Great video! Thank you for highlighting the issue of NPCs previously being treated as sole catalysts of important plot developments, it's something I've been a bit irked by— until Fontaine. Think I'm personally the most attached to this region because of how well the writers have incorporated the playable cast into our journey in comparison (especially Navia, who stayed by our side throughout our mystery novel-esque investigations and went through so much hardship).
I’m glad Genshin Impact changed their formula and decided to strengthen their writing while also making the story they tell within a meaningful one. Hopefully it stays this way until the end game
I loved this entire video! You nailed a lot of things I disliked and even explained a few things I will never be able to unsee and that’s awesome! Looking forward to the rest of Fontaine!
Perfectly articulated. I felt like I had to slog through other region story quests and I was so excited to play through Fontaine because of how much people seemed to enjoy it. I was absolutely blown away when I finally played through Fontaine, for these reasons exactly
Genshin Impact writes its Acts differently, the story is designed to have different story progression and design philosophy for characters based on each regions theme.
This is probably why Raiden's story quests are among the best, people cry about the first one being a date(despite there being 0 romantic subtext) but it's literally just Ei characterization and growth through all of it, even when NPCs get involved she is still the center of it, same with the second quest, NPCs were actually treated like NPCs, being there just to make Ei's resolve of changing her ideal stronger, and none of them were overbearing, at the end of her quests Ei is a different person than in the Archon Quest. However in terms of overall characters yeah Fontaine has a much more solid cast, although I think Ei herself is up there with Furina, Inazuma doesn't have the cast to compete with Fontaine, it has characters like Sara and Kokomi that just bring the overall score of the region down unfortunately.
The issues stem from majority of the playable characters are already developed before we meet them. They already went through their hero journey, self discovery or redemption. It's in the character stories of their profile(if you have them). Genshin writers are too afraid to take risks and show us their development on screen and instead play it safe by only telling us in their profile(if you have them). It really undermined the visual aspect of its storytelling.
I agree 100% I couldn't quite explain myself what made me like Fontaine so much over any other region, but you put it into words perfectly, i really hope they keep this up going forward!
I think it also helps with the way that Fontaine is designed to have spectators with the whole trials are like operas. It allows then many of the NPC's to be people reacting to events of the playable characters rather than the ones having the changes themselves.
You've perfectly articulated my thoughts on this matter. Seeing our playable characters change, evolve and stirr the story forward is so much more engaging than interacting with a pre-packaged product that only provides a flashback sequence (if we're lucky enough) to illicit our sympathy. I love NPCs and their stories as they add so much depth and dimension to the world, they also make it clear that however flashy and special our playables are, they're not exactly the center of the world and that equally enthralling stories unfold everywhere if you're observant and curious enough. NPCs shouldn't take the spotlight in the main storyline though, and as somebody somewhare bellow said, something called "world quest" was perfectly tailored for them.
After playing for two years and reaching ar60 reading literally every single line of text in the game (commissions included) I'm at the point where if an npc is talking, I roll my eyes so far back into my skull I can see my brain and spam the skip button as fast as Sonic the hedgehog on crack cocaine. Because I know with 100% certainty that not a single freaking word they yap will be useful or interesting in the slightest. The writing team in this game is atrocious (minus archon quest, interlude and some world quests/characters stories). And they talk so freaking much my God. To say exactly nothing. Every survey they do, I send a "everybody talks waaaay too much" as a suggestion. I don't know if it's a problem with the chinese language becoming longer when translated in English or what, but my God they all need to shut the freak up 90% of the time or at least get to the freaking point already.
gonna have to disagree on sumeru development being: scara and cyno it is scara and nahida a nation story can be though of as 2 parts: main, and post tension resolution scara does not change in the main, he is still the same as he was in inazuma, his development comes after the major tension resolution (for sumeru, the boss fight and deal with doctore and the gnosis) in the main; nahida goes from being the passive person, a mere observer locked in cage with access to the digital library of sumeru; to being an active leader full of confidence; like human-furina nahida has only existed for 500~ yrs, unlike furina nahida has archon divinity yet was reduced to being treated like a tool and the mental trauma associated with that; the reason why nahida seems stronger (less apparant growth from casual observer) is that she has spent 500yrs digesting all the 'digital' knowledge of sumeru, and in the post sumeru tension able to leverage that knowledge to compensate for other areas of weakness. compared to the bird trapped in a cage at the start of sumeru main, afterwards she has grown such that as a leader she surpassed the present state of the prior 3 archons we meet. as such it is easy to casually overlook her growth
I really don't understand the thought process of not putting spotlight on playable characters and with how lengthy they make dialogue, there is definitely room to make good use of all that talking in order to develop their playable characters. It is insane to me how long it took for this company to perfect something so obvious. Show off the pretty character to make people pull for them. That is what they should have done from the start!
NPC is "Non-Player Character" as opposed to the "Player Character", i.e. Navia is an NPC in all quests she's in.
Otherwise I feel like you're talking about nothing, you don't give direct examples and you've been talking about very subjective things. Hard to relate.
What is quite certain is that Fontaine quests are much worse, what with being reduced to exposition dumps where you need to suffer Navia crying about her parents for a couple hours straight. I feel like people who like Fontaine are the same old people who whine about the desert.
Also, Chevreuse development IS locked behind an event, clearly Mihoyo is not avoiding this.
That's why, i truly think that Navia>>>Kazuha. Even in the theme of grief, Navia is so much better, also Neuvilette with Carol. Also, Dunyanzard>>> Teppei, one of the worst mistakes of Inazuma.
i have heard fontaine was written by the honkai impact 3rd story writer, which is why it was so good. future permament story content might be just as good or even better.
I do agree that this NPC centrism is a big problem and I love the changes in Fontaine, but in the case of Sumeru story quest I understand why Dunyazard being so important narratively made sense for that story. A big portion of the conflict in Sumeru is the relationship between Nahida and her people, so it is important to see her being important to someone as ordinary as Dunyazard
I remember one of the most disappointing things ive ever seen in genshin was during the sumeru archon quest and you run around as the kid dressed up as nahida. it was appalling. I just can't understand how that was put into the game.
tip: normalize your video's sound every time you get excited or start a sentence the speakers blow up, during the night i either don't hear you then do or i hear you then everyone in the neighborhood too
I haven't played the other Fontaine story quests, but I feel like Furina's story quest is also somewhat NPC-centric. Though to be fair we basically got her entire story quest in Masquarade of the Guilty.
I remember really liking Raiden's Act 2 because we actually explored her backstory, even though I don't care much for her.
Worst offenders gotta be Nilou and Ayato. I love Nilou but her story quest was like 95% NPC Impact, and Ayato's even worse.
Then there's also the story quests that technically are based on the character, but the plot goes nowhere so it's just as bad. E.g.: Ganyu.
Hard to happen but i hope they change the early region too Having to go through dozen and zoden of hours to get to the good part could hardly keep your attention
Yes I did it. I didn't take 20+ days to get a video out this time!
act 3 and 4 fontaine have an npc problem, less so act 4.
act 3 couldve focused more on the fatui gang, more so fremmy.
I'd argue sumeru doesnt have the issue much either, tho story quests are a different case but i think most of them are good except cyno
Ngl though, they did an excellent job making me fall in love with Dunyarzad. I want to main her now and she’s not even playable 😢
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Great video! Thank you for highlighting the issue of NPCs previously being treated as sole catalysts of important plot developments, it's something I've been a bit irked by— until Fontaine. Think I'm personally the most attached to this region because of how well the writers have incorporated the playable cast into our journey in comparison (especially Navia, who stayed by our side throughout our mystery novel-esque investigations and went through so much hardship).
(={ D)
I’m glad Genshin Impact changed their formula and decided to strengthen their writing while also making the story they tell within a meaningful one. Hopefully it stays this way until the end game
Next fix the pacing AND MAKE PAIMON STFU
yeah fontane is good atleast better than other nations even though genshin itself is not good for players.
I loved this entire video! You nailed a lot of things I disliked and even explained a few things I will never be able to unsee and that’s awesome! Looking forward to the rest of Fontaine!
Perfectly articulated. I felt like I had to slog through other region story quests and I was so excited to play through Fontaine because of how much people seemed to enjoy it. I was absolutely blown away when I finally played through Fontaine, for these reasons exactly
Genshin Impact writes its Acts differently, the story is designed to have different story progression and design philosophy for characters based on each regions theme.
This is probably why Raiden's story quests are among the best, people cry about the first one being a date(despite there being 0 romantic subtext) but it's literally just Ei characterization and growth through all of it, even when NPCs get involved she is still the center of it, same with the second quest, NPCs were actually treated like NPCs, being there just to make Ei's resolve of changing her ideal stronger, and none of them were overbearing, at the end of her quests Ei is a different person than in the Archon Quest. However in terms of overall characters yeah Fontaine has a much more solid cast, although I think Ei herself is up there with Furina, Inazuma doesn't have the cast to compete with Fontaine, it has characters like Sara and Kokomi that just bring the overall score of the region down unfortunately.
Another thing is they are better integrating role play into to the story than reading walls of text.
The issues stem from majority of the playable characters are already developed before we meet them. They already went through their hero journey, self discovery or redemption. It's in the character stories of their profile(if you have them). Genshin writers are too afraid to take risks and show us their development on screen and instead play it safe by only telling us in their profile(if you have them). It really undermined the visual aspect of its storytelling.
Well said.
I would add that NPC exploration already has a place in Genshin.
That place is called "World quests"
I agree 100% I couldn't quite explain myself what made me like Fontaine so much over any other region, but you put it into words perfectly, i really hope they keep this up going forward!
As a new player, I hate that I have to miss out on so many intimate moments with these characters who's events are long past
Top 4 strongest characters of Fontaine
1.Neuvillete
2.Wrio
3.Lyney
4.Navia
I think it also helps with the way that Fontaine is designed to have spectators with the whole trials are like operas. It allows then many of the NPC's to be people reacting to events of the playable characters rather than the ones having the changes themselves.
You've perfectly articulated my thoughts on this matter. Seeing our playable characters change, evolve and stirr the story forward is so much more engaging than interacting with a pre-packaged product that only provides a flashback sequence (if we're lucky enough) to illicit our sympathy. I love NPCs and their stories as they add so much depth and dimension to the world, they also make it clear that however flashy and special our playables are, they're not exactly the center of the world and that equally enthralling stories unfold everywhere if you're observant and curious enough. NPCs shouldn't take the spotlight in the main storyline though, and as somebody somewhare bellow said, something called "world quest" was perfectly tailored for them.
After playing for two years and reaching ar60 reading literally every single line of text in the game (commissions included) I'm at the point where if an npc is talking, I roll my eyes so far back into my skull I can see my brain and spam the skip button as fast as Sonic the hedgehog on crack cocaine. Because I know with 100% certainty that not a single freaking word they yap will be useful or interesting in the slightest. The writing team in this game is atrocious (minus archon quest, interlude and some world quests/characters stories).
And they talk so freaking much my God. To say exactly nothing. Every survey they do, I send a "everybody talks waaaay too much" as a suggestion.
I don't know if it's a problem with the chinese language becoming longer when translated in English or what, but my God they all need to shut the freak up 90% of the time or at least get to the freaking point already.
gonna have to disagree on sumeru development being: scara and cyno
it is scara and nahida
a nation story can be though of as 2 parts: main, and post tension resolution
scara does not change in the main, he is still the same as he was in inazuma, his development comes after the major tension resolution (for sumeru, the boss fight and deal with doctore and the gnosis)
in the main; nahida goes from being the passive person, a mere observer locked in cage with access to the digital library of sumeru; to being an active leader full of confidence;
like human-furina nahida has only existed for 500~ yrs, unlike furina nahida has archon divinity yet was reduced to being treated like a tool and the mental trauma associated with that; the reason why nahida seems stronger (less apparant growth from casual observer) is that she has spent 500yrs digesting all the 'digital' knowledge of sumeru, and in the post sumeru tension able to leverage that knowledge to compensate for other areas of weakness. compared to the bird trapped in a cage at the start of sumeru main, afterwards she has grown such that as a leader she surpassed the present state of the prior 3 archons we meet. as such it is easy to casually overlook her growth
I really don't understand the thought process of not putting spotlight on playable characters and with how lengthy they make dialogue, there is definitely room to make good use of all that talking in order to develop their playable characters. It is insane to me how long it took for this company to perfect something so obvious. Show off the pretty character to make people pull for them. That is what they should have done from the start!
NPC is "Non-Player Character" as opposed to the "Player Character", i.e. Navia is an NPC in all quests she's in.
Otherwise I feel like you're talking about nothing, you don't give direct examples and you've been talking about very subjective things. Hard to relate.
What is quite certain is that Fontaine quests are much worse, what with being reduced to exposition dumps where you need to suffer Navia crying about her parents for a couple hours straight. I feel like people who like Fontaine are the same old people who whine about the desert.
Also, Chevreuse development IS locked behind an event, clearly Mihoyo is not avoiding this.
The hype for Kazuha SQ… And then…. Urgh.
That's why, i truly think that Navia>>>Kazuha.
Even in the theme of grief, Navia is so much better, also Neuvilette with Carol.
Also, Dunyanzard>>> Teppei, one of the worst mistakes of Inazuma.
i have heard fontaine was written by the honkai impact 3rd story writer, which is why it was so good. future permament story content might be just as good or even better.
I do agree that this NPC centrism is a big problem and I love the changes in Fontaine, but in the case of Sumeru story quest I understand why Dunyazard being so important narratively made sense for that story. A big portion of the conflict in Sumeru is the relationship between Nahida and her people, so it is important to see her being important to someone as ordinary as Dunyazard
Fontaine is the first area where I want the majority of the characters
I remember one of the most disappointing things ive ever seen in genshin was during the sumeru archon quest and you run around as the kid dressed up as nahida. it was appalling. I just can't understand how that was put into the game.
tip: normalize your video's sound
every time you get excited or start a sentence the speakers blow up, during the night i either don't hear you then do or i hear you then everyone in the neighborhood too
I was previously divided on wich was the best Archon Quest: Sumeru's or Fontaine's. This video made me realize it's actually Fontaine's.
I haven't played the other Fontaine story quests, but I feel like Furina's story quest is also somewhat NPC-centric.
Though to be fair we basically got her entire story quest in Masquarade of the Guilty.
I remember really liking Raiden's Act 2 because we actually explored her backstory, even though I don't care much for her.
Worst offenders gotta be Nilou and Ayato. I love Nilou but her story quest was like 95% NPC Impact, and Ayato's even worse.
Then there's also the story quests that technically are based on the character, but the plot goes nowhere so it's just as bad. E.g.: Ganyu.
Hard to happen but i hope they change the early region too
Having to go through dozen and zoden of hours to get to the good part could hardly keep your attention
Navia C6 main. My first paid C6 since 1.1 when I joined.
Nuff said.
Shout out to Melus and Silver for being the best npc's