I'm actually happy I got to explore the desert before the underground map was added, even though I do think it's better overall to have it in the game. I enjoyed having to memorize map layouts. That's actual exploration.
I'd enjoy Sumeru if every little cave didn't require completing a quest first. It's like the difference between exploring some place yourself vs with a senile guide who keeps yapping off-topic.
@@lihavalokki5705 i wish it was more confusing and maze-like honestly. it was still good but i think the open caves in between kinda messed it up imo. maybe for the best considering genshin fans lol
While underwater exploration can be boring, for me it was heavily carried by the stunning visuals, especially in Remuria. And by the time we got there it feels like devs realised that underwater combat is very repetitive, so they added underwater caves where you fight on foot, and non-fight challenges, which helps mixing things up
@@pyronado4320 I think there's definitely some personality to Remuria. Swimming around and strumming on the strings you pass through was a delightful detail for me, as were some of the little scenes with the singing octopuses. Like most sub-areas it's a one-and-done, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Genshin doesn't incentivize revisiting explored areas in general, besides collecting upgrade mats, so it's how all of them end up. I loved Enka a whole lot, but I visit it around twice a year because there's basically nothing to do. Combat-wise underwater areas are still not it, if you discount the parts you get to walk on foot in like OP mentioned, but I really don't know how they would make ground-based skill design and the lowered mobility while swimming entertaining.
Zajef doesn't actually understand exploration. That's why when trying to explain why underwater exploration is bad, he immediately defaults back to talking about combat. Which is fine, as Genshin has a lot of different things that appeal to different people, the elemental reaction combat system being one of them. But exploration is not about combat, or puzzle mechanics, or lore, or whatever. It's about basking in the visuals, of building a map in your mind, of seeing what's around the next corner. One of the coolest moments of Sumeru desert was when one of the huge underground mazes suddenly connected to a separate underground maze, and you're like OHHH I recognize it!
No exploration is all of these combined it's not just about visuals, if one of them is lacking the others wont feel as good You might like exploring for the visuals others like it for interacting with the environment (combat, puzzles and collecting stuff) Underwater while having pretty scenery the interaction is boring that it's hard to sit there and explore the area for a long period of time (which is ofc an opinion you don't have to agree)
the thing is, underwater visuals except remuria aren't great either because everything looks the exact fucking same. i remember when sumeru was first released and then recognizing the areas people took screenshots of on twitter, but underwater fontaine? i have absolutely no clue.
The thing I like about Emilie's concept art "the lavander girl" is one of the few flowy dresses that don't have cut sleeves. Nevertheless, Concept art is still a concept art.
To be fair I've seen a number of players who wants characters not because of meta. I want to C6 Kaveh because he's one of my favorite characters in-game, and it sucks how it feels like he'll never get a rerun ever again.
I’m sorry Zajef but I will have to disagree with you on Fontaine’s underwater exploration. You can’t solely define exploration by JUST combat, it’s about bringing a lively atmosphere and feel to the area you’re in and actually makes you feel immersed. Fontaine does just that and I think it does it very beautifully with its scenery and landscapes.
Well, you have to consider than he mainly plays Genshin for the combat. He's the type of guy who doesn't care about the atmosphere or the immersion, at least in Genshin. I consider myself as the complete opposite of him but I don't mind this take at all. If he finds exploration boring then that's okay since I love the exploration of Genshin. Even the underwater and desert areas.
Nah, i love Fontaine, but i do agree that you get used to underwater exploration pretty fast and it's not that interesting now. And yes Fontaine was easy but honestly the last time i felt like exploration was difficult was in 2.0. And "the exploration is repetitive" you can literally say this about every nation. I don't think Fontaine was perfect, but i still like it and also it's funny how every time at the end of the region people say it was bad and the previous one wasn't that bad. When Natlan will be in 5.7 i'm sure people will say Fontaine was great and Natlan is bad
6:24 Zajef and I are definitely different types of gamers for sure 😆for me, when I come home from work, the LAST thing I want to worry about is gameplay that's challenging or takes too much brain power. I want to be able to relax and enjoy the sights, and "oh cute an otter!" but some people do find challenging content to be relaxing I guess.. maybe it depends on what you've been doing before logging in, maybe a content creator would want more challenging content as that's pretty much the bulk of what they do a day
Exactly. Although content creators are great advertisement for the game & generate community & engagement, I think they’re not the target audience. They don’t play to relax or entertain themselves, they play because they have to entertain an audience for 3-8hrs a day or else they don’t get paid. That’s gonna lead to a very different experience & different needs
I completely disagree. I have a pretty stressful job and I like to go home and play videogames, but when I play them I need them to be satisfying. I feel like going through the water sections are not engaging at all
@@beastgamer2208 depends on the game tbh. If the game itself isn't inherently competitive, then winning isn't something that people will focus on. Video games are one of many forms of leisure activity, some are more relaxing while others are designed to be challenging. Genshin can be either depending on the type of content people engage with.
kinda agree. real life is already stressful and not that colorful and genshin is a nice escape from that. i used to enjoy hard or challenging games a lot but as i get older, i prefer more chill, laid-back games.
0:14 YEP as someone who wants to collect every 4-star (not to use them but to have a sense of accomplishment), with kaveh being the only character that i don't have and it's been a year since his release, i really want him and i am angry that the one character that i don't have has became the meme of the character that hoyo forget and is never returning
It took me over a year to get Gorou, Candace, and Kaveh. I still don't have Kirara. My 4 star collection has basically been incomplete since December 2021, which is just depressing lmao.
Am I the only person who enjoyed Sumeru desert lol I agree with Zaj's take on underwater exploration, it would have been fine for the first expansion in Fontaine, but they never really tried to innovate or change anything after 4.0, even the new area in 4.6 was so ass and repetitive
Deshret Mausoleum raiding through the tunnels without a map was unironically what got me going. I just wished we had a sand board to speed up top-half desert exploration. It's also super spread out.
Underwater in Fontaine was cool and all but besides the quest and skipping on dailies I had barely any motivation to explore the new region since it felt like more of the same and would have preferred if their was more of a 50/50 split btw land and sea
no you're not, i also enjoyed it, i think it's really sick, i enjoy how big it is, it feels like at every corner there's something hidden or interesting to find, it's very well designed and i like it, i even 100% the map before we had underground maps ingame lol
The Emilie design discourse might be the most confusing circlejerk I've seen in a while. Literally just a pretty typical decent Genshin design, people really are just making stuff up like "the top and bottom don't match" or whatever just to complain about something lmao
@@BigBoiM87 Exactly. That's why early design leaks are so dangerous. People get accustomed to the design and when the real thing is released it's just disappointment
@@alexprus7953 The "sad flower girl" everyone is talking about is mid asf, way worse than what we have now. Though I really like the emo witch looking one, hopefully at least one Hexenzirkel witch looks similar.
RIGHT? Like, I literally didn't think much of her design apart from her looking cute. Then the replies people had were just over -the-top. The fact that so many people agreed/liked their comments also confused me so much. Is it actually THAT bad??? Are my tastes actually terrible now? I don't even know anymore man, the vocal part of the community is starting to annoy me a lot.
As a german, I had to read the perfume in highschool. Its not an obligatory novel to read in the german highschool, actually rarely discussed in school nowadays, but our teacher chose it cuz, despite the weird and disturbing plot and main character, it is objectively very well written, being one of the best selling german novels of the last decade, and the author had a lot of skill describing the different unique scents throughout the plot just through text.
I passed on Yoimiya so many times before finally pulling for her, and got Itto in tandem with Chiori. Insert that Gruncle Stan meme of "finally having them all" here. Shame I'd already done the bulk of my crafting ahead of even Kaveh's debut.
@@TJF588 yeah, I have Yoimiya and she's a big help. Not much luck with the rest. For the crafting, well, it's never actually done, because I always want to build something stupid :D
I loved sumeru exploration, it really felt like an adventure, the world quests made us go through crazy places. The constant sumeru bashing from people on social media for a year saddens me cuz i know people are happy with a fontaine exploration that feels like mondstat 2.0 wich is literrally the tutorial nation. I personally got bored when exploring fontaine because it felt too easy and unrewarding a lot of the time, and the underwater combat is objectively bad.
Sumeru desert is peak Genshin. I doN't liked the forest thet much though, for me is: Sumeru Desert > Dragonspine > Inazuma (Especially the Thunder Bird part) > all other.
Well everyone has their own opinion. I hated the desert because it was too big and we didn't have underground map. And Fontaine is beautiful and comfy. The underwater combat is meh but in the open world in over regions you don't even need to use all of your skills to fight with mobs because it's so easy, so i don't even care about lack of combat in Fontaine
It was easily the best region so far. The expansive underground hiding tons of mysteries and beautiful places was amazing. And especially without map - it actually felt immersive. You had to recognize little landmarks, navigate the confusing caves, get lost before getting comfortable with the places, it felt incredibly immersive. Making use of the given items to find certain places, making pins with notes on the found stuff - that was the best exploration experience. To this day, I remember most Sumeru caves. I have already forgotten most Fontaine ones, due to how streamlined they felt. Due to the map, you never experienced the feeling of being lost, you didn't have to pay attention to surroundings to find the way, you just went through them. I haven't done the new Fontaine region yet, it looks promising, but I doubt it will match the experience of original Sumeru.
@@whydoineedname4932that’s never happening I still don’t have ga ming cause I thought my 80+ pulls would get me him so I choose xinqui for the litter selector 😭😭
Sumeru desert was for me on the other hand the most fun exploration I have ever had in genshin but in termd of where there is the BEST exploration, I don't think any tops the love and care put on chenyu vale, so many little details and interesting things to stumble upon, from a pinecones being used to guide you around, to a hole that can explode you, to judgemental slimes, to talking statues that are very picky at where they want to go. Also underwater combat becomes a bit more fun if you use the octopus habilities where you can just explode enemies lol
Zajef hates underwater and love dragonspine because he like hard content and genshin is a casual game, which is smartplay for mihoyo because casual player base is a lot bigger than hardcore people.
I dont like underwater exploration, I like using character skills and I didn't like the way they executed the combat down there. Besides that it's pretty great.
I mean, I'm a casual, but I do love Dragonspine a lot, to me, it's one of the most contained locations, because it's big but not that big or too small and the lore and music is too good. And I guess I played it on release, if I would've been a new player, I'd like it less for sure.
@@copiumhsrgi well not all casual hated dragonspine, there are casual that clear abyss with f2p account, there are casual that wanted more endgame, im just saying most casual hated dragonspine. Im not really a casual but i really enjoy fontaine underwater.
@@kane2145 kinda difficult having proper underwater elemental combat. most underwater section in videogame is bad, but honestly fontaine underwater exploration is kinda good minus the basic combat.
Dessert was the first area I got 100 since mondstat, I loved that region. The underground got frustrating but it was also literally a maze so it’s fair.
Yeah, with you 100% on Fontaine being repetitive. I actually really liked it topside, but it's so minuscule that there's nothing to do really. The Library in the new area's sweet, but everything else was just same old
The way Emilie is just dendro Chiori without any of the strenghts of the Dendro element is so surprising to me. For those who don't know, she increases her own damage against burning enemies, but it cannot be conskdered a true increase because she has a passive that reduces her damage to 80% if the enemies aren't burning. Also reduces the effectiveness of Cayalize reactions. Meaning that she can *only* be played in burning, where there are not that many characters that would like that
I still believe that zajefs take on fontaine exploration is inherently flawed. As a creator who focuses on the optimization of charcter damage and rotations you want something challenging or difficult, and dragonspine was that. Canonically its a treacherous area. Fontaine isnt. Most overworld exploration has to appeal to the casual audience as well. I loved the underwater exploration, i found it pretty fun being able to glide through water and utilize the abilities of the creatures we found. That being said, it is easy. Its simple, easy, and if you do everything in a week its boring as fuck because of repetition and monotony. So dont do it all in a week, go hunt a few chests down every day, just enough to replace daily commissions. Its not any more repetitive than those in that sense.
This just goes back to the good old "Genshin is for casuals" saying. You have to remember Genshin is massive and Zajef is like not even 10% of the population. Most of them are college mobile teens and young adults who open their device for an hour or two to play the game. Zajef on the other hand wants to invest time in the game and wants to be rewarded for it when Genshin isn't made for that purpose.
I heavily disagree with zajef on the dragonspine/Fontaine underwater take. I HATE dragonspine with every cell of my body (I haven't even unlocked all waypoints) but I love underwater
4:07 zajeff having bad takes again because you KNOW people would be pissed on the tl daily just like how people hate sonic underwater levels LMAO. and it would also restrict how much creative underwater freedom the devs would be able to have if it WAS limited
Really enjoyed underwater exploration due to music and visuals. Combat in overworld is a joke anyway, so underwater combat wasn't really much of a change of pace tbh. Worst you could say about it is that it's tedious and takes longer by virtue of it not taking your investment into account. Normal overworld combat is too easy and doesn't allow for proper rotations or exploration of mechanical depth and pretty much boils down to 1-2 shotting stuff with decently built characters and underwater goes in the exact opposite direction. We had 3 years of land based exploration, so shaking things up with underwater exploration where you actively move and interact with the environment differently is better than getting another region with mobility mechanics similar to or possibly worse than what we already had in Sumeru. Depending on how HYV handle the whole mount mechanic in Natlan, it could end up being one of the most tedious regions to explore if the mounts are obnoxious to summon/acquire when they are needed. Potential for annoying amounts of gadget quick swapping or menuing, or constantly looking around for the little buggers like trying to find electrogranas in Inazuma. Just going to have to wait and see how things turn out.
Desert music, especially Vorukaha Oasis was really memorable. I still go there and feel sooo mesmerized. It's kinda Hoyo's a*s approach on releasing one desert after another after another that burnt people out. Not alot of people would be able look past the repetitive environment and enjoy the core difference in each of the areas.
Yeah, zajef doesn't explain why it's bad by using logic, but by using emotions. Because otherwise you can say the same about dragonspine. And it's not that he cannot have an opinion about it, but rather he sounds like his opinion is the only valid.
I only didn't like the the Desert tornado area because navigating it even with the vines felt horrid. The smaller oasis area felt like a godsend and was unironically the first desert region I full 100%. I slacked abut with Deshret's region, but it was still above 90.
Underwater exploration is fine. Not the best, but still enjoyable. And he doesn't mention the overworld itself in Fontaine, which was one of my favorite exploration experiences in a loooong time after Sumeru. (Probably the best since the Chasm) Even for domeone who likes challenge, you had the Local Legends who could be difficult if you went with your usual team
Everyone is so hyped about Natlan movement and exploration, makes me feel like the I'm the only who isn't looking forward to it haha I wanna play with my own characters, not with some transformations. The trailer didn't feel like Genshin at all, like a completely different game. That being said, Fontaine underwater was ass as well and I hope we don't get something like that either.
The complaints about Sumeru Desert kinda remind me of the Complaints about Vanilla (now we call it "Classic") WoW desert regions like Durotar. Basically, I think desert biomes in video games are a lot like desert biomes iRL, in that they're pretty empty, and once you actually experience them, you appreciate any other biome more.
I must be a lunatic bc I didn’t mind exploring the desert. I started the game late so I’ve basically been exploring the map backwards. 100%ed Fontaine, then the desert. Since WuWa I’ve sort of paused my 100% the whole map thing since I have a new game to play, but I should probably get back to grinding for the primos.
Some EM and decent crit stats help. Around 400 EM is pretty good. The Slingshot is also good enough if you don't have the Hunter's Path or another 5 star bow as a stat stick. If you're using his charge attacks you may want to consider Electro Traveler to fuel his energy for more charge shots since each of EMC's amulets give Sethos enough energy for extra level 1 charge shot. For a Burst build use Fischl since EMC's energy generation isn't enough to offset the huge loss in DPS. Some team comps for him are EMC if using level 1 charge shot spam otherwise use Fischl. Then either Beidou or Kirara as your shielder and Nahida as the main Dendro character since she's too good. Personally I prefer Sethos' level 1 charge shot spam since they don't have ICD so you can proc Aggravate with each shot.
ok but why the fuck did the show sethos plunging lol it's not like it's part of his kit or that it was a different special animation or either that fits what was happening on the trailer feels like the spiderman backflip lol
Talk to any other gamer or other gacha game player, they’ll tell you that a lot of Hoyo games character designs are either too simple and boring, or too complicated because of incohesiveness. Emilie is no different tbh, but people should stop getting offended if people don’t like your taste.
I liked most of the the desert it was when they realeased the last desert region that i about wanted to throw a fit lol Like please for the love of god anything but MORE desert! Fontaine and underwater are fun they just desperately needed to add more stuff you can do under water for combat it get so tedious after not that long
Zajef forgot that most people don't play for the meta. I just want my C6 Kaveh because I'm emotionally invested in him as a character and I've been stuck at C4 for a year now
That person saying we were robbed of that boring basic wee goth French girl design needs to grow up I like how Emile’s design is fairly standard but different in some ways
The only thing I know about Kaveh is that, he does like a hyperbloom thing, but infinitely worse than the actual hyperbloom. You know what, I think I know enough about Kaveh.
Weird how ppl can have a totaly opposite view about something , i loved sumeru , both the forest and the desert , and the fact that there was SO MUCH to explore , it was great , oh and Jeht
In my case, underwater exploration was hard carried by playing with a controller at the start, once I changed to using mouse and keyboard because my controller got all fucked up, I found it just less engaging because the buttons are like really disconnected or separated from each other in a kind of unnatural way, and the movement doesn't feel as fluid because of it, like, yeah, you can go down by moving your mouse, but why tf do I have to use Ctrl or something like that? Surely there was a better button to assign to something that you have to hold for a decent amount of time... And using leftClick to collect the animals powers but then using E to aim them, it should be reversed (ik I could change it, but at this point, meh) I still adapted and once Remuria came out I 100% in the first week or so like usual, and I enjoyed it, but it still feels way worse when I have to do some stupid commission underwater Obviously this all comes from someone that preferred controllers all his life, specially when talking about mf third person games, so I'm biased, I just wanted to talk about why I could really enjoy the first underwater maps, and moving to mouse and Keyboard AFTER at least understanding and liking the underwater content wasn't that big of a deal to get burned out of it (I'm also one of those that enjoyed all the desert maps so it's obvious that I like exploring lol, Wanderer, Yelan, Sayu and Faruzan really carried it tho)
Wait, did he just say that he love dragonspine????? I mean, don't take me the wrong way, I explored the hell out of dragonspine, and I agree the underwater stuff is boring, I 100% agree, also Natlan does looks poggers, but like looooving dragonspine is kinda a take. I loved the Albedo storyline, I loved the Christmas spirit of it, I enjoyed exploration, but I would say that maybe my favorite exploration so far has been Inazuma. Watatsumi Island world quest was the best I ever played of any world story quests, the story was simple, it was intriguing, it has horror hints which was new and flesh, it has a pretty crazy truth, the fog was insanely annoying but also difficult enough to keep me engaged. Like the same thing happened to me about the desert, I got so lost, I got so burn out and so bored, that I nearly gave up on it (there's still a shit ton of things I didn't do on it, despite having 100% in everything, it's actually not difficult, the only place I haven't 100% is the newest Liyue area cuz I got lazy), but I also don't hate the underwater exploration so I guess I also have a weird take.
We basically have the same map. Got burned out hard when the last two desert areas hit. Once Fontaine arrived, it burned me out permanently. I'm not entirely sure if it has to do with the recent areas being worse, to be honest, but it more so has to do with it being so much. Hours upon hours of exploring, along with opening up areas through world quests. Hard to keep up with exploration nowadays, and the desert had a lot of exploration, along with the underwater areas in Fontaine. I think they all still look beautiful though. I'll have to see if Natlan motivates me again. Sumeru's rainforest was the last time I fully explored everything, but the last areas to truly blow me away were Enkanomiya and the Chasm. The atmosphere in Enkanomiya was second to none, and the oppressive feeling of sinking lower and lower into an abyss in the Chasm was neat.
05:10 wait wait wait wait, hol up. U didn't use "hold E" this whole time?? It would probably still made underwater combat even so slightly less boring at best for you, but I personally this whole time only did "hold E" spam and I didn't find combat so boring as in was shown in the video.
Honestly, my biggest gripe about Fontaine underwater exploration isn’t that it’s repetitive or that the combat isn’t that challenging but the fact that it feels so separated from the rest of Fontaine. Like when I first knew we were getting underwater exploration I was expecting to have the Fontaine characters and npc interact with the underwater element a lot more? But for the most part, the Fontaine cities have nothing to do with the underwater, expect for melusine village. Idk, I guess was hoping for a bit more of an integrated nation where the people themselves would have a lot more to do with the underwater elements and thus make it feel like it’s actually part of Fontaine’s culture and daily life. But the way it is, it’s just feels very unimportant to the region at large because the occupants don’t care about it. ( I know that’s partially due to the whole plot of Fontaine being people dissolving in the ocean but still)
Not everyone is a meta slave and Kaveh is definitely popular, at least in certain parts of the fandom. Funny how he always say casual fandom bad this and that but sounds condensing 90% of the time
The only thing I don't like about Emilie's design is that her hat looks like it was pasted on the splash art. Shift the hat back a bit and she'd look great.
Hey Zaj, that's not how the Crab works... You're not just meant to spam the radiating hit. You're meant to hold the Skill as you get hit, then release at the target. You do a lot of damage. It's like you actually didn't bother to learn the mechanics, and then you're complaining it's not interesting... Which is doubly ironic coz you're a Bennett user! What could be more boring than him???
Emilie's design is just Lisa's skin, but worse, she giving Sumeru, but have colours and type of Mondstand dress, while being from Fontaine, purple colour is so out of touch here:/ Purple design from leaks was really good, with beautiful silhouette and original colour - while was clearly genshin design type - look at Kokomi - so people was really disappointed.
