#and i wanted to take my time exploring inazuma‚ not rush it for the primos

[kyogre-blue]

For totally smart and legitimate reasons, I have started a second Genshin account. 

This one is on Asia server, also for totally legitimate reasons. The ping fluctuates between about 140 and 200, though this hasn’t affected the gameplay experience much so far. 

To keep it within manageable scope and the spice things up, I have come up with a premise: tall men only. Lumine has decided to live it up while the cat her brother is away and is gathering herself a harem. Being a woman in her centuries (millennia?), she has no interest in little boys, whether they’re really teenagers, baby faced, or fake jailbait that’s actually immortal. Thus: tall men only. 

(To keep things simple, I’m also using Lumine herself, which covers the gaps in elements, and any trial characters. Since they invite themselves along, might as well put them to work. If things get annoying enough, I will “invite” some local party members out for a day to help with exploration too, but this is for the future. One additional note is that I’m only going to use the men after meeting them in the story, though this isn’t a particularly notable restriction.) 

Anyway, jokes aside, it’s very interesting seeing early Genshin again. 

It feels... really different, more than I had expected. 

In terms of exploration, Mond has a lot of chests just tucked away in corners, without any puzzle or red-ring enemy killing requirement. There’s definitely more expectation that you’ll go poking around every inch of the map, without any particularly obvious indications where to look. Compared to that, the recent maps are much denser in things to do, but they’re also kind of dumbed down? Most chests are highlighted by something glowing, or a seelie will lead you around, or something. It makes exploration quicker, but it also kind of makes it feel more... artificial? 

The bigger difference though is in terms of story. Because Mond story is subtly but really noticeably different on basically every level. I heard that rumor about a bunch of the writing staff leaving before Inazuma and now I really do feel like there might be credence to it. 

It’s hard to explain the differences precisely because it’s more in terms of style and tone. The style is much more willing to poke fun at itself (especially where Venti is concerned) and much snappier in general. The characters chat among themselves a lot more too and have very noticeable dynamics in a way that’s lacking in Inazuma and Sumeru. Both the archon quest and the story quests are much more character-focused. 

I do want to say that my first playthrough impression wasn’t wrong though. The snappier pacing also means that the story can feel rushed or truncated at times. This is more forgivable in the prologue, and I would like to think they would have gotten better at it if they’re continued with the same style but... yeah. 

It’s going to be very interesting to do Liyue next (I’m just going to do Xiangling’s quest before heading over) because I think it was also a big change from Mond in its focus and style, but I don’t recall it particularly well anymore. I’ll have to pay attention to it. 

One additional side note is how different it feels to play when you more or less take out the gacha. Without a particular need to grind for primos, there’s no reason to rush exploration or catch up on story. Yeah, I’ll miss Itto’s event, but so what? Yeah, I’m leaving behind a bunch of chests, but eh. It’s much more relaxed and feels like a pretty different experience on the whole. 

[yume-fanfare]

warmup yoimiya doodle, my beloved

[mintjeru]

a xinyan sketch i did recently!! i’m not sure if i want to color it yet ^^

click for better quality // please don’t repost!!