leaf17gaming

[leaf17gaming]

I'm not super mad about Manato... but not for the reason I expected. Here's where I am with ZZZ at the moment.

LONG POST WARNING!!

I'll be honest. I have not been active in the ZZZ community of late. After getting insanely lucky on Hugo, Lighter, Yixuan, and then Fufu with hardly any room in between them to breathe, I was burned out. I was happy with my luck, happy with my teams, and there was nothing immediately on the horizon to save for, so I took a step back and focused on my other gachas instead (chiefly Wuwa because~ Phrolova!). I also had a guarantee, so it was the perfect time to sit back and wait for a character I wanted enough to spend the guarantee on.

As anyone who reads my blog knows, I was pretty sure this would be Orphie. Sadly... I was wrong. Back when we first glimpsed her in-game and so many people were disappointed that she was not the aura-farmer we saw in the initial version 2 trailer, I downplayed their concerns. I loved her and wasn't going to be dissuaded! But after seeing her animations, I must admit... I was let down. The aura issue went from "she's not as serious and intimidating as I hoped" to "she's a cutesy little chicken." While I can see objectively that she's cute, I had gotten spoiled with the gorgeous gutsy women ZZZ had previous released (Jane, Evelyn, Yixuan, and so on...) After just getting the cute Alice and Yuzuha, I was ready for something different... and didn't get it.

It wasn't just that. Orphie's animations just didn't wow me. They kind of looked like a boring mishmash of playstyles we've already seen. But the final nail in the coffin? Her kit. She fits nowhere, absolutely nowhere on my account or teams, and for a character whose personality and animations were not wowing me, it just wasn't worth my polychromes.

So. Feeling sad about Orphie - hands down my favorite character design from the version 2 trailer - I started to hope for Manato. I still wasn't a fan of his huge man boobs or the furry-but-with-a-human-face thing, but at least he was unique and giving me some of that aura I was looking for. And... he turned out to be A-rank. I was disappointed, again. Orphie wasn't what I hoped and neither was Manato.

...And then I saw Yidhari and Lucia. And you must understand, I was also inactive in the ZZZ community during the SEED debacle. I didn't really care for SEED to begin with and while I sympathized with those who wanted her to be a real mech, ZZZ was on the back burner and I didn't want to be involved in drama. Although it worried me that we seemed to be shifting from the delightfully colorful version 1 cast (Lycaon, Pulchra, Burnice, Miyabi, Lighter, Jane...) to Generic Foot Fetish Waifu, I didn't have energy to care all that much.

Enter Yidhari and Lucia, Yixuan's Sisters-in-black-pleather-booty-shorts. I felt... flabbergasted. Who were they? Where did they come from? Had they ever even been mentioned before? Why was ZZZ spitting out two generic nobodies as S-ranks instead of the character that actually had a fanbase already? It did bewilder me, but I can't say I was super upset, because although I love ZZZ I wasn't currently playing it, and I never LOVED Manato anyway. I was more upset about Orphie than I was him. (I am sorry to the Manato fans, I promise I do feel your pain).

In a way, it feels like I'm observing all this drama from a distance, and I'm kinda glad. If I was immersed in the game or - heaven forbid - the community during this disappointing time, I think it would leave a very sour taste in my mouth about a game I've enjoyed so much.

All that said, I would be lying if I said I wasn't feeling sad at all. Manato being an A rank stinks. End of story. Good luck collecting all 7 copies it's going to take to make him anywhere near as good as an M0 S-rank. Oh, and good luck getting 6 copies of his wengine lol. I'll never defend the decision to not give him S-rank status when he clearly deserved it. And what's worse, it doesn't bode well for the future of ZZZ. As I said, one of the game's strengths was always its diversity and it's crazy anything-goes kind of vibe, and I'm just not seeing that in version 2 like I was in version 1. To be honest? I'm flashbacking to Genshin version 5, with 4-star Ifa and Ororon - super hyped males with already established fan bases - and nobodies Mizuki, Varesa, Ineffa, and so on releasing as 5 stars instead (no hate to Ineffa, I love her). Not a good feeling for someone who likes pulling both genders - and all the more when they're actually lore relevant characters.

But the thing that probably stings the most, oddly enough, is Lucia. Aside from the ridiculous under-boob window on her outfit, I actually quite like her design. Yes, it's a bit generic, but it's not ugly, and I actually really like some of her colors and design elements (those HIPS!!). Beyond that, she would be a perfect addition to my Yixuan team. That said, I really don't want to replace Pan on that team - I love my lore accurate temple gang and I love Pan's character (not a furry fan usually, but LOVE pandas and enjoy the diversity as I mentioned). I also like how Pan plays. So even though I am SO close to a win, I still lost... (Kind of reminds me of how lucky I was to like Flins and LOVE Ineffa, his BiS teammate... only to not have enough currency to get both, lol!)

I guess that's enough rambling for one post. What I feel now is the slow drifting away from a game I loved. Not quitting out of anger, but just slowly... losing interest. I haven't quit permanently, although I had to uninstall to make room for the latest Wuwa update on my hard drive. If they bring any new and intriguing ladies or gents to ZZZ in the future I'll gladly come back to use my guarantee, but to be honest, with new gachas like NTE on the horizon, and the new non-gacha Duet Night Abyss coming, I can see ZZZ slowly becoming forgotten among my games.

And yeah, that just makes me a bit sad.

[leaf17gaming]

Let's talk about Duet Night Abyss

It's funny to me that the upcoming gacha I just might be excited for the most... is not a gacha at all.

I'll be honest, I was not originally hyped for this game. It looked like a mishmash of Genshin, Wuwa, and whatever else and didn't seem to offer me anything my other games were not providing already. Then I heard about no 50/50 and being able to equip any weapon on any character (something I LOVE about Tower of Fantasy and have been BEGGING for in other games). I figured I'd definitely give it a try when it launched just for those two things alone, but I can't say I was excited.

Then came the livestream. I can't even explain my shock to find out they were literally removing the gacha. In an instant, DNA went from being a game I was willing to give a try, to a game I am HYPED for. And to be honest, I'm not worried about monetization. Games like this have always existed and even succeeded, and beyond that, there is a novelty here that few games enjoy. While Genshin's strongest point may have been being the first of it's kind, I think we'll see a similar phenomena with DNA.

Because here's the thing. To be honest? I didn't think DNA would do all that well competing against other gachas. As I said before, what did it offer that other anime gachas don't already? But what the developers have done is remove DNA from that spectrum completely. Now people who weren't going to even bother trying DNA will be trying it just to get relief from the predatory, exhausting, and FOMO-driven gacha system. Myself included. Those who are craving an anime-style combat RPG but despise gacha will be FLOCKING to DNA.

When I think about downloading it and trying it on October 28th, I don't have to weigh the decision at all. Can I handle another gacha? Do I want to bother with a game that's just like all my others? Is it even worth putting up with the stress and pressure of FOMO and scrambling to get characters in yet another game? Do I like the character designs or combat enough to bother with it? I don't have to ask myself ANY of these questions now. I'll have nothing to lose by giving it a try, and I think this is where DNA is going to succeed. It'll be the first of its kind, giving anime RPG fans a refuge free of the mire of gacha. Where originally I had to weigh DNA against all my other similar games and found it fell behind, it is now miles ahead simply because of this one key difference.

And not only that, it opens the door to other non-gacha anime games in the future. People have been BEGGING for Genshin-like games that aren't gacha for years. Perhaps the devs heard these pleas and decided to fill this gaping hole in the market, and kudos to them for that. It's about dang time.

As for the game itself, I must confess I don't know a whole lot about it and since I can try it so free of pressure, I don't plan to overthink it. I want to give it a try and be surprised. I want to get to know the game on my own without a whole lot of community input. With my previous gachas I always researched them thoroughly to make sure they were worth the hard drive space on my computer, but with this one I don't need to. So far, I do like what I've seen of the world, and some of the character designs seem bold and unique. I've heard some things about the story and OST that intrigue me even more.

I'm also REALLY looking forward to seeing what kind of characters might release in the future. As far as I know, all the current characters were designed back when DNA was still a gacha. Now that it's not, might we see some more diverse designs? Maybe a few more clothed women and maybe some more men too? If selling waifus and husbandos (but mostly waifus) to gamblers is no longer DNA's bread and butter, who knows what could happen. I'm not betting my life on seeing more diversity here, don't get me wrong, but to be honest some of DNA's designs already strike me as a bit gutsy compared to other games, and I was already dreading seeing them become more mainstream and samey as time went on (looking at you, ZZZ and Wuwa... and kinda Genshin too lol).

Although I'm not counting on anything, I'm extremely intrigued to see how this new monetization system may affect not only characters, but story as well. Might the developers feel freer to create a story of which the chief purpose is not selling the latest waifu? Might we see some real plotlines that don't center around wooing half-dressed women? I'm interested to find out.

In conclusion, I see this shift away from gacha as not only a game changer for DNA, but for the anime game scene in general. Anything is possible from here on out, and I look forward to seeing what unfolds. I myself plan to be a proud day 1 player of DNA and wish the developers success with what I see as a bold and exciting endeavor. I can hardly wait for October 28th!

[leaf17gaming]

As someone who loved Ineffa and wanted her before I even fully believed the "synergy with 5 star tall electro male" leaks, I'm in pain.

The thing is, with Kinich and Emilie, it hurt because I really disliked her design (and no not just the boob socks, I genuinely didn't like the rest of her design/colors/composition either). With Ineffa and Flins, it feels like I just hit the jackpot, because as anyone who reads my blog knows, I LOVE Ineffa. I even loved things about her a lot of people hated. How lucky am I to love a character AND their BiS teammate? But there's one big problem.

I'm broke with primos.

"Well why don't you get on and grind? There's time if you grind hard enough!" you might say. Except that I have a life, I have a job, and I also have other games I want to play. What I don't have, is motivation to push myself to play a game I don't feel like playing, to gamble for something I may not be able to get even after grinding for hours a day.

Okay, now I sound like Complain Impact and that's not what I wanted this post to be. I love this game, truly. It has special things about it that I literally find nowhere else. But darn it if 50 pulls per patch isn't slowly killing my will to log in everyday and try for characters I know I can't get. (I also NEVER get earlies and win almost no 50/50s btw). Is this burnout? Absolutely.

But I don't see it ever getting solved if things continue on this trajectory. It's burnout that taking a break won't really fix, because when I come back to genshin, I'll come back to all the same problems (compounded because ultra specific team comps seem to be becoming more and more of a thing). Extremely time consuming to get rewards, rewards are not enough to guarantee characters, coupled with the worst gacha luck ever.

The final nail in the coffin is knowing Flins is probably going to be a worse Varesa no matter what team I give him. I can't see them making him really OP and what I don't need on my account is another mid main DPS. That might just my cynicism talking, I haven't been keeping up with leaks so maybe he's actually looking solid. It's just that I'm used to Neuvi and c3r1 Wriothesley levels of power and I'm scared Flins is going to feel horrible by comparison.

I already did two 10-pulls on Ineffa just to see if I'd get lucky, think I'm around 60 pity, no luck. It doesn't help that I still NEED Furina and am pretty sure I'm going to want Columbina (I'm a little less interested but interested nonetheless in Varka, Nefer, and Alice as well). Coming over from Wuwa where I just got s3r1 Phrolova in half the amount of currency I spent on c3r1 Wriothesley, I can really feel the difference in Genshin's playtime and rewards. Yes, part of it's luck, but part of it's the innate difference between Genshin and most of its current competitors.

I tried sharing this post on Flins Mains but I think the nuance of my struggle was lost on redditors lol. What I heard was "Flins should still be able to clear abyss without Ineffa" and "just wait for Columbina, she'll make Flins really good." And I'm thankful for the replies, really I am, but they kind of missed my point.

The point is, I think I'm slowly losing my motivation to play a game I love, and at a time when I feel I should be excited, not overwhelmed and sad, when a brand new version and brand new hyped characters are coming out. Flins and Ineffa should be bringing me back to Genshin, not driving me away from it. There was a time when I'd be losing my mind with excitement about Flins and Columbina, and I'm just... not. I really hope Genshin fixes this problem somehow, by improving their rewards and the time it takes to get them or something. In my opinion it's a beautiful game that deserves better treatment by its devs.

[leaf17gaming]

Officially a Phrolova Main

Welp, it happened! I thought I'd be happy to stop at S2, but I kept hearing how S3 makes her so broken and found myself wishing I'd gotten it. I went ahead and tried my 50/50 again but had lost to Verina, and was determined to save my guarantee for Qiuyuan or Chisa (or anyone else that catches my eye).

But what can I say, my sister told me to follow my heart and go for S3 if I really wanted it. This afternoon I was mostly broke with astrites, had just enough pulls for one 10-pull, thought what the heck... and what do you know? It turned GOLD. At a whopping 7 pity, she came home. Again.

Now I am a VERY happy S3R1 Phrolova haver!! She melts everything in overworld with her self buffs and skill, and I can't wait to try her in some more difficult content. (I did this week's illusive realm, suffice it to say it was so easy it wasn't even that fun loool)

I also grinded the event (heaven help my sanity) so that my profile would be properly Phrolova-fied. (I cannot believe the current battle pass gives ANOTHER Phrolova sigil. It burns me because 20$ is simply not in my budget for a namecard but dang if I don't want it like crazy. I still maintain they need to stop being lazy and give us sigils for maxing friendship like in Genshin, darn it!!).

Also finished leveling her talents and am working on her build (talents 10 x5 just for my queen). Very baffled about no tacet field for her set and I'm unsure if that's going to change? It's safe to say I've probably burned through two or three dozen modifiers trying to improve her echoes, but RNG has NOT been kind to me lol. I feel like my best girl deserves better :'(

(She does have almost 20% skill dmg bonus as well, but tbh that doesn't make me feel much better considering her crits are so far from perfect and her heavy atk bonus stat is even higher at around 24% TT)

In conclusion, if I wasn't a Phrolova main before, I certainly am now haha. Feels really good to invest in a character you love this much. <3

PS. It's worth mentioning that I finished the main quest and after seeing so much more of Phrolova's story and character, I love her even more. It's been a while since I resonated (pun not intended) so deeply with a character in a gacha. Her backstory cut deep and her desire and quest to restore a lost way of life is something I relate to quite a lot. Bravo to the writers for making an unapologetically sus character who dares not to be a Rover glazer and who doesn't have a contrived "redemption arc" by the end. I couldn't have chosen a better character to main in Wuwa :')

Summary of my pulls:

Phrolova S0, won 50/50, 71 pity. S1, won 50/50, 38 pity. Weapon, 71 pity. S2, bought with corals (worth 45 pulls). Verina, lost 50/50, 72 pity. Phrolova S3, guarantee, 7 pity. Total pull count for S3R1: 309.

I am 100% f2p in Wuwa and have been since day 1, and I consider myself very lucky :)

[leaf17gaming]

She is magnificent ✨ (Phrolova gallery)

This one is my new desktop background (haven't changed it from Wriothesley since before his rerun hehe). The rest are just me having fun because I love her and enjoy game photography so much :)

Note: Please don't use or repost without my permission+credit, I worked hard on them :')

I posted them on reddit too.

[leaf17gaming]

I came back to Wuwa for Phrolova... and she was WORTH IT

I often said it would probably take the release of Geshu Lin or Phrolova to bring me back to Wuwa, and I was right. It was with big reservations and a lot of complicated feelings to sort through (including a lot of bad memories associated with the fandom) that I came back to a game I'd fully and completely quit.

I was rewarded with... the girl of my dreams! I've been a fan of Phrolova probably since before launch and always knew I would seriously consider pulling her if/when she released, whether I loved her kit or not. I just loved her design and character that much. Luckily, I ended up LOVING her animations, so it was a no-brainer.

I was on a 50/50 after winning both Brant and his S1 and didn't expect that luck to continue, but it did and I couldn't be happier.

I had budgeted for s0r1 but secretly hoped to get lucky and get a dupe (or two hehe). I decided to do some more pulling to try to get enough corals to buy her s1, and boom, 38 pity - I GOT IT!! Suffice it to say I was through the roof. I was anxious about Phrolova's performance without Cantarella (who I don't have) and decided I'd rather invest into sequences than teammates.

(no hate to Cantarella, the devs did her such a disservice with some of their design choices, because from what I've heard it sounds like she's a fantastic character).

So in the end, I'm glad I came back to Wuwa. I missed the game, missed the QoL and ease of earning currency even as a f2p, and also the beautiful graphics and OST.

Yeah, the majority of female character designs are still sussy and the ML flavor in the story is still cringey as heck, BUT I feel like at least Phrolova is her own character, and not so much part of the "harem" as a lot of the other female cast. (Maybe because she's not really acting like Flirty Femme Fatale no2039923 lol). I love her personality, I LOVE that she is so unique, and I'm so very intrigued by her backstory, I can hardly wait to find out more. Every cinematic scene with her has me taking screenshots like a maniac xD

She. is. perfect.

Also, her playstyle is WONDERFUL. Absolutely one of the most visually complex and stunning playstyles in the entire game imo. And I'm already pretty pleased with her damage despite my build being crap and having none of her BiS teammates. (Next order of business is definitely improving her echoes.)

Lastly, I have to appreciate that Phrolova has had lore significance for so long, since version 1 and all the way up until now in the version she's releasing in. She feels well established and her release feels properly built up to, and it's obvious the artists put an extraordinary amount of care into her animations and kit, making the wait for her release seem extremely worth it.

And kudos to the devs for not changing her design. I have my gripes with Kuro to be sure, but they managed to update her model and make it look even better than before while keeping her design (which I loved) the same. After a certain incident involving a long-time hyped girl from another game, I don't take this for granted, nor is it lost on me that Phrolova's release does not just feel like a cheap cash grab, aka, throwing her into a version and patch where she has ZERO relevance, and removing even more of her clothes for sex appeal (yeah I'm talking about Skirk LOOL).

So despite my love/hate relationship with Wuwa and Kuro, I'll say this time: well done. I'm extremely happy and wish everyone luck on your Phrolova pulls!

[leaf17gaming]

Big hopes can mean big disappointments...

So... this isn't the post I hoped I'd be writing. When you get your hopes up about something, it's only natural you'll be that much more disappointed than if you expected nothing at all.

For me, Ineffa had given me much higher hopes for Nod Krai, and I'm disappointed to report that the teaser somehow confirmed my fears rather than hopes. If you're hyped for what we saw, I encourage you to skip this post because I'm going to have to be negative for a bit.

Note: Most of my reactions have to do with character designs and are SUPER subjective based on my own preferences. If you get triggered easily by reading other people's opinions, do not proceed :D

We've got the obligatory chibi girl (I assume). She's fine. I'm not big into the younger looking characters so I can't say I'm wild about her design. We also have a glimpse of the lightkeeper guy, who definitely has my interest. His design looks really cool from the back.

Okay. Pardon my language here but... what the actual hell is THAT? Girl looks maybe 14 years old and her entire front is naked. Are we really jumping full into objectifying tweens now? (and PLEASE do not @ me with the "she's actually 500 years old" crap. if she looks 14 she's 14 to me, end of story).

When I first saw her face I thought she was really cute but they absolutely ruined her for me with that... whatever the heck she's wearing (or not wearing, actually).

Ineffa... ineffa, my love. Why did you fool me into thinking Nod Krai was going to be sane in terms of character design? TT

Ah, and the long awaited 5* Dahlia everyone was hoping for.

Lol in all seriousness, my first thought when I saw him was literally, "Why is he Dahlia?" When I saw his silhouette reveal in the AQ cutscene, his hair looked dark and his horns looked imposing. I was hoping for a Kinich level design, dark colors and a more masculine/older appearance despite the smaller model.

But instead, I got... Dahlia. (so sorry to Dahlia mains and femboy lovers, but Dahlia has always been one of my most hated genshin designs, I'm sorryyyy)

Sandrone. Probably one of the most "Genshin" looking designs in the entire trailer... which makes sense because her design is from an older era. I'm torn about her, not sure what I feel about her design and I'm not sure it matters since it's unclear whether she'll be playable. I thought about what happened to Capitano, but let's be real... she has gender on her side.

Next we have our lovely deer lady breasting boobily into our screens in case we forgot that she has big breasts and needed to be reminded. :)

Now, on to green lady.

Objectively, she is STUNNING. I LOVE her color scheme and overall design. Especially before I saw her side view... Is that side boob AND hip window? Sigh. She's going to freeze to death in Nod Krai.

Now, as for this setting... can I just say, it looks AMAZING. I'm getting those steampunk vibes and LOVING it. I hope it's a real place in the open world (please genshin devs, at least do this for me).

Next we have... Adventurine expy. Can't say that was what I hoped for Varka (by which I mean I hate Adventurine and never wanted Varka to be his expy in genshin, ever. heh).

I'm a bit despairing about his full design, too, if I'm honest. His front looks... very plain? And a bit lackluster? Especially after all the very detailed and luxurious female designs (like deer lady and green lady).

I mean... how... how is this different from underwear guys?? Her whole entire side is out. She is FREEZING TO DEATH I TELL YOU.

Again, lightkeeper guy has my attention. He just looks so. cool. But I must admit I'm feeling an increasing worry about his characterization. And Varka's, tbh. Lately both female and male characters in this game have begun to feel samey in their personality (Kinich being like Xiao+Alhaitham, Chasca being Clorinde 2.0, Mualani being Natlan Yoimiya, and so on and so on...).

And I'm already pegging lightkeeper dude as our obligatory yearly sullen, brooding sort, while Varka will be our slightly goofy, oozing-over-inflated-masculinity guy. This is probably my disappointment and cynicism speaking though and I hope I'm wrong.

Columbina. I always loved her design precisely because of how unique and un-genshin-like it was. I pray they don't change it or sanitize her somehow into half-naked waifu no23829382 (looking at you, Skirk). Stay unique, stay weird, stay you. Please. Please.

Aaaaaand more side boob. And cleavage. It's like the devs literally cannot help themselves at this point. (yeah I know it's probably because the CCP let up on censorship due to how many billions genshin rakes in but like... broader audience, remember? Genshin's gonna lose its overall family friendly status if they keep heading down the ToF design path...)

So. In conclusion, I had high, high hopes, and I paid for it with big, big disappointments. I'm anticipating that once version 6 actually drops and I see some of these characters and their flashy animations, I'll probably soften and pull for them in spite of any problems I have with their designs (Like I did with Kinich and Xilonen for example) but for now, I just need some time to feel sad, dreaming about what could have been. I daydreamed of women in fur and thick coats and possibly pants, and maybe some more mech people like Ineffa, and I got... HSR ladies.

As anyone who reads this blog already knows, I'm not a husbando main and despite always championing male characters in gacha games, I recently came to accept that I do prefer playing female characters because I identify with them better. So to be honest? The fact there's only 2 men (that's right, Dahlia- I mean, Durin, is NOT a man lol) isn't the biggest disappointment to me.

It's the lack of female designs that I vibe with. I was so hoping the COLD region would be my ticket to getting some female characters that wear clothes I would wear IRL, and instead... this happened. Genshin devs have increasingly dialed up the objectification of their ladies with every new version, and I'm beginning to despair. I love this game. I love sooo many aspects of it. I just wanted to see my own sex treated a bit better in a game I love dearly :')

At this point, the only characters I can count on to be modestly dressed are the men, and while I do like collecting male characters, the realization that I have more fun playing as females leaves me sadder than ever. I can't really win in gacha games, it seems...

[leaf17gaming]

That's a first!

So closing to getting S rank on all frontiers, ahhh! Still, this is farther than I've ever gotten before and I have Yixuan (and Fufu) to thank for that (and a very kind person on reddit who helped me understand Yixuan's playstyle lol). I want to say this is MUCH faster progress than I made in Genshin as I built my account there.

Also I am dumb, realizing I have not bothered clearing the easier levels of Shiyu every cycle because I thought it was like Spiral Abyss in genshin, where the easy part would not reset each time 🫠 All those polychromes I missed out on.... 😭😭😭

My teams used. As I mentioned in a previous post, getting Fufu wasn't just to make my Yixuan team stronger, it was also to free up my Pulchra since I was using her in both these teams. So in effect, it's made my Hugo team stronger too.

And Fufu isn't even built yet! (send help, I can't swing her sig wengine, how am I ever getting her 3.4k atk with 50% cr and also decent impact, help meeee 😭)

Ahem. Anyway. I get excited whenever I can make it farther in an endgame mode as I feel it's an indicator of the growth of my account, so just felt like sharing. I pray ZZZ doesn't get too much into inflating the endgame modes and make it a bad measuring stick for my account growth at some point though, that's what happened with Spiral Abyss and now I can no longer use it that way :/

[leaf17gaming]

So, about Komano Manato...

I must admit when I first saw his render, I thought his face didn't go with the rest of him AT ALL and I had an aversion to the ridiculously oversized man boobs lol (and kinda shoulders too).

After actually meeting him in-game, I think his face looks MUCH better which is a relief. As for the man boobs, well... they're still way too much. I realize this is a controversial take considering female players have been begging for this kind of thing forever (and almost never get it), but it would be hypocritical of me to pretend I'm okay with it/like it when in reality I think it's every bit as silly as Yixuan's basketball boobs.

But oh well, ZZZ devs aren't going to change anything just because of my opinions, and tbh as long as they keep releasing modest ladies like Fufu, Yuzuha, and Alice, I have little to complain about. This way there's something for everybody I guess. More males would be nice for immersion's sake and just because I genuinely really like so many of their male designs, but I'm pretty happy having girls who dress in clothes I would wear IRL, like the aforementioned girlies.

In the end, I pulled for Yixuan (and her wengine) in spite of the basketball booba because I genuinely love almost everything else about her design and I CRAZY LOVE her combat animations, so if Komano Manato has a really amazing playstyle and kit I can see myself overlooking the man boobs and getting him. That's IF he's an S rank though, and I'm still thinking he might well be A rank, in which case, I probably won't have much say in whether I end up with him or not.

Plus, I am still saving for Orphie as my first priority. Manato would have to blow my mind with his animations/playstyle and Orphie would have to SERIOUSLY disappoint me to ever make me pull him over her, methinks. I guess we'll see how it plays out.

[leaf17gaming]

I figured I was about to lose my 50/50 in ZZZ for the first time, and I was right.

It just didn't happen the way I expected.

For some backstory, I have won every 50/50 in ZZZ until now. I won Miyabi (early, which is what got me playing this game at all), I won Hugo after that, then won Lighter (early) and then proceeded to win Yixuan (early, again). After my genshin luck (it's been abysmal) this has been more than I could process lol.

The last few days I've been thinking about my teams. I've been using Pulchra with both Hugo and Yixuan, and it made me decide it was a good idea to try my 50/50 on Fufu. I'd decided not to go for her before, but I've always thought she was super cute and it just made sense. So today, I gave it a go.

Aaaand this happened.

FUFU CAME HOME!!!! I definitely screamed loool. And Grace (who I also love)!! I've now gotten two double golds in ZZZ, one on the wengine banner and one on the character banner. It's never happened to me in Genshin, Wuwa, or HSR (although it happened once or twice in Tof, which is slightly more possible over there because the pity system is different).

And the best part? I have a guarantee for somebody (maybe Orphie?)!! I guess we'll see who comes in the next few patches. I really like Alice and Yuzuha, but it would probably be best for me to save my pulls for a while, I've been so broke with leveling materials and dennies since I've been building so many characters lately xD (and now am rather broke with polychromes too haha)

The gang is all together now! I'm so incredibly happy and can't wait to get Fufu leveled. I really love all their characters, designs, and playstyles, so I'm feeling really pleased with this team :)

May all Fufu wanters be Fufu havers!!

[leaf17gaming]

I'll be honest. I think Ineffa is a step in the right direction.

If you don't look at leaks, then feel free to skip over this post, but I wanted to talk about Ineffa for a minute. (the picture is unrelated)

WARNING: Long post and leaks ahead!!

Image: Eurogamer

I've seen some really mixed reactions to Ineffa since her design was leaked. For me, as soon as I heard we were getting a mech girl, I was stoked, and when I actually saw her for myself, I wasn't disappointed. I think she's different from any genshin character we've seen and I LOVE that about her. Natlan was starting to feel redundant and samey and I was ready for something new.

I disagree with those saying she's too modern for genshin, too.

Yes, she is a bit more modern than the mech in Fontaine for example, but I still think she resembles them quite a lot. And we've had Katheryne since the beginning of the game, who is also a robot, so it's not as if Ineffa is the first. I read one comment that very intelligently summed it up more or less like this: it isn't weird to have a character whose design is a step between the Fontaine mech and Katheryne. I couldn't agree more.

Images: genshin wiki

People keep bringing up the Natlan character designs in the discussion about Ineffa (including me lol). Some say she's as modern as they are, and some even say she's worse. I COMPLETELY disagree. Ineffa is still distinctly fantasy and does bear a resemblance to technology we have already seen in Genshin, whereas Mavuika's bike, Xilonen's DJ mixer, Kinich/Ajaw's pixels... these don't resemble ANYTHING we've seen before or since in Genshin. No one else has ever had a DJ mixer or a ultra modern looking motorcycle. Pixels are something we have never seen before in genshin iirc, see nowhere in the open world/environment, and have never seen since.

So I feel it's undeniable that Ineffa meshes better with Teyvat as of now than these other characters. Even if you wanted to say she gives HSR/sci-fi, I feel that even this works better for genshin than urban contemporary (so ZZZ style, more like Kinich or Xilonen), because science fiction and fantasy have a LOT of overlap as genres.

Now. To be fair, someone pointed out Kinich's pixels resemble mesoamerican mosaics and I think that's a really cool take, however they also gave him literal arcade game SFX and a trailer that was entirely centered around the arcade game theme, so we cannot erase the ultra modern vibe they gave Kinich and Ajaw. We also can't erase that literally no one and nothing else in ALL of teyvat resembles them.

And actually one of my few issues with Ineffa is probably that she does have pixels incorporated into her shield. Doesn't match her slightly steampunk aesthetic at all to me. However it isn't part of her actual character design and is a small detail that's easily overlooked, as opposed to Kinich whose entire design, playstyle and animations incorporate pixels.

To be clear: I'm not hating on Natlan characters. I have and LOVE Xilonen and Kinich, I find them very fun to play and have come to love their designs. That doesn't mean I can't be objective about how at odds they are with their own environment. At odds with other nations? That's fine. Inazuma characters looked TOTALLY different from Mondstadt characters, for example. That's not the issue and never has been.

The issue is that we have a rollerblading DJ and a biker girlboss living in a country of huts and mud dwellings. The technology is not explained well, nor is it meshed well with the worldbuilding and environment. The devs could have easily made Mavuika's bike feel as at home in Teyvat as Fontaine's mecha, but they simply did not try. And okay, maybe they wanted it to stand out and feel odd and goofy, but if that's the case we needed the story to be self aware of that fact. But, in my opinion, it was not.

Image: Genshin wiki

Basically, I love Ineffa's design and I strongly disagree with the narrative currently surrounding her in the engish speaking community. I even love her colors. I love that they're earthy and muted and she's not the 13829382th bright pink and purple girl character in 5.x. I love that she's a robot and that she's more modestly dressed than a lot of the 5.x roster. I love that, at least to me, she does in fact mesh better with Teyvat, and probably will even more when we get to see the place she's from in Nod Krai, because I'm guessing it'll be similar to her in tech and aesthetic.

I feel like Ineffa is taking Genshin back in a direction I've been hoping for. It makes me more hyped and hopeful for 6.x. People calling her a 4 star design and saying she looks like crap or saying she's way too modern for genshin... I feel like we are looking at two different characters. I actually agreed with quite a bit of the criticism for designs like Emilie or Escoffier, etc, but not this time around. And that's understandable, this is a subjective thing, but I do hope people will stop being hateful towards those of us that really like her. I was downvoted and got some ugly comments on reddit for praising her design and that seems ridiculous to me (I know, toxic people with bad takes on reddit, big surprise lol).

As of now, I'm really hoping to at least try my 50/50 on Ineffa. I'm mostly out of primos and 5.7 and 5.8 aren't looking like very generous patches so I might not be able to get her, especially if anyone comes in 6.0 that I want just as much or more. So I'm already sad about the thought of not getting her, but I'm definitely going to try.

I love her, I do not think we lost Capitano for her, I am hyped, I respect those who are not, just don't try to kill my hype. End of story. Incels and femcels can go have a fistfight on reddit, meanwhile I am going to enjoy my male and female characters in peace and not care about what's politically correct (in this case, disliking Ineffa and thinking she doesn't belong in genshin lol).

[leaf17gaming]

I made a video about my Kinich pulls ~

I know it won't get many views but I had a lot of fun building and playing around with Kinich and just felt like making a video about it. :)

In a way it's sad to think sometimes that as content creators, what we want to make comes secondary to what will get views. It's one reason why I've never been super committed to having a youtube channel in the past, because chances were the thing I was inspired for wasn't the thing that was currently hyped/getting views, so I knew that getting a following would be pretty much impossible.

So, most likely I'll never have more than a hundred or two subscribers, if that many, but at least I can be making videos that are fun to make xD

[leaf17gaming]

Finally. He came home. 🥲

Bro did not want to lol. I grinded enough for another 10-pull and he came home on the very last pull, the 77th.

Finallyyyyy!

I'm not sure if it's because he cost me a lot more primos than I planned or because of some IRL stuff I have going on, but I must admit I'm not as excited as I would normally be. I'm just glad I have him and can relax now. Hopefully when my stress dies down I'll be able to feel excited 🥲

Now my plan is to go full saving mode for Furina and Nod Krai characters. I'm sad I'll be missing Shenhe but eh, that's the nature of gacha. Can't have everything lol. My one hope is just that Furina doesn't rerun anytime soon so I have time to save for her. It's bad enough I missed Kazuha again, don't take Furina from me too hoyo 😭

BUT my consolation is that at least, I didn't miss out on Kinich too 🥹 Gonna work on finishing building him and getting used to his playstyle!

[leaf17gaming]

Meanwhile, in genshin...

My luck might be crazy in ZZZ but it stays as crap as ever in genshin lol. After resisting and resisting, determined to save for Shenhe, I decided to give in and try my 50/50 on Kinich. And in case nobody's seen my previous posts, no, this is not me resisting a gambling addiction, it's me resisting pulling for one character I really want while saving for another character I really want.

Aaaand I was rewarded with ~

A Mona con. Couldn't even be Jean or Keqing to soften the blow :')

It always stinks when you finally make up your mind, gather your courage, and take a leap... with no results. And yes, I could certainly save my guarantee for Shenhe, which I've gone back and forth about a lot. But I think where I came down is that I like Kinich and Shenhe about equally in terms of design, character, playstyle, so it's just a matter of who to plan on getting later.

Shenhe would be great for my Wrio freeze team but he doesn't need her, while Kinich would be great for my account because I could really use another solid DPS besides Neuv and Wrio. At the moment, I find the thought of Kinich more exciting so it seems like a simple decision. I've been grinding exploration in Sumeru and Natlan to try to get him before his banner ends.

I'm now at 67 pity so I can certainly do it, but dang does it hurt that they're driving me this far. Especially with so many patches lately giving as low as 50 or 60 pulls f2p (and I'm not even f2p lol). I'm worried not only about someday regretting letting go of Shenhe, I'm also worried about any surprise Furina reruns that could come out of left field at a moment when I'm broke after pulling Kinich. So yeah now that I'm nearing completion on a lot of my map exploration, I'm starting to feel again just how stingy genshin's gacha is, and boy does it stink. :/

Anyway wish me luck. I mean, I guess it's too late for that, but you can wish me luck anyway :P

[leaf17gaming]

I'm both excited and scared

I'll be honest. I loved Natlan's OST and open world/map, more than Fontaine actually (saying that since almost everyone gushes about Fontaine being THE peak genshin and while it was good, it was not my top favorite in many respects). But Natlan's story?? Sigh.

Again I'll be honest, I've never played Genshin for the story. And I strongly disagree with the people who talk about the story as if it were some Tolkien level work of art. It's just... not lol. It has its good points, and some of the world building obviously took a lot of time and effort, but I worry that people who think the story is extremely solid mechanically have not read enough good books lol.

BUT, all that said, I have come to enjoy genshin's story for what it is. For me Sumeru was peak genshin. Loved the entire AQ in Sumeru more than any other nation by far. The subject matter, the pacing, the stakes, the intensity, the characterizations, it all felt brilliant to me. Fontaine was good, especially the climax, and it felt really well rounded with so many characters getting attention and development, but parts of it dragged and dragged and simply did not impress me.

Then we move on to Natlan. The story disappointed me on so many levels. From the characters that felt extremely one-dimensional to me (if you don't get this, just compare Mavuika to Navia and you'll see what I mean lol) to the "let's defeat the bad guys through the power of friendship" type story that was shockingly reminiscent of a Disney princess movie (I love Disney princess movies, they have their place, just not in genshin imo) to never having to worry about Mavuika dying for a single second (aka=there were no real stakes) to Capitano randomly showing up at the last second and dying (but it was really best for him, he's finally at peace, let's be happy about it hmm? /s).

I could go on a lot longer about the story but I'll stop there. Besides the story, I had issues with the world-building in terms of character personalities, designs, and environment not meshing. Xilonen is a rollerblading DJ who's also a blacksmith and I still can't figure out what any of those three things have to do with each other (I LOVE Xilonen btw, she is the only Natlan character I've pulled so far). I also feel genshin took an extra step further in the sexualization of their ladies in 5.x which is never going to be a good thing in my mind. Also the weird lack of males made the story feel oddly unbalanced and it did affect my immersion. Lastly, the constant barrage of random, lore-irrelevant 5* characters who were not introduced in the story before their release also killed a lot of hype for me.

So TL;DR. Version 5 (NOT Natlan) disappointed me in some way on almost every level and I'm scared the devs haven't learned from their mistakes. I'm BEGGING for Nod Krai to improve on all those points I mentioned, but they've damaged my trust in them a lot lately. So many of the things that bugged me about 5.x didn't feel like a matter of taste, but more a matter of cheap cash grabs. They didn't want to put the time into making us feel invested into Varesa or Escoffier, they wanted to release some meta girlies in revealing outfits and hope their kits and sex appeal would be enough to make some dough. Genshin is special, and it frankly deserves so much better than that.

I'm ready to see Genshin get the attention and treatment it deserves in 6.x.

PS. Varka better not be an Adventurine expy. I'm ready for an actual man in genshin, because by the time he is released (unless he randomly dies at the last second and doesn't release at all :D) it will most likely be at least two years without a single 5* tall man. No hate to the twink lovers but I'm weary with twinks and guys who look 12 😭 (Kinich is kind of an exception to this, he does look more like a small adult imo, BUT it's still going to be at LEAST a year since his release if when Varka releases).

I think it also goes without saying that if Varka is not a 5* and/or has a mid (or bad) kit, my trust in the devs will be destroyed once and for all, forever. Lol. They better not mess this up.

[leaf17gaming]

SHE CAME HOMEEEE

Welp, I have officially won four 50/50s in a row in ZZZ. And I've never lost one. After my awful luck in Genshin for so long, it feels like I'm hallucinating or something. To be honest I wasn't completely sure, if I lost my 50/50 on Yixuan, whether I'd use my guarantee on her, and now the choice is out of my hands lol. The cherry on top? She came early too 😭 I can't believe this...

Anyway I'm extremely thrilled and thankful, and I'd love to ramble a lot more about it loool, but it's late and I'm tired 😴 Tomorrow I'm going to work on building and learning how to use this beautiful lady. For tonight I'm just so incredibly happy. I wish everyone at LEAST a handful of my insane ZZZ luck.

May all Yixuan wanters be Yixuan havers 🙏🏻

[leaf17gaming]

The womance is real 😫

this was so cute and wholesome fr fr 😭