didn't enjoy it as much, but I reckon mostly it was just my expectations totally not being met based on the trailer 😅
I thought it was very good but i can't help but feel dissapointed at the criminal lack of the knave's screentime. Considering she's bound to be released as a playable character very in a few patches I can't help but feel worried at how they'll handle her story, i really hope they give her a big role to play in an interlude or something and hell please let her be fontaine's second weekly boss plz...
She was also the only one to not appear in furina's demo which is supposed to be a play (sigewinne also didnt but furina never met her so i doubt she knows she exists lol) like cmon they gotta be doing it on purpose
I hate quests in Genshin since day one. I am always busy minded and want this annoying stuff done as fast as possible.
That's why I watch videos about them or people playing them. Finally a way to enjoy the sometimes epic content.
Fontaine was great, but only great. To me, it was equal to Sumeru but with different issues. While Sumeru's issue was that after the main story ended and desert expansion came out it became filler, Fontaine's main issue is, once again, the fact the MC could have been removed and nothing would be lost, just like Mondstadt and Liyue before it. Granted, I find the entirety of Genshin's story to be overall bad, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.
I think that's a valid perspective! Personally I like it when the protagonist is *not* central to the plot, but totally understand why someone would feel the other way around.
In games especially, having the protagonist be the saviour can be great for a lot of people, since it means their experience of the story is that *they* are the saviour, *they* are the one changing things and making a difference, which can be very powerful.
In Genshin's case, since the Traveler has zero personality at all, I struggle to put myself in their shoes, since it just feels like they barely exist at all. Because of that, it just makes everything feel a little empty to me when they're the one saving the day. Instead, when they basically just observe, and the other characters in the story do things, it makes the story feel much more alive for me!
But yeah like I said, totally valid to feel the other way!
I haven't yet decided whether it's good or bad as its moving at SUCH a slow pace, but up until now I've found my overall feeling towards the smaller scale archon quests to be more along the lines of "good story badly told", and that's where I feel like we're seeing big improvements! Still plenty of fault to go around, but the fact that it's grabbign ym attention and holding it for longer as we progress is a good sign for me 👀
Funnily enough I sort of pefer it when the MC isn't the one doing all the saving, but things are happening independently of them, and we're really just there to witness, learn, and participate in smaller ways, while the other characters do their thing!
I love Furina but there’s one thing that bothers me. I found it strange how the hydro archon was retconned…kinda. The Teyvat Trevail Trailer says that the hydro archon “seeks to judge all other gods” but this is not relevant. Furthermore, the elemental gemstone are quotes from archons. Nahida, Raiden, and Venti say their quotes but Furina’s is completely out of character and is never said nor referenced. Lastly, how does Egeria speak in the Fontaine teaser? Besides the fact that she’s a tree, she never makes an appearance or speaks in the archon quest so I find it misleading. What do you think?
Well, Furina is not the Archon. Of course the gemstone and the trailer lines would be out of character for her. They are compeltely in character for Focalors, though. You know, the actual god?
I feel like Furina have no closure in the Archon quest really appropriate. Unlike the previous Archons, we never bond with her throughout the Archon quest. She is a very distant figure for us and suddenly her opening up to us would feel kinda jarring, imo. It’s appropriate that they pushed the closure to her story quest instead.
I'd say we bond with her to some extent - it definitely felt like she was close to trusting us just before the trial - but yeah it definitely would've needed to be done very well for it to avoid being jarring. But it doesn't necessarily have to have been a scene with the Traveler in it (could've been an animated one with Focalors for example), and also all the characters apologising to her wouldn't have needed to imply a close relationship.
I liked her story quest, but wouldn't say it gave any closure for me... it shows that she's finding her place in the world, which was great to see, but nothing about all the other aspects of what happened to her! Maybe if she gets a second story quest...
@@raptori "It definitely felt like she was close to trusting us just before the trial" that's false. We saw the inside of her mind and literally saw that even if she was given more time, she'd still refuse to confide to the traveller.
And honestly, how do you define closure? I define it as just what happens to x character after the story ended. And they definitely gave that to Furina in her story quest; the entire plot of the story quest is her closure for me. From what I understand, it's not like there's no closure in her story quest; the closure just isn't one that you like. Which is totally fair, each to their own if that's the case. I just like this one closure better.
@@supayambaek Nah I disagree - the fact that she decided to hold fast doesn't mean she wasn't close. She came closest to revealing her secret to the Traveler than she had done to *anyone* in 500 years. Definitely valid to interpret that decision as a rejection of the traveler and Furina basically saying no, but for me it came across as her trusting the traveler, but deciding that on balance it's more important to hold the line.
I'd define closure as the story providing a resolution to the threads of the story.
To give a silly example: imagine watching a courtroom drama, where you show some young person falsely accused of something horrible, fighting to clear their name, and win back the trust of their friends and family who think they did the horrible thing. The story makes it clear that if they lose the trial, they'll go to jail for 10 years. The story builds to a climax, with the arguments all finished, and the jury leaves the room to come to their verdict. The next scene cuts to "30 years later", showing the young person chilling out or something, or on their way to work, etc.
That's very contrived, but while that story example shows what happens to the character after the story ended, it does not answer the dangling threads: did the jury convict? Did the friends and family forgive them?
Furina's story, to me, feels kinda like that. There's a ton of questions that I wanted a resolution to which were just dropped entirely (so far) - not everyone will care about those questions of course, and it's all subjective, but for me they were the most important parts. Hopefully story quest 2 will revisit it, kinda like Raiden's did!
@@raptori I wouldn't say that she trusted the traveller to tell her the truth of her Archonhood; it's more like she felt what the traveler is (being a descender and all) is safe enough for her to let her confide to him. Furina was only convinced when she realize that fact. But of course, there's always a risk that she was wrong and that's what made her retract her intention.
Also, if what you feel is there's a lot of dangling threads, then would have to specify what those threads are. I can't answer questions and point where is that told in the quests without even knowing it.
@@supayambaek Yeah definitely a valid interpretation for sure!
Oh of course - I didn't list them since I'm not expecting you to find the answers for me, just trying to explain where I'm coming from! 😁
Furina was tired. In the end. She's tired.
same 😩
I really wish I could have liked Navia, but by the end of the AQ I couldn't stand the sight of her. She has that genki Yoimiya / good girl Ayaka thing going on, and I find that incredibly bland.
💓💓💙💙💙
It was almost perfect. I'd give it a 7/10.
I would agree, 7-7.5/10 overall is a good score!
I think it was very overrated tbh… especially as somebody who doesn’t like Neuvillette. The archon and harbinger got barely anything to do and the climax was well anticlimactic..
Act 1 was great though. Loved Lyney and Furina.
See I love Neuvillette, but they definitely fumbled the ending for me as well... I think fr me the harbingers felt so out of place is precisely because they weren't central enough to the happenings, which again makes me wonder whether huge chunks of the story were cut out/changed.....
I've only skipped dialogue on accident. Mobile 😭
I honestly don't have an opinion on Lynette. To me, she's just there
I HATE the Narwhal. It's so boring and out of NOWHERE
The world building of Fontaine is not good, the location of the primordial sea is poorly explained especially since it was rising to the surface of Fontaine but we could stand on it in some abyss and the whale was honestly really poorly explained(or just a bad reason for full filling the prophecy) the character arc we very well written tho
Did you just... say that Scara was "retconned" and "written to be sympathetic towards our protagonists"?!
Oh, man, another day, another person, who doesn't understand Wanderer/Scaramouche as a character.
I mean, sure it's more complicated than that, but... how else would you summarise it without taking up multiple paragraphs? I think "retconned" is a decent shorthand for what happened to him!
Overall story is not bad (i think Sumeru archon quest is more logical and better)., but have issues. Furina - worst character among main cast, very questionable logic with some twists. Some world quests are infuriating as well.
She's the what???
@@ashton_playz9341 If you asked about furina, yes. She is literally nobody. A jester, a tool to complete a task. An obstacle we have to slide aside to see the real deal. Someone who agreed to complete a task which is impossible for human psyche, given from someone she do not know for a reason she also never understood. What sort of mess this logic it?
Focalors and Novilet are the real characters. furina is a total flop.
fontaine's main story was lacking fights... a lot.
i only remember 3 fights in the main story. the one where we controled tartaglia, the ones in the domain where navia almost dissolved and the narwal.
everything else, for as far as i remember, was "go there to talk to someone, go there to talk to someone else, go, talk, go, talk, etc." and as for the opera epiclese stuff, it felt more like a pheonix writh ace atorney game then genshin impact. in other words the main story was pretty much reduced to a mere interactive movie.
i like fontaine, don't get me wrong, but i prefered liyue and inazuma's story over this one. from my point of view, where fontaine truely excelled was the exploration fore obvious reasons. the underwater part is by far my favorite place to explore and although i doubt the pneumousia mechanics follows us outside of fontaine, they alctualy thought of giving players free access to 1 ousia char and 1 pneuma char, with traveler and lynete as well, later, as a 3rd option with the narzissenkreuz sword, which can work for both pneuma and ousia and prevent players from being forced to use hydro traveler to deactivate robots while letting them stay free to play. even better, it prevent players from being forced to use traveler at all, with or without hydro, since they could use that weapon on someone else, if they want.
from my point of view, the story could have been better, but the exploration is the best so far AND by far.
I mean.. the main antagonist in fontaine was the prophecy (excluding the narwhal) so there wasn't really a tangible enemy, so the objective was to find out answers from Furina who didn't even had any. Adding random battles between the trials would just look out of place and for once the fatui weren't involved.
@@justsomemaninachickencostu9643 except with all that underwater space, they could have made much more use of it.
plus that's not all. the 4.3 part of the map? the only instance we had to go the for the main story was to get into the "domain" where navia nearly dissolved. everything else we did there were side quests. what's the point of releasing such a big map if it's practicaly useless to the main story. plus, the prophecy domain's entrance was on it's boarders. they could just have put it a tiny bit more to the west and the whole 4.3 map would have been unsued by the main story.
sure the narzissenkreuz quest in 4.3 was great, but if all they added there is side stuff, they could as well have kept that part of the map for later so they actualy have something important for us to do there. sure some chars have their mats there, like furina, but they could have made it so she need another, already existing mat. even the narwal's domain entrance isn't in the 4.3 part of the map and the only world boss that was added in 4.3 was in the 4.0 part of the map.
actualy, at least half of the map of 4.3 was used for the narzissenkreuz quest. that's a bigguer area then what was used for the whole meropid story and that's including the few moments where we were out.
1 more reason to dislike the meropide ark. a side quest was both more interesting for the community and also made better use of the map.
@@ericcardinal9138 Bruh they don't have to do a whole world tour exploring every corner of the map for the main story. The other places you mentioned are side stories completely unrelated to the prophecy. They aren't going to conveniently go to each destination along the way to meet arlecchino etc.. They never intended to include and involve every regions for the main story, like in inazuma only 3 islands out of 6 were relevent and liyue as well with only the harbor being important..
@@justsomemaninachickencostu9643 only liyue harbor? ever saw cloud retainer and the other adepty?
@@isopick every main quest have tons of dialogue. that's not a problem. the problem i have with fontaine is that we barely have any fight.
in liyue, we arrive, we flee the guards, we fight them before metting the 1st adepty. later, qiqi ask for cocogoat milk, we go there to repair an ancient ballista. there was no cocogoat, but the ballista reparation weren't for nothing as it helped keqing. she saw what a working ballista look like and thus could replicate them to fight that water god. at first, when coming to repar the ballista, we fought ennemies, then coming back to the ballista, we fought guards who thought we were bad guys until keqing stopped them. these 3 fights are already more equal in numbers as fontaine's fights, but there are way more.
tartaglia, of course. the flowers who attacked us after we sing a song. the fatui (on multiple occasion), hilichurls around the big frying pan in hilichurl camp, while "frying" the stone for morax's funeral and surely even more fights that i don't remember.
meanwhile, in fontaine, we fight as tartaglia, we go in the domain where navia nearly dissolved and fought the narwal. i may have forgot 1 or 2 fights in fontaine, but i surely forgot even more fights in liyue.
i play an rpg, not an interactive movie. that's what i dislike of fontaine. without all that walking around, i could pretty much stay afk the whole fontaine arc, with dialogue on auto, comingback every few hours to check fights and spamming the x button for when a dialogue choice happen.
then again, in inazuma. we arrive, we escort goods while protecting from ennemies. we fight in a domain, where we meet kujou sarah at the end. we attack ei, while defending thomas, we attack ennemies to prove our worth to swordfish II, we fight kujou sarah's champion. we fight in a domain where we meet scaramouch. we fight her father's mobs. we fight signora. finaly, we attack ei twice. then again, i may have forgot multiple fights.
thus liyue and inazuma weren't making me fall asleep mid dialogue due to having too much dialogue, thanks to have much more fights, which kept me awake, keeping me interested. in fact, from my point of view, the only reason sumeru's fights didn't make sumeru better then fontaine from my point of view is that paimon spoke so often she genuinely gave me a headack. in fontaine there was so many different characters speaking so often that paimon couldn't possibly talk as much as in sumeru, thus, no headack.
Fun Fact: act 3 and 4 made me quit the game and instead watch story playthroughs because it was so tedious and boring.
I don't blame you, I wanted to quit so many times.. Thankfully the don't lock you in like the samasara quest did, so unless you're in a hurry, you could do it in little bite seized chunks which might make it more bearable!
I love Furina and her lore,like a lot. But to be honest the last parts of the quest fell flat for me. Neuvilette's role feels forcefully added in at the end,like why does Neuvilette ACTUALLY have to be there? Why can't it just be her? And why does it have to be Neuvilette whose powers are the ones to save Fontaine? Why couldn't Furina have earned her vision then and there and used HER OWN powers to save HER OWN nation?
I think it's in part the mirroring of how Neuvi, the dragon sovereign is there to witness focalors, while simultaneously the traveller witnesses furina's side - if they hadn't shown both of these I'm afraid the info dump at te end would ahve been even longer haha. Plus I'm not sure if furina would have had the power to do what Neuvillette did even with her vision? 🤔
@saurusness still,my other point still stands that it takes away from the significance of the act itself for Furina specifically,at the very least she could've been awake or there to witness it too. Why are we stuck to just Neuvilette's perspective of this?
A. Because that’s not Furina’s role in the story. She’s not meant to be the hero, she doesn’t want nor need glory. B. A vision would not have been enough to do what needed to be done, which was turn the people of Fontaine from oceanids into real humans so they don’t dissolve in the primordial sea. Only the highest power, the hydro dragon sovereign’s power, could do that. And Neuvillette, being the hydro dragon sovereign, is the only one who can properly wield it. Focalors had to return this power to Neuvillette not only so he could save the people of Fontaine but also to right the injustice of his power being taken from him by the gods in the first place.
All genshin are above the average by little because it lack an actual develop connection r between playable characters
I guess for people that aren't used to this type of storytelling would find it interesting but for me I saw it from a mile away, and that soured the experience. I just don't get what the hype of furina is (lore wise). I get that she was a puppet for the real archon, ok? I mean she's immortal. I don't want to just dismiss it by saying "boohoo" but really throughout the quests that's the main feeling I had towards furina. Like, you're an archon. A fake one, but you still have to play a role for the betterment of the people. Get a grip. You're an immortal being with nothing but time. I get that the fact that she failed to find anything to help the situation for 500 years but God damn the waterworks were crazy, she's the most "in her feelings" character we've ever gotten.
The way I see it is, she was not only under tremendous pressure for 500 years, but she was incredibly isolated; not a single close friend she could confide in, nor anyone to assure her that things were going according to plan even. Day in and day out she'd listen to people's worries and witness their hardships, and she had no one to talk to about it - that alone is quite a heavy burden to bear honestly even short term, let alone for centuries. She was also very much having to pretend to be someone she was not, which is exhausting, and she had no idea when this "play" would end, yet could not risk ruining everything.
That is why the moment at the end where she thinks she's failed is so heartbreaking, for me.
I respect your opinion but disagree heavily.
The entire reason why Furina is so hyped up is simply because of how much she did actually go through.
You have to remember that despite her technically being an Archon, her mind is that of a human. She had no divinity, she was merely cursed to live until Focalor herself died. So imagine living every single day, having to act every moment to the point that you even lose sense of your own personality, not being able to confide in anyone at risk of failing and everyone dying, all for 500 years, only for it all to go to waste (in your mind), thinking that you failed, you failed yourself, you failed your people, you failed everyone. She was so desperate that she was willing to potentially dissolve. Like come on that's ridiculously emotional and heart hitting when you realize that she was basically a newly born child with no memories yet still decided to do what she could to save everyone.
How do people like you even have the right to talk lmao
16:10 i disagree here. You are basing your logic on irl prisons without considering the "rules" of this universe. It's a pg13 world where a prison with reform-ish-ed people can exist. It qualify it as a "believable" prison for that type of world.
Just to answer the tumbnail; NOPE
indeed, and yet a LOT of peopel disagree, and I i can see in part why for the reasons outlined, despit enot feeling the same way personally.
HMp? theres a lot of people that disagree???@@saurusness
@@patrickkoko yess this video was prompted in part because people asked me to do it, but also because I saw a surprising (to me) number of people say they absolutely hated the fontaine archon arc and said it was very overrated 👀
Nheee, i think thats like 0.1 percent of the genshin community, this drama is basiclu unheard of@@saurusness
@@patrickkoko I don't think it has to cause drama if people disagree on the quality of a story (or any other aspect of the game), s long as people can have normal conversations about it instead of turning it into some sort of a cult war 😅
Heck no, it was the best.
you make a great point!
@@saurusness laconic is my first name
19:26 why did they think she had such important information? And why did they think she’d hide such information?
Their entire plan revolves around the fact that she’s human and would die if the prophecy came true. And they had no reason to suspect that the secret wasn’t just that she was human.
Then the cruelty of their actions, the fact non of their plan had a positive result, and how much they go on about how kind and considerate they are. Made me hate most of the main cast.
Then there’s the underwhelming boss you could probably kill with level 1 Fontaine characters.
Bad all round.
the whole story aspect of genshin is shit, it is directed and choreographed as the antithesis of all good anime stories: while most good story moments are while on a journey or under the stress of a fight (or a strugle if not a fight laden show), genshin is like a 1000 episode show where no story movement happens unless the characters gather in a circle to talk, talks which paimon repeats in boring detail then says "not sure I understand".
I don't think of it as an anime story, it's not *supposed* to be all fighting etc.
Agree with your criticism of it when it comes to the first few regions, but I think that they've done a better job in Sumeru and way better in Fontaine. Most of the story is still told through character interactions, but those improvements mentioned in the video - including character backstory reveals, better cinematography, plus Paimon no longer repeating everything - made it actually really engaging for me.
Except Acts III and IV, which were more like the older archon quests, and really drove home how painful it used to be!
@@raptori so it's **supposed** to be all talking? because that's all it is, which is the opposite of "show don't tell", proves my whole point.
@@alyshmahell That's a false equivalency - dialogue can be used to show rather than tell.
That's one of the differences between good dialogue and bad dialogue - bad dialogue just blandly states what's happening; good dialogue uses subtext and innuendo and makes you read between the lines, and is much more engaging storytelling. For a loooong while Genshin's dialogue was atrocious on this point (especially Paimon), but in Fontaine they've upped the level there a lot.
@@raptori not false when it's 100% true, and it could be said of your logic as well, still proves my point to a T.
@@raptori one more thing about the dialogue you keep white knighting for, ehm, in any other show people (not elitist snobs who studied lit or whatever) call it: the filler arc, genshin has been on a filler arc between every [meaningful last 5 minutes of cutscene] of every x.2 patch, this is the gist of what I'm saying, and there is no denying it.
Penacony better
Yes, yes it was, it was super overrated
The prison part was boring and long
I am sure that you did not had a sneaking suspicion that your initial dislike for Furina will change at the end.A lot of people did not like her but suddenly after her story and meta defining kit - she suddenly become the star of the show. I liked her from the very star. It was obvious that this is not her true personality and it was obvious that there is something else going on. Her “bratty” attitude and the way she talked was absolutely hilarious, but at the same time you can see her to be deeply worried about something. The fact that she is hiding secrets makes her even more interesting. If that what you are saying is true - you should had liked her from the very beginning, not pretending like everyone else.
Funny that you're sure about that, considering Saurus posted a "Fontaine First Impressions" video two weeks after 4.0 dropped, in which she specifically says she actively disliked Furina so far, but felt there was some nuance there, and hoped that she'd become a favourite over time.
"My hope for her is that we see some significant character growth: by displaying her clear character flaws at the start, we have the chance to see her learn, grow, and become a better person by the end, which would be a perfect example of what I'd love to see in Genshin's stories. If they get that right then I'll likely love her as a character in the end!"
ua-cam.com/video/kpQrrIF_1S0/v-deo.html
While they didn't make her go through character growth like Saurus had suggested, instead the slow reveal of her backstory and why she acted that way had the same result in terms of our perspective on her personality.
I had also assumed that it was some kind of character flaw that she would hopefully overcome throughout the story, since I like it when a character starts off as an asshole but then redeems themselves ...but I don't actually "like" them until *after* the redemption happens!
Well unlucky for you I explicitly said so months ago when Fontaine first came out and I made a video comparing the the first experience to sumeru :D Feel free to check it out if you want to confirm.
For the record, I would have no shame in admitting I was wrong about a character if that were the case - there's absolutely nothing wrong or shameful about being wrong/making mistakes as long as you learn something from it. Only very immature people can't admit their faults. I was wrong about Baizhu for example and was delighted to discover (to my surprse) that he was nothing like what I expected, and I even made a whole video about that too! :)