For today I wanted to have a discussion on character design in Genshin Impact. Having talked about a lot of its characters I figured it would be good to have a dedicated video on what makes a well designed character.
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#Genshin #Character #Design
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Well, first of all, their design needs to resemble a well
I actually want to play Aloy but her cds and the difficulty to proc rushing ice makes it so difficult. I can put c2 Chongyun and Shenhe with her to make sure she's usable but then that limits her team comps so much.
I believe Yanfei is designed perfectly to what she is supposed to be, a pyro charged attack unit. Her normal attacks boosts her charge attack damage through her seals, her skill boosts her charged attack damage through seals, and her burst also buffs her charged attack through seals while also giving them a flat attack boost for when you cast her seals. Her passive talents also further builds on her charged attack damage, and her constellations help negate all the issues Yanfei has for being a charged attack unit, her c1 and and c6 reduces her weak point being stamina, her c2 increases her overall damage with her charged attack and her c4 helps her get rid of the issue of her being vulnerable while she charge attacks. Her entire kit is tailored for one specific thing which is why it's so intuitive to use her as she only has to work on one thing, damage
I dont care about personality or HAHA DMG GO OOGA BOOGA i just go with my gut if im being honest i say that i prefer both but look at ayaka shes dmg is really good her gameplay is fun and her personality is actually… Kinda cute and her lore is decent but do i like her/want to wish for her? NO i wanted a rolling child so i could get some out of bounds pics and thats it but if i were to pick one and one of the options you gave and one only? personality IM A LORE NERD HAHA-
To be honest, I like it when characters are fun to play even if they're underpowered or weak.
Diluc might be "consistent" or whatever, but he is so damned boring to play. Sayu has an even simpler kit yet rolling around is fun and never really gets old. Stacking bursts that circle you (Xangling, Kaeya, etc) and just rolling around is cool.
For the question at the end; for me personally I decide if I should pull for a character or not depening on personality. I adore Venti, I loved him ever since I met him in the archon quest yet I skipped him since he's not that fun to play for me. How it feels to play a character is highest priority for me
I agree Sucrose is a well-designed character. And she can buff more than 1 element at a time. Look at Sukokomon, she can buff the 3 elements thanks to the Guoba interaction. Even at C6, her ult might not be worth because she steals some reactions. And about Sucrose not being always the best choice, that is true. But man, when she is the best choice, she literally is the best choice. Many theorycrafters consider her as strong as Kazuha, better in some teams, worse in others. The only thing keeping her aside is the fact that her EM buff is pretty much useless in freeze comps, so Kazuha is more versatile, but Sucrose is incredible. Incredibly underrated.
Personality solely, idc about game play at all
I like both Performance and Personality, if a character does huge damage but hard to work on then I'll say goodbye, I want best of both worlds, like Raiden/Eula, just do unga-bunga and you'll see big PP.
I think Jean and Kokomi are probably the best ones for me.
Both are incredibly versitile and are good or decent at all of them which makes them good to use but also allow other characters to shine. On top of that, they add variety. Jean can heal, crowd control and shred elemental resistance but she plays a completely different role with Sayu who's more focused on spreading elements and traveling. Kokomi can buff, heal and become a sub-dps but Mona can buff a lot more and have more sufficient energy.
For me, a good design isn't OP Bennett or Ayaka because it dumbs down the game by a lot. Even tho Genshin is an easy game, intuition is needed to be entertaining and engaging. You also need variety so characters like Bennett being so good shares no spotlights to others. I think you said to perfectly in the outro. You can't be so condridicting like Xinyan but you also can't be brain dead like Bennett.
Adding to the Yanfei crowd because I still use her as my Pyro DPS despite having Hu Tao. I really love how her playstyle feels in my hands, her range is good against Spectres and her kit have a clear focus. Combine with being easy to build (don't have 4P Crimson Witch because it's a pain to farm? 4P Wanderer's is just as solid) for, she's a good pick.
I was just discussing with a friend right before this video how id buff some characters in genshin and not big buffs but changes the make their kits better. Amber was a big one for me because I'm currently using her as a main staple of my team and have been for a like 2 weeks. I'd want to make her C2 naturally a part of her kit and make it so any changed atk not just a foot shot makes the BB explode. Second id move her C4 to be C2 and replace her c4. Not sure with what maybe a faint style skill like if she dies she drops a BB but im actually not sure it was just an idea. Id also maybe buff her 2nd combat passive but idk it just feels weak. A lot of characters could use minor tweaks to feel even just slightly better.
Also fun characters all the way I love team crafting and making niche builds. Healer Xingqui is the best thing I've ever done. At any point I can use Eula Raiden or Ganyu but I tend to use random stuff instead. Dmg Yunjin I've been trying to get people on board. Trust me her scaling on her skill is crazy just try it in a geo team and her dmg is insane
Performance is most important because we are paying a price for these units
Also the older characters wouldn’t fall off if hoyoverse would make more abyss bare minimum 30 floors and make teams of 3 or 4 of 4 so we have to use all our chars not just the top of the meta
I feel like I can't just ignore that this is a gacha game, which mean that a character who is too specialized is a design flaw. What I mean by that is that if a character only really work with a very limited selection of character, worst of all if they are 5*; then for many people that character will feel.. bad/useless. If it's a 5* you won't want to pull him/her if you don't have the few character who make it works, and if it's a 4* then you will hate when that character appear on a banner you intend to pull on.
Don’t know if it was intentional but I applaud the char names pronunciation
What makes good Genshin characters? Part of it includes borrowing designs from Honkai and altering them a bit.
Diluc – Himeko
Venti – Wendy
Ei – Mei
Signora – Cocolia
Yae Miko – Yae Sakura
Literally reusing Kiana
The most important to me is that the caracters are fun to play and able to clear the content whenever it is, now or at the Kaneri'ah region. I'll take DBZ Dokkan Battle as an exemple. It may look like a candy crush Dragon Ball game but it has a important team building part and a lot of people complained in the middle age of the game that it became too easy and asked for more and more difficult content "like it was at first". But where the game is now, i'm starting to enjoy the game less and less because i cannot play my favorite cards with the beautifull special attack animation because they are not good enough to clear the content. Or it oblige me to use cards i do not like, cause of the playstyle or the caracter himself, for the sake of completing missions and thus, having the rewards.
I don't want that to happen to Genshin Impact, there a lot of caracter that i like, i don't have a lot of them, but when i will, i don't want to build them just to see their not fun to play anymore because they're not adapted to the game difficulty. Especially when the caracter building system is SO annoying and demand SO MUCH RESSOURCES.
The Archon being "broken" and then way more future proof is a good thing to me because it is lore according and means that the caracter i like the most wont be built just to end in a closet in 1 or 2 year. I'm a little bit triggered that Kazuha is stronger than Venti in a lot of way but that's because i'm a madman.
Powercreep aside, I think Razor is incredibly well designed. He is reliant on his Burst state for maximum DPS, and his kit is largely designed around fueling his high energy cost via Sigils. If you utilize the mechanic well, his Burst will always be available off CD.
He also doesn't suffer crushing DPS loss if for some reason his Burst ISN'T up, unlike characters like Xiao or Raiden.
performance!!
As OP as Kazuha is, I do think he is the best designed character in Genshin and even if he was nerfed to hell, my stance on this would not change
– has a clear role on CC and elemental buff
– is arguably the most fun character to use in the game
– great aesthetics and personality
Other great contenders for best designed characters imo are
Childe
Zhongli
Raiden
Beidou
I agree with Diluc part, he is my main (with Ayaka) and he is doing great dmg with out much investment. Even with out VV set and Bennett buff, with Xingqiu or Rosaria's Q he is doing 20-50k per hit when you have his pyro infusion. The only thing I really would change and is the only reason why I don't use him at 12th floor of abyss is his ATK speed. One of his passive has charged atk stamina decrease which is so useless for claymore characters because they lose a lot of dmg there. Idk what they were thinking but if that passive would change to increasing his NA ATK speed after u use his Q it would be perfect. Also to fix his Q aiming to lock on enemies instead of missing them..
I like that you showed octopath traveler as an example of good use of character role and abilities within team designing
Apologies, but Im going to have be a bit critical to this video.
I like your videos generally mostly because they are clear and well structured and offer good information. Like for WNOP, there is almost always a clear conclusion to it. This video in my opinion missed the mark a bit. Like I understood and agree Diluc and Venti are great designs but I would also have wanted to see/hear a bit more in depth arguement on why certain under/over powered characters are bad. I understand I'm neither critic nor content creator but I myself say this video lacked some clarity.
Still looking forward to your next video 😊
"genshin doesnt have pvp and it likely never will"
genshin e-sports about to start happening soon
Albedo I think is pretty well designed
If there are weapons or characters in a video game at the same level, but one of them is just worse in every way than the other, it shouldn't be acceptable even if its just a single player game. If there are 3 playable characters lets say, in a platformer game, but one out of the three is just not as good as the other two no matter how we look at it, it shouldn't be put inside the game that way in the first place. Scenarios like this are completely avoidable if the developers think about it enough. This is like useless items inside a game, if they have no use, then why would you put it inside the game in the first place? If I wanted to play that character who is worse in every way, I will always be thinking about why is the character not as good as the other ones, there are people who would say to this "if you don't like it, then just don't use it", but I think this sentence is just an excuse that solidifies incompetent game design
Imo in this game single characters don't matter. Only team composition matters. Basically, every character can be useful one way or another, but not 100% of possible teams can be good in the hardest challenges in the game.
can you make me a research paper?
Itto in my opinion has a very good design , he is fun to play, very easy so build since defense is a really common stat in artifacts, yes he doesn't add anything but dmg to his team and is pretty much dependent on mono-geo teams to function at max potential but it is fun not having to worry about reactions , also him as a character is really funny and likeable
One question, did hoyoverse fixed Raiden and Beidou's burst problem or why is Vars using both at the same time??
It is good the references of other games were shorter, for a while watching ur video now feels i have to Endure the silly references from pokemon, animes, tv series/movies, real-life combat styles, kamasutra, mantras, sports (some a real now and some of this examples im starting to believe will be in ur channel soon), and more boring siht.
This is really an endurance to try to enjoy the videos when i have to be very attentive to jump X amount of minutes of the video the instant you're getting far off topic… (that wasnt the case before but u shifted HARD with the reference siht)
even if u are trying ur best to justify why they matter or relate somehow, now it is just annoying, doing it in a couple of videos when it is REALLY neccesary that would be understandable…
but it look like u are sitting and thinking how to fukcUp the viewers the most possible with BS information not related to genshin as possible…
i still have nightmares with the naruto reference in Physical dps video u uploaded, it was so long i ended closing the video and feel burned out and now i have to go to therapy, thanks 😀
For me Personality > strength
thats why i cannot agree with the words "Diluc" and "well designed" being in the same sentence without the "not" word…
He is boring, his ult makes no sense and he was weaker than 2-3 4* units at release (benet and xiangling and arguably xinqu).
I actually never enjoyed playing him, i thought that if i invested enough into him i would see why he is fun… but no… he just stayed the same… boring and uninteresting…
Similar thing goes for venti, either he is broken to the point where he feels like cheating or he does nothing… and ganyu is more of the same + she is BOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRIIING
i think sucrose, rosaria, beidou, ning, albedo, jean and, strangely enough, qiqi are the best designed characters to date and i would add razor if he did more damage and yae if she wasnt as clunky and didnt need C1 to function as a character
I agree with your takes on the video, specially on Bennet been too overpowered, hence why I nerfed myself by unlocking his C6
Great explanations. I really enjoy your content.
Personality – as in fun to play AND great character. The greatest dealbreaker for me is if the unit just isn't fun to play imo. Which is why I don't have many of the currently strongest units in the game. For example Ayaka. I don't like her design, her personality and to me she just isn't fun to play, thanks to her sprint…
cool video!
Great video, just a minor thing I do want to touch upon about your Venti comments and some other things. He is a well-designed unit and I think the fact he's slowly shifted from a broken must-have unit to a more niche pick is great but his kit does have awkward parts to it that don't entirely make his kit as smooth as it could. One in particular is that his burst has a tendency to miss if not used properly, causing it to fail an infusion. The other is its pull mechanic, which brings units up into the air and limits quite a large amount of characters from being able to deal damage to reach it. This is a similar issue with Sucrose actually who often suffers from this problem even more, with the auto targetting on her burst being very clunky and missing the infusion at times, or infusing the wrong element. The pull into the air each time is also why Sucrose's burst is usually a DPS drop for many team comps and thus why her C6 is not very practical and why it's frequently recommended to not use her burst at all. She's a great unit, but when half of your kit is not recommended to use, I don't really think that equates to being a well-designed character. She's one of the best anemo supports especially for damage regardless but not what I would use as an example of a very well-designed character. Also sidenote, Sucrose is able to double swirl thanks to her anemo autos and skill, so she can boost multiple elements at once. I think instead someone like Beidou could be a great example of a strong and well-designed 4* unit that has her own strong niche especially into electro-charge team comps. She's got a fun parry skill that is very unique but requires some skill to learn and use and despite her autos being a bit clunky(which is something kind of shared by a lot of claymore units), she plays as a sub dps off field damage support so doesn't have to worry about that.
Personality
So we literally cannot watch your vids at 2160p. The buffering is just too harsh.
personality matters the most to me!! doing big numbers doesn't make my day better, but looking at keqings burst and hearing noelles voice lines sure do
Diluc is a really well designed character – 40 burst cost, Q passive stays even after leaving the field. Hu Tao got ahead of him since her HP scaling is high and has access to crit based weapons (Deathmatch and Homa) while Diluc is stuck with WGS (and Serpent Spine maybe). If a new crit based claymore comes out that he could make use, he can easily rise up in popularity again. Actually, the passive of Yae's weapon would work really well with him. I wish a claymore version of it would come out for him haha
I definitely won't play a character just because they're powerful if I don't like their personality/playstyle at all. But when it comes to characters I do like, I think it depends. If there are two characters who I like equally, but one of them is more powerful the power probably edges out? But if I absolutely adore a character I don't care if they're weak I'll make it work.
Absolutely agree that Sucrose is the best designed 4-Star in the game. She can serve as a poor man's anemo unit to replace Venti or Kazuha when you need a character to crowd-control and debuff, but she also has her own unique niche in being the best unit to deal damage via swirl/reactions. And her entire kit is geared towards that specific playstyle. Her kit pretty much screams "stack EM on me and let me loose".
Guess only F2p players knows how valuable well built Noelle is.
Noelle hits all the check marks what the hell??? Noelle is underrated. Ughhh You mentioned Amber, Xinyan and no Noelle. Ughhh
The ONLY downside of Noelle is energy.
Efficiency is most important to me, then its personality. I hate Bennett so much its not even funny but I use him because he's really useful, on the other hand, I love Yanfei and use her even though she isn't the most powerful character
xinyan been carrying me to ar58 y'all just aint dedicated on god for real #hatethemeta
Diluc is being…praised?
Commended even?
-feels good to be a Diluc main after all…even though I got him late 🤦🏾♂️