also the character designs are peak I'll leave a note here since there are alot of comments about it [ ! ] intention isn't everything to me. Maybe Fontaine was intended to be alot of the things I described, and I'm sure Arlecchino wasn't meant to be the antagonist, but she most definitely was a red herring of some sort, and personally, I was let down with her. I'm happy with her story quest, but whether or not I misunderstood, she simply left me feeling unsatisfied, and that's the reality of how I feel towards her
How can you dont like fontain but like natlan ? Natlan is worst than Inazuma. World concept is suck, they are tribe but Xilonen is a DJ Mondstat is region of freedom but Natlan people is dance more than Mondstat Citlali beta is able to summon a gigantic gun while she using bow How can a tribes has more modern weapon than Sumeru or Fontain ? Natlan dont have leyline but it is more piece than Sumeru Withering Night kingdom is brighter than Chasm How can you like unclear world concept ? Maybe you are eror. Edited : Last one : the only unvoice Archon Quest is happening in Natlan.
@@drimz2949 you can't blame the people who made Natlan for a VA strike, and to me, I quite like the world concepts. I think the things like DJs and stuff bring back that variety of goofiness that early Genshin had, as well as, while maybe not showing a tribal age to you, does show unity, expression, and culture. For example, the children of the echoes love rhythm and dancing, which fits perfectly with the two characters from there that you can play as Also, it's undeniably different Fontaine, probably the opposite, so if I like one, I probably don't care for the other
I agree with most of what you said about exploration and the geography being boring but the fact that you said the quest was mediocre while thinking that Arlecchino is the main antagonist shows you kinda misunderstood the quest.
I have to agree with that Honestly the quests are definitely the best part of Fontaine But the exploration is just as long as sumeru Maybe less or more depending on how people see it
I agree with the exploration stuff (mostly). As you said there are people who like the dominant architecture (that's me). About the story: I kinda liked how the fatui didn't have a presence. I think that really helped emphasize the entire plot with neuvilette and focalors. I mean they killed the hydro Archon. That is a big thing and not having the looming threat of a harbinger helped make it feel big.
@@BillyGurke026 that's completely fair. I wanted to make sure people felt free to have their opinions with their vid, but I think I conveyed why I think the way I do pretty well
I love Fontaine's underwater scenery and environment, but I gotta be honest I absolutely despise the underwater combat system and how slow exploring underwater can feel sometimes.
First time i watch a video where i absolutely disagree in like...pretty much everything 🫠. Not to mention the fact that it is soo rare to see someone disliking Fontaine, basically because it is one of the best if not the best nation of the game. But i guess taste is taste
@@Manuel-nl6hr it's nice that you're open to opinion, disagreement or not. I can definitely understand why you'd like it, since initially, I thought I did too. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Though, I'm curious, what's your opinion on Natlan?
@@ItsJustT ofc everyone can have a different experience and impression. Nice video tho✨And it's intriguing to see how others view the game completely different sometimes.For example Fontaone's archon quest felt so much easier to understand than Sumeru's. In Sumeru i was mindf-ed. Now about Natlan...hmm i think that the exploration is surprisingly pleasant, the characters look fine, in terms of personality and character development i think it's too early to tell. The archon quest was...okish...like i think act 1 was definitely better than act 2. Act 2 didn't add up in some moments and some other scenes where kinda predictable and too generic to watch.
Mostly because most genshin content creators do not actually express their own opinions and just go with the opinion of the masses, there are multiple polarising opinions in genshin, it's just that people who often criticise genshin gets blacklisted or shadow banned by genshin, for example Mtashed, so I understand why content creators avoid criticizing genshin as much as they can
as much as i love the lore of fontaine, the way it was told and the way the story and worldbuilding had many inconsistencies ( like how did the rest of teyvat not get flooded since fontaine is on a raised platform? tf? ) was simply just.. not it. What also bothers me about fontaine is how empty it feels when on the surface, seriously, the giant tower on the east of fontaine made it look so much more complete. Also something i dont see people mention enough is how bright it is, i remember seeing lore about fontaine having polluted skies and i expected fontaine to be just as edgy/dark as inazuma
It definitely felt like a cop out when we heard Childe and Scaramouche claim Arlecchino had a crazy side in their voicelines only to reveal that it was all because of rumors, but to say that she was made redeemable would be an exaggeration considering she is still very ruthless and employs orphans as Fatui agents. Additionally, while the Fontaine story was going on, I felt that the misdirection worked in the story’s favor. It made us feel uneasy around Arlecchino in a different way compared to previous Harbingers, and the way she actively pursued diplomacy instead of directly confronting us added to that feeling of dread whenever she was brought up.
Tbf the Expansion in 4.6 was mainly Focused on the Nostoi Region Island that more likely belongs to Fontaine. That little Expansion was more focused to connect Sumeru and Liyue with Fontaine. But I would be lying if I said, that I wasn't dissapointed that Bayda Port was so empty and small, but that was me and my high expectation towards it.
Fontaine had pretty overworld design like Mondstadt, relaxing though a tad underwhelming. Underwater however felt enormous, full of motion and sea-creatures. No real dangers here, a new/ casual player could go relax and get easy treasures. But again, I was expecting there to be more lost civilization and ruins to explore. We got the beautiful Remuria expansion, but it was separated from Fontaine plot. How did Fontaine look like before? How was life as an Ocianid before they became human 500years ago? How was Egeria as an Archon? My favorite nation is still Sumeru and its cast. I'm happy every time we go back for events. Also big reason I like it is the heavy lore to the cataclysm and the connection to Khaenri'ah. Something I missed during Fontaine.
as someone who was blown away by sumeru exploration, fontaine was so disappointing i agree. there's almost nothing on ground and then underwater the puzzles feel way too easy (might be why u like the desert but not underwater, cus the desert was actually challenging 😭), same for the combat which is just pressing one button over and over.
i didnt really like fontaines aq, it was alright, but i loved sumeru more. sumerus geography is so good, and i loved all the characters. fontaine characters are very fragmented to me, sumeru are all know each other well. i liked lyney, lynette and freminet though. couldnt care much for alercchino, navia or furina i kinda like mualani, kinich and kachina, but i still need to see more of them to decide whether i really like them. funnily i dont care for anyone else in natlan i think the opposite of recency bias happens for me lol. i love mondstat and sumeru in general
Wait woah I love Navia, Arlecchino, and Furina. Also hard agree on Sumeru having the best cast. I think I like some of Fontaine's characters more as individuals, but Sumeru was really good about relating all its characters to each other and giving them good chemistry. Like, pretty much every playable character took part in the main story and had great interactions with almost every other character involved, which I missed in Fontaine. Although, I must say, Clorinde's story quest made me SO HAPPY bc it brought some of that back. Plus, trying to avoid too many spoilers, it's basically an ARG version of a D&D campaign with some of the Fontaine cast and it's SO GOOD, def my favorite story quest by a lot. But I think it also has to do with the overall vibes of each nation. I think Sumeru on a whole was a lot more unserious if that makes sense? Idk the story felt a lot more fun right after a direct character conflict in Inazuma, and all the PCs were on the same side to achieve a huge goal. But I think Fontaine was where they were going to have to start seriously ramping up to the climax that I assume will be in Snezhnaya, and so while Natlan is giving us a lot of action build-up, I liked how Fontaine had much higher stakes but still gave us lots of lore and a more serious tone-shift to gear us more toward the intensification of the story. Idk if that made sense, but that's how I feel.
I think a lot of people were disappointed with arlechinno's character out of mischaracteration on their behalf. I have not see anything of her SQ but playing through the AQ I was never made to believe her to be an antagonist, the antagonist being celestia, it's them who place the murderous curse on Fontaine and its celestia who Focalors herself calls hypocrites. Arlecchino simply has alterior motives which happens to place her on opposing sides to our hero (MC/Furina depends how you look at it) but shes just that, a complex character that has no problem doing evil things when she views them as optimal. To me at least that was pretty good because plain old evil villains are just as boring as plain good guys, I much rather a character like arlecchino who does evil but has their own rationale and priorities, something that Sumeru lacked for me (i think dottore sucked as the fatui encounter in Sumeru, tho i do really like the lore connections he has to the story like through Collei and wanderer). I personally really enjoyed the AQ for Fontaine cause for the first time everyone was advancing to the same common goal with the bad guy being celestia, that was quite the refresher compared to all other "fatui are the bad" story lines (not to say I didn't like them, i did, even inazuma😅)
Mond and Liyue were big and relaxing. New player in 1.0 had all the energy to clear it all. Dragonspine was frustratingly fun to do, meaning it was not hard just frustrating. Inazuma came as hard as interesting, but a bit tedious to navigate sometimes. Chasm was a pain to navigate but the atmosphere there is just amazing. Sumeru was suffocating with all the backtracking you needed to do. Fontaine was breath of fresh water (pun intended), but boring in the long run. And Natlan is just fun. That's my feelings as 1.0 player. And i'm talking only about exploration. Story wise, Mond was boring but fine, Liyue was 10% epic 90% fetch quest that most people don't even remember. Inazuma was fast (short) as lightning (pun intended) thus with tons of plotholes and poorly developed characters. Sumeru was long af but the most consistent and interesting of the bunch, so far the best archon quest there is. Fontaine - the Fortress of Meropide ruined it all. Natlan, haven't done it yet (yeah-yeah, goodbye 500 primos, i'm ok with that). Honestly it depends on your preferences. Exploring Sumeru without a map made me almost rage quit. I had severe burn out after it, despite the fact that i really enjoyed the story. I still recover from it, that's why Fontaine is not fully cleared yet, though it played significant role in my healing process, and Natlan helps as well a lot. But in comparison with Natlan Fontaine does look a bit boring, still for me it miles better than freaking Sumeru. Inazuma was more fun to do than that piece of garbage. But that's my opinion, i just state it and have no intention of changing anyone's opinions who liked the region, i have nothing against such people. That's all.
For the Bayda Harbor part of the map, even if the Nostoi island was the main focus of the update, i don't think it would have been difficult for them to put at least some chests and ennemies. So maybe they planed something like the ground collapsing and revealing a part of Khaenri'ah, idk (i'm just hoping it's the case, because otherwise what stop them to make others part of the map empty in the futur :/ )
They didn't add any chests because it's part of Lokapala Jungle. It would mess up the exploration percent as you can already get 100% without bayda harbor.
As someone who generally dislikes fontaine as a setting (so not including characters or quests) I 100% agree with what you said when it came to exploration, especially about the fortress of meropede. That said, was Arlecchino even supposed to be an antagonist? (even in the way she was presented, since by your pinned comment you seem to think that) Just going off of what we're shown in the AQ, she: -Provides free humanitarian aid to the people of Poisson -Helps the traveler, Neuvillette, and Navia to find the tablets relating to the prophecy -Was amicable enough in negotiations with Neuvillette for him to give her the Hydro Gnosis Plus the talk she had with Furina. At the time she seemed harsh, sure, but in retrospect she just wanted to know more about internal affairs in Fontaine to be able to press Neuvillette and Furina for the Hydro Gnosis, mostly peacefully. She ambushed Furina once too, but considering the approach she took in general when it came to fontaine, I doubt she ever planned to actually kill her. At most she was gonna do what signora did to Venti (taking the gnosis, not La kick) and book it. She more reads as the morally grey third party that simply acts in their own best interest. Sorta like Jade from HSR, but not as predatory, considering Arle has a more "consequences of your own actions" type deal going on. Fontaine's whole AQ reads a lot more like metaphorically drowning. You're sinking deeper and deeper with pressure from all sides and you're not sure you're going to make it, not like someone's holding your head down in the water. The list of total pressures on fontaine throughout the AQ was as follows: -The primordial sea -The oratrice not working correctly -technically Arlecchino, if you wanted to frame it that way -The whale, but that might just count as the primordial sea, depending -Skirk, but she's also like arle in that she's pretty ambiguous right now -The female disappearances case or whatever it was called? -Childe disappearing in the fortress of meropede -The drowning of Poisson, but you could count that as primordial sea again -Furina not being the real archon To call any one of these things, except MAYBE the primordial sea, the antagonist, is a misunderstanding of the circumstances surrounding fontaine during the AQ.
@@pitaya_is_cool1408 I at the every least expected Arlecchino to be because of her presentation. For 3 years, she's been hyped up as an oppressive, psychotic, ruthless harbinger that is a wolf in sheep's clothing, even in "The Final Feast" and Acts 3 & 4, yet alot of these things weren't shown in the slightest during Fontaine's story, only shown later. It was more a problem I had with the AQ while playing them, and one I stopped caring for afterwards. However, due to her failure to be an antagonist, there is no real antagonist and most of said, and that is the thing that I dislike. I just didn't want to dwell too much on it during the video
@@fieryapple7020 I love her design and voice acting but she can be pretty annoying lol I give her credit for having personality and being portrayed negatively sometimes tho, unlike other characters
I will agree that Fontaine can look a little samey (except the island section) and that the Fortress overstayed it's welcome a bit... Overall, I feel like the region is so far the best in the series.
Yeah. It is important to realise that while I think I had alot of reasons for my thoughts, those reasons can just as easily be pros in somebody else's eyes, and I think that's a beautiful thing
This is kinda of a lore skipperish take But to emphasize my pov of Fontaine The point is Neuvilette The setup made in enkanomiya with the prophesy of the hydro dragon sovereign's reincarnation happening in human form The all devouring narwhal being the first star beast we see And the set up made in the sumeru desert about the narzissenkreuz ordo All of the culminating in a grand performance . This has nothing to do with the fatui ( narratively) But a lot to do with the fate of teyvat I can understand the exploration part but As a lore player the story take about Arle doesn't quite fit because of the book perinheri And her involvement being so low is natural because its not her story to ne told It was a masquerade by a sinner a god and a human Also more info about descenders ig Tldr : Fontaine was a very lore significant patch
Definitely a lore skipperish take. I have not done in depth research on the game, or nations overall lore, as I'd much rather offer a perspective from somewhat casual player of Genshin that researches for the content I make. I could make a whole video on my problems with how the lore is told, but I don't want people to misunderstand and I assume that I think my opinions the right one. This is because I think there's a beauty in telling lore from books and artifacts, helping to immerse the player in a real world. Though, it really does some stories dirty
I loved Fontaine's aesthetic. But it has to be said that the overwhelming presence of architecture felt a little out of place in Genshin. The reason why most other regions had a good balance of nature and architecture was because, it looked like a dreamy and beautiful world full of nature on the outside, but it had complex underground (or water) systems and man-made ruins when you went questing/exploring. Fontaine had human architecture present as a part of it's natural environment which works great for world-building but kind of screws with the basis that other nations were designed on. The biome being bright and green like Mondstadt didn't help for me. Mondstadt had green plains and elevated cliffs (to play in to that gliding or 'wind' aspect obviously), Liyue had little green and mostly yellow or orange plains with TALL and hard to climb mountains, Inazuma had unique weather conditions (colorful skies and different colored grass) and felt like I was in a different planet the first time I explored, Sumeru had the rainforest which made it the best in my eyes cause I felt like a huge Jungle or forest environment that you see in many Anime was always missing in Genshin (I have no words to describe the desert, take the hint). What saved Fontaine from being boring for me was ironically trying to analyze the architecture like some sort of engineer 😆
I agree mostly with the exploration bit except I wouldn't say underwater exploration is exhausting, before fontaine came out I was worried the underwater exploration was gonna be too overwhelming but after actually playing it's so easy to explore, most puzzles can be done by a toddler and there's no real threats underwater so it's extremely easy to explore (which isn't necessarily a good thing) also heavy agree with the fontaine cast, their designs are lovely but I don't care about more than half of the cast which is weird because sumeru cast was lovely all around
@@odisleftpaw5663 I think I personally view boring stuff as exhausting because my patience can only go so far. If I'm trying to bump my exploration percentage up, I have to dive underwater, and I just have to use no braincells even though I explore to use them 😭
my personal biggest problem with fontaine was that the court of fontaine looked extremely similar to sumerus city, I expected a bit more variety especially considering that the cultural inspiration of fontaine and sumeru differ so much
I find it funny how you say that your favorite 3 regions are liyue, natlan, and sumeru, because those are my personal least favorite regions in the game, lol. While i disagree with your perspective on fontaine, I also acknowledge that it's simply due to different values in what makes a good region. When it comes to your dislike for exploration in fontaine due to the underwater, i will argue that the underwater saved fontaine exploration. It divided the exploration in half, and due to the high concentration of treasure, it's easier to find somewhere to explore and loot. There's a momentum to fontaine's exploration that makes the exploration actuality fun. That momentum is one of the main contributors to whether or not i like a region. Liyue required constant climbing that slowed down exploration. Sumeru is literally too large and too spaced out for its own good. Then Natlan has so many line of sight blockers that it's impossible to tell if you collected everything in the area or not, only to find the entire region at 50%.
Fontaine's my favorite, sooo... I personally really enjoyed the underwater scenery and colors, and it felt new and fresh, there was always something to find and the little critters are adorable!! I like mystery (and most genre) and the emotional/shocking scenes (the dance of '23 and the water tank scene), I honestly thought it was the best one, especially given that Fontaine is where stuff hits the fan (the hydro archon literally dies?! Forever?!?!. Sumeru is WAY TOO F*****G BIG and the desert to me felt like a chore compared to Fontaine, there's so much underground stuff and sand.. sand.. and sand.. I never got past 2% in one of the areas. I liked the Pari and Aranara quest though :3 the environment is really nice and cohesive in the forest, and the quest is (although confusing in the samsara for my smol brain) cohesive, makes sense and I can follow it relatively well but some parts were a bit boring, so it's my second favorite
In my opinion, underwater is the best part and worst part of the fontaine, It has very good foundation but being a one-region gimmick, it lack progression and depth. Other nations also have one time machianics too but they are built on existsting systems. However in underwater you only have limited new stuffs to utilize, it could be somewhat avoided if we can unlock new ability and stats(movement speed, underwater grouping, etc) at the statue of the seven. For the story stuff, I think it's too long as always. It's not that obvious if you play patch after patch, but if you consider genshin as a complete package, I don't think it's not healthy in the long term or replay value. But in the end, I still love Fontaine it;s a great addition to the game as a whole cuz it's only like what 20% of the game? personally 3rd fav after sumeru and liyue.
Exploring in Fontaine feels truly open world. You can go anywhere you want without quest restriction. And then swimming there feels like you're flying in space (*Chef kiss). Fontaine exploration for me is S tier.
@@aswinamahendra7456 i dunno. To me, a big part of exploration is progression, and Fontaine lacks that. Also, I can name a solid few areas that are locked behind quests, but I guess it's less than other newer nations. Natlan has alot of that for example. Like I said, I dunno, if I can't actually rank up the combat underwater, or experience breathtaking landscapes like I could in Liyue, then I have no genuine interest in the place
I really like this video. The perspective is quite interesting and well explained. I do, however disagree with alot of key points, one of them being the view of the archon quest. Was it an info dump? Of course, but I believe they excecuted it due to the setting. It the first and last act were done in a court setting. In a court, a lot of details are prodded and several sources of information are brought to light. Because that is how a court works. Alot of information has to be delivered and revealed in order to fully understand and judge a case, particularly that of the hydro archon which puts an entire nation at stake hence why it was so complicated. Arlecchino was never meant to be an antagonist and that was made clear in her first appearance in the quest. She solidified herself as a sort of morally gray ally. She was one who's interests temporarily alighed with your own hence you had to accept her collaboration, yet you still had to be caucious in your dealings. Her back story also revealed where he interests lie. As for the exploration, when fontaine came out, i was at a point in my life where i got extremely busy, so much so that i barely had time to play. As a result, fontaine was a breath of fresh air because of its relaxing atmosphere. The fact that you did not have to use the many elemental mechanics in the game made it quite appealing to me, especially considering how little a time i had to play. The underwater region was also quite relaxing and enjoyable, mostly because i didnt have to switch characters every now and then. It was easy to explore and that was what i liked most about it. It was quite similar to mondstadt, that much is true, but its more of an enhanced better version. So that which you disliked about the region was what i liked most about it.😅 Anyway, that was a nice video.
Man, I hate Fontaine and its people with a passion 🤣 If I was Celestia I'd go ahead and flood it again, finish everyone off, but i will save Furina together with Chevreuse, Chiori and Emilie (just cuz they arent involved in that kangaroo court trial in 4.2 😂). Also, istg the IQ difference between the sumeru cast and fontaine cast made me miss sumeru so much 🤣🤣🤣
Idk I LOVE Fontaine. Only region I've maxxed the sigil structure for. (man was I disappointed that the souvenir shop only sold furniture) But anyway, I liked the underwater stuff, I've always been a sucker for water related things, but I do get what you're saying about underwater combat and kinda eliminating the main point of Genshin's combat system. But on the other hand, I feel like there wouldn't be an easy way to incorporate the traditional combat well in a way that felt realistic enough idk. And I do still think there's a good chunk of geographical difference with Elynas having the rift creature things and merusea village, the Fortress of Meropide, and the Fontaine Research Institute. I also LOVED the Narcissenkreuz story line throughout the world quests (it actually made me start playing them more and enjoying them) and I thought even the smaller world quests were cute and did well with incorporating the underwater gimmick of Fontaine. I also loved the archon quests too. It was kinda cool to basically play Genshin's version of Danganronpa for a bit and then also have the whole apocalyptic prophecy stuff and the twist at the end had a great payoff. I think it was as good at being exciting and dramatic as Sumeru's plot of planning a heist to overthrow the government while being its own thing.
Sumeru and fontaine are still my favorite. Natlan was just too plain for me. The story was so simple and straight forward. No plot twists whatsoever. The only time i felt a little excitement was Capitano's entrance and the Capitano's end scene. That's it. Fontaine and Sumeru's stories were mysterious and had a lot of twists and turns. And people only like Mondstadt story because of pure nostalgia and because it was the first region. Otherwise the story was just as simple as Natlan. Inazuma had a lot of potential but they failed. And Liyue's 90% of the archon quest was boring... You just do fetch quests. It only gets interesting after Childe boss fight.
You trash natlan story right in 5.0, you havent seen anything yet. It's the same reasoning people used against furina back then in 4.0 fontaine. Let them cook, and from the look of 5.1, insanity will happen between capitano and mavuika
@@djampoucheukap1742 You're comparing a character to an Archon quest story. They aren't the same. Fonatine 4.0 "story" was amazing. People hating on a character is a different matter. A character can be redeemed and loved but the story of a quest is permanent. Even if the 5.1 story becomes amazing, 5.0 story will remain mediocre.
I definitely get what you mean. So far, Natlan has felt very calmed down compared to the others, while Fontaine and Sumeru took you right to the deep end - literally in Fontaine's case
I enjoyed Arlecchino's character and story quest, but I totally understand the dissatisfaction with it too. It feels like HYV had to make changes due to Chinese laws. I mean her current vibe js really different from say the Lazzo trailer and Childe/Scaramouche's voicelines. I wanted to see her crazy side so badly, but I guess it would be hard to sell (or even make her playable in the first place) if she were like that. Meropide was an absolute snooze fest and is definitely the weakest part of the Archon quest. I wish it was more similar to HSR's Shackling Prison arc. It really nailed down the prison setting + tournament storylines.
The way I understand Arlecchino is that she kind of makes people think she's a super intimidating villain because she's composed in the face of chaos, and has that kind of cadence to her words that make it hard to trust her. To me, she intentionally does this to feed into misconceptions about her, which she then uses to her advantage. Best example is in fact, her SQ, but its present all throughout the AQs. I also disagree with Furina/Focalors being a messy plot point. It's incredibly well done and you can tell it's established earlier on that there's something fishy going on with her, which she plays off well by acting arrogant and self-assured. Which is why, when the finale came, I likened it to more of a "burst dam" kind of scenario, its sudden, it hits fast, but everyone could tell it was going to happen. I will not argue about the yappy dialogue because it is, in fact, incredibly long, but for what it is, it's really good. As for the environment and exploration mechanics, I viewed it thinking about environmental storytelling, with the expectation sprinkled in from previous patches that "Fontaine is a nation heavily into research, is incredibly industrial, and one of the more technologically advanced nations". I suppose this is more of a taste thing, because, like you said, architectural design and geographical design in a game are two different things. Basically, Fontaine met my expectations XD the underwater i can agree is fully subjective person to person, because I loved it. I fw the idea that I can just get lost swimming in the sea and Fontaine certainly scratched that itch. For once, I didn't have to worry about building my characters and could use ones I never normally used if I felt like it. I'd also been feeling burnt out from the same-ish puzzles from the overworld so the Underground puzzles were refreshing, same way some desert puzzles were. I guess I'm saying this because I approached Fontaine differently? Haha. This is also just my opinion that I wanted to share. Thank you for sharing yours! It was fascinating 😊
@@AzzyQu i fully get this. I think people are overlooking the fact that I know majority of what I dislike is intentional, I just don't like it lmao. I do however think they could've had a bit more geographical variety despite the architecture, since it's not like the court of Fontaine is holding its surroundings back
I hate fontaine as a whole.The exploration the archon quests(not the world quests cause they were enjoyable ),i hate the characters (expect cheveruse,freminet,emily and chiori cause i like them).I loved sumeru as a whole.The map,the characters(i love them they are the best), the archon quest(because nahida gave us info about our sibling),the world quests(i want to learn MORE about king deshret and nabu malikata and the previous dendro archon YES even the aranara).As for natlan ..i like the archon quest and the world quests so far...mondstad is nostalgic,liyue not so bad but not so good,inazuma didn’t like very much but still i like inazuma more than fontaine.
finally! I find someone who also disliked the fontaine archon quest, I felt kinda gaslighted when everyone was praising it and I was like "did we see the same thing?" "did genshin really peak at sumeru?" while I have to say arleccino wasn't really the bad guy of the story, she was painted as the antagonist merely by fatui proxy and at first was reafirmed by admitting the attempt to kil-- steal the gnosis from furina making furina super anxious near her... arleccino took the back seat ever since, sending her minions to do small jobs and helping navia because who wouldn't take a chance to have the mafia owe you one? it did felt that arleccino was retconed when she became playeable just like what happened to raiden (I like Ei but I really cannot defend the way she was handled and it's okay to not blindly defend things just because you like 'em) cause she was ready to do anything to get the gnosis (making it seems that childe and wanderer were right about her) and then everything went like "ehe~ tragic backstory" and it was like... "I like to make people believe whatever they want to believe about me" maybe it's because I wasn't fond of the ace attorney -esque story or me feeling that the fortress felt really like filler... I really can't pin point why *exactly* I didn't like it
interesting video even tho i disagree with stuff let me mention some of my thoughts i agree with underwater exploration stuff and there's not much to add tbh i also have to agree with lore portion of the video, while i loved what we got Fontaine lacked lore of the region itself and i feel kinda similar way towards Mondstadt, both of those regions feel like they make overall Teyvat's lore more interesting and fleshed out while explaining mechanics of how things work e.t.c but they themselves don't feel to have much. and i think that has to do with the countries they are inspired by having mythologies that are reserved for other stuff. let me elaborate a bit for example in Liyue,Inazuma,Sumeru and Natlan we have mythologies and religion of the places they are inspired by be incorporated in their worldbuilding and lore. Chinese mythology stuff is sprinkled throughout the entire game but it's mainly explored in Liyue, Japanese mythology in Inazuma, Persian(and other countries Sumeru is inspired by) in Sumeru and countless mythologies from ring of fire(countries that are included in it) for Natlan. while in Mondstadt the mythology u could mainly have is Norse mythology but while it does have that, Norse mythology is mainly used for things relating to Khaenri'ah so instead most of Mondstatd is filled with Arhurian and some other legends + fairy tales same for Fontaine, there are parts of Greek mythology used (because unpopular opinion, Fontaine is mainly inspired by Greece and Rome imo and not France, in terms of lore that is, culturally it is mostly France yes) but AGAIN unfortunately for it Greek mythology is mostly reserved and specifically used for Unified Civilization period of Teyvat's history, for example Enkanomiya, Seelies e.t.c and thus Fontaine lore lacks things featured from it. i have a feeling same might happen for Snezhnaya but i think they will use Slavic mythology for it so should be good i think(?) anyway now 2 parts i disagree with Furina lore....ummm as u could probably tell from my pfp i am a huge Furina fan but i understand ur point, i just disagree with it because i like it personally. her lore being combination of all other previous Archons is intentional. You can see that from her demo(her mimicing them) and other Archons voicelines about her(each of them praising Furina for having qualities of their own ideals) Furina represents water, like literally, she is water as a character. to elaborate - she is a reflection of Focalors, reflection of other Archons parts and a reflection of what other people desire from her(her playing a character that they want) to the point that Furina didn't even know who she herself was anymore because on the surface she was reflecting the world. while deep inside(going deep underwater) she had bottled up feelings,anxiety,stress,willpower,resolve, perseverance e.t.c Freminet's voice line about her describes her well: "...Okay fine. I've seen what the Hydro Archon's like when she's sitting in the audience. In my view, she's a very charismatic speaker, but it's her silences that intrigue me more. Her eyes... they're like the darkness at the bottom of the ocean. Hiding a deep secret, afraid of anyone ever getting close to her... Ah! Sorry, I... I let my imagination get the better of me." so if anything i'd say that writers didn't get lazy or ran out of originality while writing her, i'd say that it was more so THE POINT of her character, but well something being the point doesn't mean that people have to like it so i understand if someone doesn't prefer it, for me though this is perfect and fits very well for the "Hydro Archon" as for Focalors plan....i honestly think this is ur worst take no offense but maybe it's just me lmao, because from my perspective her plan is the most interesting/fascinating and coolest thing someone has ever done in this game's story or lore so far in my opinion. to elaborate - A large portion of this games lore is about people wanted to break free from fate laid out by Celestia, Makoto wanted it and got help from Istaroth via planting the sacred sakura, Abyss order wants it and will use loom of fate for it, Fatui wants it, Rene wanted it, Remus wanted it, Khaenrians wanted it, Descenders are all about Transcending fate itself because they "rival the entire world" e.t.c so many lore figures in Teyvat's past especially and still leftovers from destroyed civilizations want it they have all tried their ways either by trying to get Descenders on their side, creating a fate of their own, wanted to create Descender like figues(Rene wanting to become a Descender and Rhine created Albedo with her "primordial human project") and most of them failed but Focalors instead realized not to make enemy of the divine and used Furina's masquerade to deceive the fate itself. so instead of defying fate or creating her own fate making powers, she decided to fool the script of the story/fate itself. not only that but she gave authority back to a Dragon Sovereign by creating a god-slaying machine for it too, i am sorry but as a rabid lore follower that's just raddest thing someone has ever done in Teyvat's history so far. the plan was way too genius for its own good, now i am actually wondering how they will top this with something in Natlan. so as u can see....disagreeing is putting it lightly kek
I love fontaine. Its much favourite BUT i dont understand why they couldn’t at least have the underwater mechanics have u take an ability from the fish but fuse it with a element that scales off of each character main stat that scales. Would of made it a lot more dynamic.
@@sumsumplays this would've been cool. Or elemental fishies like they have elemental saurians of something. There's far more potential than what they did
@@stevele987 a place with equal amounts water & land. The land in question is a series of curving, sharp mountains, with various, yet small beaches and a forest in the bottom right corner of the map, with a bigger focus on wilderness than manmade stuff. However, because it needs to maintain consistency with the rest of the nation, it falls short when compared to other areas
the only problem i have with fontaine was that the exploration was way too easy. getting the region to 100% was very fast. for me at least. everything else is peak tho
I agree! For starters Fontaine’s overworld feels super bland and boring compared to Natlan & Sumeru. The underwater was also pretty lame and I rarely even use the mechanic, they didn’t do anything fun if I’m being honest you literally just swim underwater. The combat is trash imo. The final act felt a bit overwhelming they wanted to dump so much at the end, the shark boss was useless like what was the point of it? I did like how Fontaine’s story was more simple just tied to the prophecy and that’s it. I am also confused why Fontaine is the nation of hydro with little to no waterfalls anywhere??? And the nation felt kind of dead. Like Sumeru and Natlan has a bunch of NPCS and settlements and comparing it to. Fontaines smaller areas with fewer npcs definitely felt noticeable. I also found it a bit redundant with the circle format they went with the city and fortress being super similar and just a big circle you go around basically. I definitely think Natlan and Sumeru had so many twist and turns which made it feel more interesting to explore their cities. My final ick was the music. in my opinion the music was meh, it didn’t feel as memorable as Sumeru and Natlan. I think them having cultural mixing definitely gave them the advantage. Fontaine just felt like Mondstadt 2 with a top hat in a lot of aspects. Especially since their geography is based on the Alphs just like Mondstadt. I am super excited for Snezhnaya and definitely think Natlan (outside of character design) was a huge improvement from Fontaine and weirdly made me feel like it had so many aspects of Sumeru in it!
I take underwater exploration over Saurians anyday, Fontaine had a concept, Natlan doesn´t, I´m really making an effort to like Natlan, but I can´t find anything new or better, in Fontaine we were received with a huge fall and massive and unique architecture above it, underwater exploration was totally new and made perfect sense to the nation of water, in Natlan well, there are some hills with graffitis and trees, like a weird mixture of Liyue and Sumeru with Jurassic park and Disneyland vibes, Saurians for exploration are a mess, you need to climb, you can´t find the proper Saurian for it, you need to move fast but you can´t interact with materials, and in-outdwelling takes more time than the time you´re supposed to save using them even if you find the proper one, phlogiston mechanic is useless, why adding another bar if the stamina bar already does a perfect job?, they just couldn´t come up with a good idea and put a fancy bar to look cool that´s it, same with Dinos, wasn´t Natlan the land of Dragons? why Dinosaurs?, There are no cities but you see urban culture with graffities, rap dance and techno parties and places that look like vacation resorts, Natlan looks like they put a bunch of people in charge of its design where everybody was allowed to add their own ideas without anybody making sure they had to fit a whole concept.
i agree on the exploration part but i definitely can’t say the same for your storytelling take, albeit i respect it and i see where its coming from. i think the less prominent presence of the harbingers, on top of them trying to help this time, was a refreshing subversion to genshin’s predictable writing patterns. the fatui are enjoyable as villains, but they shouldnt be one dimensional and i think it was about time for genshin to showcase that. you viewing arlecchino as an antagonist here is a misconception, and imo a product of bias from genshin’s repetitive writing that keeps re-establishing the fatui as one sided villains in every scenario. i like that fontaine breaks away from our writing expectations because its a sentiment to the game’s determination to make its story competitive and immersive rather than monotonous and tedious. and while predictable stories can work, they are a lot harder to pull off and that alone is way outside of genshin’s half baked storytelling. also, i dont think the reveal of furina’s identity was designed for shock value, it was more so used as an exploration of divine leadership and the emotional gaps between human and otherworldly leaders. as a result, furina’s story is not meant to be shocking, its meant to be upsetting given the amount of emotional tormentation she went through in pursuit of saving her people, on top of fontaine’s insanely parasocial society. lastly, the characters’ lack of unlikable traits is a genshin problem in general, not just a fontaine one so its a bit unfair to downplay fontaine on this imo. furina, chiori and lynette are all characters with socially unconventional personalities so imo fontaine is keeping up just okay in comparison to the rest of the cast.
I don’t really agree with the video, but I absolutely love your video. It’s fantastically edited, very well scripted, and your ideas are communicated very well. I love your way of expressing your opinions.
@@EvanSexton-uq1zx that's so sweet 🥹 thank you. Most comments are agreeing or disagreeing, but I don't get many comments on the editing or video itself
Was prepared to agree with you, because I do think Fontaine is quite boring, but apparently I dislike it for very different reasons. The archon quest is great EXCEPT Meropide, and one of the things I actually like about Fontaine is how I don't need a multi-level map or do tons and tons and tons of climbing in order to be able to navigate it, which makes exploration much smoother. I can just pick a chunk of map, walk around it, and declare myself done in that section before moving on. Sumeru was anything but; Liyue has too many mountains; Inazuma is actively dangerous and often time-gated. So I give Fontaine credit for that. But I also found underwater areas disinteresting. As a novelty, they were fine, but the combat is nothing even remotely interesting, and yet we had to slaughter the entire sea of creatures multiple times over to level certain characters, by the end of which, I was completely done with underwater. Add to that the Arkhe reactions are completely and utterly pointless, the *world* quests were long and convoluted, and I feel like there's a bunch of landscape that is being held in reserve that we just never got to explore. So maybe "dislike" isn't the wrong word so much as I'm disappointed by Fontaine. But hard agree on the stupid hydro application puzzles.
@@azuarc PFAHAH the last bit but it's nice to know there's even more ways somebody could dislike or be disappointed, which I too would describe it as 'disappointing'. Though, even with that, there was definitely agreement on the underwater bits. If I had actually exposed myself to it more, I would've began to hate it I'm sure
I agree with you on the puzzles and exploration not being as varied as other regions but i disagree with everything else you said. First of all Arlecchino is not the antagonist of Fontaine, i'd argue Fontaine doesn't have a true antagonist, rather Arlecchino is an oppotunist taking advantage of what's happening in Fontaine to further the Fatui's goals. Then you said Focalor and Furina's part in the story is messy which i agree but isn't that the point? They're doing a deception and what better way to hide the truth than making things overly complicated and hard to follow. Then you talked about how Fontaine feels jarring and too different than the other nations of Teyvat, to that i'd like to point to Natlan which you said you enjoy, right from the start the playerbase was very vocal about how Natlan's characters feels too much like they're from ZZZ instead of Genshin. Now i do admit that Fontaine is different too but right from the start we've been told that it was going to be like that, they called it the most technologically advanced nation early on, so you criticizing Fontaine while praising Natlan feels hypocritical to me. But at the end of the day it's all personal preference, i type this comment because i felt you were somewhat unfair towards Fontaine and didn't understand it fully.
@@frosty7977 yeah, I'm just explaining why I feel a certain way towards it, but to me, the Natlanian characters feel similar enough to the rest of the game. I primarily cared about the exploration and gameplay, with the story being a smaller nitpick of mine, hence why it's one section in contrast to three different sections. If it's meant to be messy, that's cool and all, but I still find it too convoluted to personally find enjoyment in it. I feel like, to me, Natlan is a hybrid of Sumeru & Liyue, while Fontaine is an alienated version of Mondstadt, which is the most Genshin-esc nation
@@ItsJustT The comment about it being alienated is on point, it's literally on a plateau seperated from everything else and it's people weren't even the same race as the rest of Teyvat humans until the finale. I feel it's an intentional design choice by the developers to make Fontaine physically and racially different from the rest of Teyvat.
@@frosty7977 the problem is, to me, I feel like, if it was, they shouldve been more on the nose with it, because it feels halfway there whether we're going full alien or full generic 😭
@@ItsJustT I also think the halfway is intentional, when we arrive in Fontaine the people are half-way to being human, Egeria made the oceanids looks like humans then Neuvillette finished the job and make them function like humans. Their origin is different but they are trying to be more like the rest of Teyvat, it's just that changing your race is something that's hard and takes a long time to fully be done.
As someone from Europe, I was looking forward to italian/french arhitecture and baroque inspired castles. Not the steampunk/futuristic style. I dont like enemies at all... Whats up with robot dogs? And everything is so far apart like in Inazuma, and here it really doesnt make sense. White stone walls and bridges with a fountain here and there. I feel like they had so much inspo to take and then took marie antoinette for archon quest and steampunk for overall vibe (with occasional victorian chair) . Which doesnt make much sense to me.
@@moony1552 I also get this. I feel like some inspiration from great Italian/french geography would've helped significantly aswell. Imagine a town with waterways like Venice or something. Could've been so cool
Whaaaaat ? The story of Fontaine is I think by far the best one so far. I mean, it still genshin impact with its shitty dialogues, but everything kinda made sens and it was clear what the focus was. We did not get disturbed by a bunch of npc, we got everyone s motivation, the sens of mystery is not lost at any point. The ending with childe and the whale could have been better though. I think arleccino was fine as a cold distant negociator and Fontaine might have the best cast. In the 3 first nations a lot of character did not matter, it really was just a checklist to sell the character. I think Fontaine told a story right
@@ItsJustTact V is literally THE best one.. you’re telling me you liked act 3 and act 4, the prison arc, more than the furina’s trial, focalor’s sacrifice, whale fight…etc ???
I'm not here to try and change your opinion, but I just need to correct you because this is the second time you have called Arlecchino the antagonist of Fontaine. Arlecchino is not and never was the antagonist of Fontaine, Celestia is the closest thing to an antagonist for Fontaine, but Fontaine doesn't really have an antagonist. Arlecchino, on the contrary, was there to help in saving Fontaine, getting the gnosis was just her duty as a harbinger but her main role in the story was to support Fontaine.
@@spacebanana712 let me reword it, I'd still consider her a red herring for the record tho But sorry, that's kinda just a tendency to refer to harbingers as antagonists ngl, considering the Fatui is painted as an antagonising faction. However, in that case, I'd say I just dislike the lack of an antagonist due to how much it goes against what typically happens, and people are fully allowed to enjoy the lack of one, because I can see why it would be great to do something different
@@ItsJustT can you please explain why you would consider it a red herring ? Because as far as I know Arlecchino was never mentionned as being there to cause problems for Fontaine. I think this might just be a case of you being used to the Fatui being antagonists, and btw expect the Fatui to be on Natlan's side because Capitano does not seem to be an antagonist and just like Arle, he seems to be there to help Natlan.
@@spacebanana712 in hindsight yes, but I can recall majority of people expecting her to be during acts 3 and 4, and to anybody going through them, I'm sure they'd expect the same. But I see your point with Natlan, hafta wait and see
I agree with this because fontaine's archon quest is so boring when furina was revealed to be a fraud and i don't like how some characters have less screen time than other like we didn't even saw sigewinnie and clorinde with some of the others that much nor new characters were added like chiori and emily and that makes them so irrelevant to add them later it would have been nice if we seen the new characters before they get added early on it will make the fandom like them more like kinich or arlecchino
How can you dont like fontain but like natlan ? Natlan is worst than Inazuma. World concept is suck, they are tribes but Xilonen is a DJ 1. Mondstat is region of freedom but Natlan people is dance more than Mondstat 2. Citlali beta is able to summon a gigantic gun while she using bow 3. How can a tribes has more modern weapon than Sumeru or Fontain ? 4. Natlan dont have leyline but it is more piece than Sumeru Withering 5. Night kingdom is brighter than Chasm How can you like worst world concept ? Maybe you are eror.
I myself disagree with everything in the video but respect the opinion i do think underwater combat is slow and stuff but i enjoyed the exploration i 100% each area in fontaine and it was super fun for me because the puzzels werent hard or annoying like inazuma and the scenery was pretty idk about natlan right now tho for fontaine i loved the steampunk design and it fits the fantasy world genshin created bc its more 1900 esc for natlan not so i hate all the character designs (cough looking at you ororon and chasca) they refuse to do research on culture when it comes to natlan for some reason and it genuinely ruins the immersion for me i dont want to sound like those annoying people but they technology mix with the cultural stuff is not fitting for genshin and out of place like it belongs in zzz or hsr i hope they dont continue this route since natlan made me consider dropping the game ive been playing since launch for fontaine i loved all the characters the design fits the 19 hundreds era genshin supposedly gives off the story was amazing loved all the characters and they did do research on stuff like furina being symbolic for marie antonet (sorry idk how to spell her name lol) and arlecchino was threatening and likeable since she wasnt in the story that much too capitano has been a disappointment in the natlan storyline man is number 1 fatui but got folded against an archon even tho the top 3 are stronger than them?? Sorry for the rant again thanks for hearing me out if you do i respect ur opinion since everyone thinks something else XD
I don't mean to come off as rude tho this video was enjoyable and I love the editing and unpopular opinions are nice to hear I do hope you can see why I like nations like fontaine and some of the older nations but not natlan tho the only thing I like about it is the scenery I hope the natlan era flies by fast bc I don't wanna pull for anyone and I have so many primos saved up 😭💜
@@lunaristicmoth yeah, I think they did well with mixing the more modern stuff with the rest of the game. I just don't like it much and I think because it's so exclusive to Fontaine, it feels out of place solely by proxy. Most nations have one or two other similar ones, but Fontaine has some weird association to Mondstadt in my eyes that isn't really for any real reason lol
I see your points, but I have a different perspective. My favorite regions are Mondstadt, Inazuma, Fontaine, and Natlan. I find the Archon quests in these areas, especially Fontaine and Inazuma, much more enjoyable. Their smaller sizes let me explore while completing the main story, so I can cover a good amount of the world. While Liyue and Sumeru are visually stunning, I didn't connect with their Archon quests as much, and their vast maps can feel overwhelming. The desert, in particular, is not my favorite-I just can't get into it.
Yeah, I definitely think you'd prefer the colder nations, and that isn't something I've seen often surprisingly. However, I'm glad you do, and that you can still understand where I'm coming from despite it
7:07 this part is probably why fontaine is my favorite nation. While I do agree with a lot of the points you brought up, ig what I rlly liked abt Fontaine was how i felt more incentivized to do world quests as i unlocked new areas in the process. And i love when world quests in genshin allow you to access new areas. On top of the characters and lore. I totally get where youre coming from but overall I think the architecture is why i love the nation so much and a big reason im excited for Snezhnaya
It's great how my reasons can be used as reasons why others love the nation. It's primarily why I mentioned the architecture thing, since I don't want people to feel pressured to agree with me, nor do I want others to do the same in the comments. If this video helps you feel more clearly in any side of the argument, I've done my job
Mediocre? There is nothing above mediocre in this game's lore. Maybe you had less time irl during Fontaine arc to get properly irritated at the game to notice.
sorry but i heavily dislike sumeru but i do agree about fontaine bc i just dont enjoy any game with water levels bc it feels so weird and clunk, name 1 game that has a good water level 😭🙏
sumeru is alright the repeating story was really interesting and the last part with nahida and [REDACTED] made me wanna cry. The world building in sumeru was amazing tho.
@@YourAverageLoser763 oh no i loved sumerus story but i HATE the exploration, atp i would hire someone to finish sumeru for mw because mist of ots exploration is hidden behind world quests that r unskippable
@@-amel-9896 I'm sorry but she was definitely teased as somebody who would make waves once she got there. Since V2.0 mind you. She was oppressive in an Inazuman story quest, described is psychotic, deceptive and incomprehensible in Childe and Scaramouche's lines, with the only other character reaching similar levels of fear being Columbina in Childe's, and just her design, with the red crosses on her eyes screams evil to me. Despite this, I know she was intentionally not an antagonist, and im just saying I don't like it. I know it fits very well with the theme of Fontaine due to deception being a big one that lends itself, but I just don't like it, same with the lack of a clear antagonist, even if it's a smart way of bringing the themes together. It's not objective, but subjective, so sometimes I don't care for themes
Arlecchino is not the main antagonist *facepalm* Like i would read the rest of the video but i kinda stopped to comment on this right here Like Fontaine quest is long yes but it isnt bad for people especially for lore enjoyers
@@OmniMon94 i never said it was bad for anyone besides myself, because it's my opinion. The video is called why I dislike Fontaine, not why you should too. My goal is to have people strengthen their own opinions, like or dislike, not just agree with me. I feel like hearing an opposing opinion can further your own beliefs too. However, I know alot about Arlecchino considering she's been in three videos. I don't wanna repeat everything since I've said it multiple times now, but she's been hyped to be an antagonist, and I'm upset she wasn't. I'm not upset that she IS one and fails at her job, but rather that she wasn't one to begin with, and also that there is no true antagonist. I don't care if it lends itself to themes, because I don't care for the themes. I just dislike it
@@ItsJustT oh... Yeah you have a point Sorry if I didn't read much into it. I just kinda felt that calling Arlecchino the main antagonist felt off. But I do get why you think that way since they advertised it like that.
@@OmniMon94 it's all good, I get it. I miscommunicated a bit as I didn't think people would care much about a single sentence in my video lol. No worries
