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ofc the real problem is her personality treads too close to citlalis

Slightly disappointed honestly.

Though, Furina and Citlali both have that "centuries old lonely, isolated woman fighting to protect her region" thing, though in different ways...

Kazuha really is just Some Guy and everyone else is wild. Haha.

genshin rewrite brain go 'brrrr':

escoffier as furina's ex-head chef, who was fired and arrested under ridiculous circumstances. encountered in the fortress of meropide. as someone that's managed to see behind the curtain of furina's facade just once, she's equally concerned and enraged about her archon's actions

also escoffier yelling at lumine and childe in the prison kitchen is a funny image.

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Decided to be self indulgent in the rewrite.

By which I mean - I got rid of the Seelies, and replaced them with the 1000 Winds. More specifically, the other wind sprites that Barbatos considers friends and families, and probably kind of... a little bit... maybe? Work for him now.

I don't have much use for the Seelie in the rewrite given how the Celestia situation, and I liked the idea of swapping them out for tiny lil sprites that sass Venti to his face. Mechanically they're closer to the Aranaka, though they need to be stopped from pulling pranks or sometimes want your help to help other humans.

Just a bunch of these little guys hanging around on the map.

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※ 奏章IV / OC4 spoilers ※ Galahad and Mash

Twitter Version

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Getting to see Kinich again, I'm once again disappointed that Genshin characters don't do the FGO thing where they have multiple "ascensions/stages" where the writers can play with different aspects of their personality or personal development.

Like, Kinich stages 1-2 could be the standard Kinich and Ajaw shenanigans, and stage 3 could be "Kinich died, Ajaw possessing him" type deal, so you get to see all aspects of that potential storyline...

Genshin is more grounded than FGO and these are 'real people', but it's not like the game assumes you're running around with the real versions of those characters anyway, but it would be fun to get 'alternate versions/aspects' of the characters as skins. Darknight Hero Diluc, Mavuika's past incarnation, Furina and Focalors, etc.

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Get 3dmigoto. It makes the designs so much less painful.

? Is that a Genshin mod? Unfortunately, I play on PS5, so...

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You were right! That quest was surprisingly solid! A good uh, C-B grade? Especially after the shitshow that was Albedo's """payoff""" (F).

Kinda wish they'd drop their random twist villain though. Like it did nothing except absolve antagonist chef rival's crimes in such a comical fashion as to defuse any seriousness. It would be exceedingly easy for her to simply journey to the ruin solo so she can drown herself or something. The poison water attempt literally demonstrates how she's willing to do that.

That aside, I think part of why it worked for me is that, while The Secretly Cool Antag Chef's insecurity -> jealousy -> hostility -> guilt loop is something I've seen many, many times, most of which did it way, way better, you at least get the sense that Escoffier cares about her, which gives her misery some weight.

The fact that she's a minor, pointless NPC also means that she could conceivably die! Though it's unlikely as it would butcher the theme. Of course, this being Hoyoverse, incompetence is never out of the question! So maybe they would fuck up and kill her! I mean, they killed Durin!

Besides, they did literally butcher the theme in the end!!!

One thing I like about Escoffier is that she doesn't believe in geniuses, which is something I wish I could hear more of after Mavuika. Problem is, she proceeds to not only glaze the traveler, but also apparently Atomises Chef Rival in the rematch.

I think it would be much better if the rematch either ended with the judges saying "Both are wonderful, but Escoffier's is more innovative" which encourages Chef Rival to leave behind the recipe book and come into her own. Or if they tied, showing that Chef Rival was wrong to feel so inferior. As it is, the quest ends by saying "Yeah, Escoffier, noted hater of genius rhetoric, is just better and cooler than the lady who tried to off herself because she felt inferior. Cool right?"

Yeah, it wasn't bad! I was also unimpressed with the ending being "and then Escoffier eviscerated Savanna", especially after… literally everything leading up to it. Girl, that's a 9.9/10 accurate cake, what do you mean she got smoked…

I was holding out hope that the ending was gonna be ambiguous at least but nope. EVISCERATED ah well, can't hope for TOO much consistency here.

I was thinking "huh, this is the typical 'its really about NPC conflict and Escoffier just happens to be involved as usual'", but as you say it's because Escoffier, Monica and Savanna's relationships felt more meaningful to the whole thing… Monica being the reason Escoffier got arrested and all. It's a big part of her story this time, and is the reason why she is where she is. Tied together nicely.

And Genshin really likes its twist NPC villains. It was easier to care this time though.

I just didn't mind it. I even came out the other side liking Escoffier (god that OUTFIT though, save her). I even liked the idea presented with the ancient 'adventure cooks' and the codex/cookbook - an idea started with Xiangling and the Gourmet trio, but I've always liked the idea of exploring the world through that lens.

It is weird how that adventure chef thing keeps getting bounced around instead of just… letting Xiangling do it herself, but whatever. I won't complain if I see more of Escoffier. If they ever release a costume for her that gives her some dignity, I might even be tempted to roll...

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One quest. One quest without Traveler glazing is all I ask for. One. Single. Quest.

Escoffier: 80/100. You're a genius.

(Worst part is I think I got the macarons from.....navia? For her birthday? I certainly didn't bake them...

Wait. Wait no fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.)

:') It's never gonna happen. I'm gonna say "at least Traveller being a good cook is a long-established fact" but... come on, 8/10 from a gourmet godly chef... I'd have been happy with a 6.

Seriously, how has everyone heard of us? Is it Charlotte's fault?

(...now that you mention it, I also gave her macarons... I can't remember if I got them from Navia or not though LMAO)

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The chef heard me talking shit about her outfit during maintenance and then walked into my house while I was trying to get Ifa so. I took matters into my own hands

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Love how we spent all that time on Wanderer and MiniDurin parallels and it turns out they're not even friendly enough for Wandy to accompany MiniDurin on a maybe-something-approaching-suicide mission.

Also really, really hoping Albedo is meant to come off as a eugenicist monster because otherwise I really dk how to feel about 1 Durin getting murdered while another Durin sacrifices his body to become a 'real boy'. In a quest where the characters say to our faces that Durin is basically a baby with a power too big for their stupid baby skull.

Like, sorry, Albedo, but babies can't be evil (even if the game is trying to make them as unlikeable as possible to suit their '''''''evilness'''''''). I feel like we should try engaging with the baby first. Talk to the baby. Maybe use the Travelers magic purification powers to purify the baby. Feed the baby kind beings rather than clones made of wasted potential and inferiority complexes. Anything other than immediately using Souleating Oviraptor on the baby.

Like, I get that Durin is a danger to Mondstadt. I get it, but I don't know how to feel about everyone celebrating what's about to happen rather than treating it as a necessary evil.

Then, you get to the ritual itself and Albedo is like "I am closer to humans in class than dragons" and "by making life more perfect, we can make the world more perfect" and "Once Durin is a Real Boy, I'll finally know someone else like me", all of which kind of suggest that Albedo views a persons race or species as higher than their. Like. Existence. To the degree that killing 1 Durin to perform a dangerous and untested experiment on another Durin is a wonderful elevation of their beings.

I mean, it's consistent, if nothing else. Genshin is full of "did you know humans are cooler and better than dragons and seelie and saurians and whopperflowers and adeptus and suanni and puppets?" so it makes sense that up to 2 literal infant dragons (minimum 1 bc you can bet there won't be any """"evil""" Durin in there) sacrificing their individuality and consciousness to become (1) human boy is a good trade.

I mean, I guess it's a good trade for me because he's a Kosma Expy. But still.

Sorry 2 keep harping on this and obvs ignore till u play but it just gets worse the more I think about it. Like I know Genshin is a big game so it's unreasonable to expect thematic consistency but it's comical to me that Xilonen "You can't paste over your personal tragedy (Nechca dying) with a happy fairytale ending (Imposing Nechca's personality onto Nepechca so Tzalolli can pretend Nechca never died)" exists in the same game as "Let's paste over Evil Durin with the literal manifestation of some Witch's fix-it fic." Like these themes couldn't be more diametrically opposed if they tried. Now I know there are differences between these stories. As tragic as it is, Mondstadt will be safer if Durin dies, while Nepechca's death would benefit none but Tzalolli herself. Durin is also dead (except not really, because you could absolutely speak to """"Evil Durin"""" through his vessel) so this is a living Durin using the corpse of dead Durin to their benefit (still pretty yikes ngl. I don't think Durin consented to having their corpse desecrated) while Nepechca was a living child being overwritten by a dead one (who already 'had their chance' so to speak) but it would have been nice to see the story acknowledge the similarities and differences, discuss the implications, etc. Instead of popping the baby.

It's cool! There was uhhhh a lot going on here, huh. It didn't bother me too much because by the point this came up I was already totally checked out by everything that came before it, but I did think it was weird too. It's an... interesting conclusion to the Durin situation in a lot of different ways, yeah. As you said, I was also reminded of Xilonen's story quest - it's not a one to one comparison as here it seems to be that the two Durin will be combining their personalities rather than a straight overwrite, but it does tread close enough that its a bit eyebrow raising. Though in this case, it is the only way the narrative is providing to stop an inherently malicious force for good rather than Just Straight Child Abuse/Murder, so it's a greyer situation.

"Kathryne is just a doll, so we can possess her no problem!" vs "Scaramouche, just because you're a puppet doesn't mean you don't have a heart, you deleting your own personality is bad!" this game has contradicted itself before, yeah.

I think what gets me is the framing. Durin needs to be resolved this way BECAUSE he's such a huge threat that will keep coming back no matter what... but the game does a really bad job of framing Durin as a threat. We never talk to him or fight him, we only ever fight his proxies who manifest as generic overworld enemies. HYV says he's a huge threat, but I'm kinda "uh, whatever" about it because between the Knights having Durin on such a hilarious lockdown, all the losses being off-screen and HYV not bothering to give him a real boss fight... Durin's threat comes across as really abstract.

So talking about "this is the only possible way to handle it" um, I don't believe you. HYV handled this so lazily that I really, really don't believe you. Decisions like this should only come after you actually try exhausting other options - for Mini Durin's sake, if not actual Durin's (who, yeah, I don't think really gets much of a say at this stage, but again...)

In the meantime, Durin often gets described as being childlike and innocent, lashing out with too much power because he has too many emotions he can't control. He didn't mean to hurt Dvalin, and he's jealous of Albedo. So you do just... automatically feel bad about the idea of treating him this way? We didn't try anything, and it's a kid?

By the time they're resolving it, it's like... well, that was super easy, didn't even take a boss fight, and also it sure is convenient there was a "good" Durin to paste over our Durin to replace him... but also, that's like a... almost? Murder-suicide being framed in a weirdly positive way.

If Durin were better established as a threat and this was the only way to defeat him (like us literally being unable to kill him while shit goes SUPER badly wrong), and Mini-Durin's death (lol) being framed as a tragic, scary sacrifice (lol again) I'd be more... on board with it, I guess? As it is, it just comes across as really... are we sure this is the best solution? We didn't even try stabbing him. Or uh, purifying him, yeah... I don't know how I thought Durin would get resolved but "gets merged with his summer alt and becomes a gacha unit" wasn't it. I kinda thought Dvalin would be involved, honestly.

On Albedo being a eugenecist - I don't think that's the intended read for his character ("this is our only choice!!!!", handled extremely lazily), but Genshin does have a consistent throughline of humanity being the most prioritised species in Teyvat that doesn't mesh well with this. I don't think Albedo being excited about having someone else 'like him' around is a bad trait, even with the circumstances... (though, Albedo explicitly only identifying Durin as his brother after the change is..... hmm, interesting)

I guess I'm more bothered by Mini-Durin's response to it, and us being all "yeah sure okay" about it. Theoretically, two different people being smashed together into one totally foreign body could be a really interesting struggle for the Durins, but I suspect we're not going to get much with them on that front.

ALSO god yeah LMAO SCARAMOUCHE WASN'T EVEN THEREEEEE WHY EVEN BOTHER WITH THIS...

it's so scara can officially have a character he gets associated with, isn't it. ISN'T IT

WHY Albedo and Klee didn't have a bigger role in last year's summer is completely beyond me.

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I know it was confirmed a while ago that Susbedo died but I was really, really holding out hope still that maybe Susbedo lived. That maybe Susbedo could provide some drama, some conflict, a cool clone fight, saturday morning cartoon shit, yknow?

But no, after years, we finally have confirmation that Susbedo fuckin died offscreen. The wasted potential. The misery. At least give us a clone fight cutscene.

Then, the story literally goes on in the exact same fucking way as if Susbedo had lived??? With Mondstadt being full of clones and replicas and whopperflower people or whatever the shit.

Like, at this point, it is simply better to have Susbedo come back, pretend to be Realbedo, and accuse Realbedo of murder. Like, it wouldn't be any less obvious or anticlimactic, but Susbedo at least has the model detail and charisma that, fuckin Hertha is lacking. At least Susbedo has any kind of character development, even if it's barely character development.

Ugh, Christmas came late and the presents suck.

It is really disappointing how disinterested HYV was with really... using Durin, or the clones, to any real dramatic effect here.

Doppelgangers and brainwashed folk in Mondstadt, none of them playable... a boss fight, but just some chess pieces... Hertha at least is an NPC we know but like... come on?! This is the most boring type of character to use here! I'm not an Albedo enthusiast, but like .... there were SO MANY OPTIONS here...!

Man, Dvalin wasn't even there! It's Durin we're talking about...! And talk about deus ex mini-Durin, what a simple solution to that problem...

It was all really boring, honestly. At least the invasion was mechanically better than Natlan's :/

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genshin rewrite brain go 'brrrr':

escoffier as furina's ex-head chef, who was fired and arrested under ridiculous circumstances. encountered in the fortress of meropide. as someone that's managed to see behind the curtain of furina's facade just once, she's equally concerned and enraged about her archon's actions

also escoffier yelling at lumine and childe in the prison kitchen is a funny image.

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its a shame escoffier's design is Like That, because i kinda like her character.

gordon ramsay as an arrogant PG-13 anime girl. sure, that works. its nice to have a new personality type in genshin.

That weird sparkly black flap on her shoulder is really bugging me...

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Archon Quest - Paralogism

Natlan was really straightforward, so it's been awhile since Genshin tried to be clever with its plot twists. It's interesting to be back to form...

Anyway, uh, this sucked.

As nice as it was to be back in Mondstadt, I spent most of this quest bouncing from one kind of disbelief to another. I guess the overall impressions are this;

On a macro level, it's really odd to 'resolve' the Durin storyline this way. Durin was a limited event lore/backstory character from years 1 and 2, who we have never come into contact or communicated with. We've only ever had to deal with his proxies, which seem to be acting somewhat independently of him (being dead and all).

The structure of this quest is 90% "everything is going according to plan" (the trial, Albedo 'creating' the new Durin) and 10% Albedo asking the witches for the rest of the materials he needs to do his plan. As such, because everything was so meticulously planned by the knights, it never feels like there was ever any real threat in Mondstadt. (Aside from them letting things get this far in the first place.)

Additionally, Durin has never had the chance to seem really dangerous. That's what happens when you only give the guy generic enemy resources to work with - which they didn't have to do! They chose to make the boss this time the chess pieces for the Hexenzirkel's trial... and then taking Durin's "core" from his heart is so easy that Albedo can rip out out of him while also holding a conversation with us.

Three events and one Archon Quest's worth of buildup, and Durin didn't even warrant a boss battle. That's how much of a threat he was. Here, fight some chess pieces instead so some witches can give you some stuff instead of... idk, going to fight the immortal beast in Mare Jivari, upcoming area, and getting that shit yourself?

Genshin always feels lazy (oh look, Traveller found a hidden compartment in the first piece of furniture they examined!), but this felt REALLY lazy.

Because a lot of the legwork was handled off-screen, everything just kinda... happens, by the end. "And then Albedo just kinda ripped his heart out. And then Albedo just kinda made life. And then Gold just kinda ate the Ruler of Life offscreen" Like, okay, glad this was all such a simple process? The only real issue was getting the materials to do it, and that came down to asking the Hexenzirkel?

The issue with making everything go according to plan is that it does kind of drain the tension out of a conflict. It's exciting when things go wrong, or you have to figure out a solution on the spot.

In terms of the micro elements of the plot... look, I might have missed something, but I have no idea why Albedo had to go to trial at all. I understand that Hertha as a proxy to Durin wanted to get rid of Albedo and this was how she was doing it, but the Knights of Favonius knew she was the imposter Day One and let her stay active for 6 months. If the issue was that she had to feel threatened to reveal the other imposters/brainwashed citizens, I don't see why they couldn't have attacked her way sooner than this. Like on Day Two.

Especially since the concern was "hey, people keep going to Dragonspine and getting eaten/replaced or brainwashed!" Like, we're going to... not address that for 6 months? Is that right?

I know this is bc HYV wanted to have a big "actually, we planned everything ;)" plot twist, but by making the Knights too in the know they accidentally made the whole thing pointless. If they hadn't known who the doppelganger was, I can see the trial being necessary to lure her out by making her overplay her hand; as is, I have no clue why they waited so long.

(Or why Albedo didn't go talk to the Hexenzirkel to fix the Durin problem sooner, if it really was just a case of needing the materials. Cut the issue off at the source? Whatever.)

Very often, I find that in trying to be clever, HYV often loses the plot and overlooks some big holes in their 'mysteries'. This drove me up the wall in the Fontaine trials.

Also, I hate that I always end up saying this - but this really felt like the easiest possible way to handle the "Albedo might destroy/be responsible for the destruction of Mondstadt" drama.

Everyone being in on the loop that "Durin" was trying to attack Mondstadt because of Albedo just meant they could skirt around any drama that might result from "oh shit, Mondstadt is under attack because of me" on Albedo's part and focus on the Durin element instead. They didn't even make use of the doppelgangers to stir up any real shit in the playable cast, and pushed it all on Hertha instead... which just boiled down to the real Hertha walking in and going "hey, that's not me".

I remember thinking around the time Hertha showed off her scars "hey, what if this had been a fake Kaeya instead, and the gotcha was 'what's beneath my eyepatch'?" (Reinforced by Diluc already noticing something was up with Kaeya's behaviour).

This game hates real interpersonal conflict that goes any further than being snippy, so I'm not surprised, but it does feel like they sidestepped any real drama that could've resulted from this.

Again.

Eula did not come across as having been in the loop the whole time. There's an issue with "and this was all a set-up ;)" plots... you do have to be careful what behaviours you give certain characters, because they won't believably have come across as being in the know if you make them TOO confused. Diluc aside, I just got the sense that HYV just kinda went "yeah Eula knew!" without altering any of her behaviours to have that make sense.

Since Diluc had no idea any of this was suspicious until apparently day 1 of the trials (because of Kaeya's acting), I'm still not sure why he saw a guy bury a dead body on his land and didn't go... I don't know, confront him about it? There are a lot of characters I would understand waiting and going to report it to the knights, but Diluc is not one of them. I know Diluc is on good terms with the Knights now, but he's a proactive guy that takes justice into his own hands. Seems kinda weird.

As expected, Dahlia didn't do much here. I was also disappointed by Varka's non-contribution to the drama. The Hexenzirkel are eternally frustrating characters. I don't understand being excited for them at all. Also, something about the ethics of creating sentient chess pieces with relationships for the purpose of the Traveler and Albedo killing them.

Also, Genshin's game design is... why would you design a boss that is supposed to be balanced around Cryo/Hydro characters, and then use that as a fight that LUMINE AND ALBEDO (GEO) are meant to be handling by themselves?! Especially since it results in Albedo being removed from the party in a quest that was very consistent in having you use the Mondstadt characters to fight??? Feels weird.

Also, the King moved more than one space at a time. illegal.

I do think the way the crisis in Mondstadt was handled was mechanically better than Natlan, but they have got to get better overworld enemies. Or increase their HP pool or something, I don't know.

as expected, this mostly felt like a way to segue into hexenzirkel lore. albedo coming to realise what gold's plans for him were were kinda... 'and i figured that all out off-screen :)', but that's very typical of this game.

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sheer mind-numbing bonkers insanity

i will never understand these writers

this is very stupid

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this is very stupid

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oh my god they give lawyers more time to investigate the crimes in ace attorney than they do in teyvat apparently, what do you mean kaeya needs us to start an investigation ALBEDO'S ALREADY BEEN PROSECUTED, JEAN YOU DID THAT! WHY ARE YOU ENCOURAGING A RETRIAL

like this isn't "the police keep barging into the trial with new evidence, the 'victim' was hiding in the same building" levels of Fontaine bullshittery, but it's in a similar vein of irritating trial structure. Reminds me of the issues they ran into with Neuvillette.

There are two wolves inside me. One is glad we don't have to play a Fontaine-style court case again. The other is floored at the level of cutscene they expect me to watch.