Genshin Impact

[Liddo-kun]

@Flamesparkz

thanks. Floor 12 requires some preparations though. Need a bit of time.

that's a nice picture of Xiangling and Guoba, fits the mountain background well.

here's my photoshoot with Keqing.

Spoiler:

____________

Plot spoilers for Nilou story quest and Nahida archon quest.

Spoiler:

Feels weird to be doing Nilou story after Nahida archon quest is resolved.

Now that the sages who want the dance abolished are overthrown. Inayah's dad who wants to tear down the stage.. I think Kusanali or Cyno would just kick his ass if they found out he plans to do such a thing.
We don't need to go through this debate at all.

[larethian]

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[Liddo-kun]

big thanks to Palsa-san for this early Christmas gift. Yoimiya and Ayaka mouse.

Spoiler:

[Liddo-kun]

Miko banner almost over..

America = 1 Miko, 1 Xiangling, 1 Thoma
Asia = 1 Miko, 4 Layla
Europe = 3 Thoma, 1 Favonius Warbow

got plagued by so many Thoma in Europe. Best pulls are from Asia, Layla is so fun to use. She even sleeps in the skill.

[Liddo-kun]

To those who can vote. Please vote Genshin.

https://thegameawards.com/brackets/players-voice

[relentlessflame]

Spoiler for 3.3 Archon Interlude Quest:

I finished this last night; it's definitely worthy of the "interlude" label as it's a lot more about understanding/reconciling Scaramouche's past than anything else (along with more of the past of The Doctor and a glimpse at more Fatui backstory). It's basically a "coda" to resolve the dangling plot thread, and might have otherwise been Wanderer's character quest.

If you consider Irminsul like a really advanced computer and Teyvat as the simulation it is running (or perhaps Irminsul as one of the many systems powering it), this interlude gives you a bit more of an idea of how the tech apparently works.

• The simulation is essentially self-healing, so if you try to modify something, it will try to self-correct to have the smallest cascading impact possible.
• Physical evidence *can* be modified as part of the change (e.g., books rewriting themselves along with people's memories), but only if it is considered essential to maintaining consistency. (The voice at the end suggests that it's only things related to knowledge and memories somehow but without actually changing reality itself, although this definition of "knowledge" is broad since it impacts physical items containing knowledge.)
• It is possible (at least for a god) to "protect" data from rewrites in the simulation using encryption (via allegory/metaphor), but it likely requires someone "outside the system" to provide the key so they know what they have (which normally wouldn't be possible except for the Descenders existing).

So in other words, it would presumably not be possible for anyone to manipulate Irminsul to rewrite history so that the destruction of Khaenri'ah never happened -- even if you tried, everyone would still face the same fate even if the "explanation" for it were to change. (Whether the Abyss Order knows this or not is a good question.) But clearly you can make changes. Scaramouche couldn't really wipe himself from Irminsul, but he could rewrite what he did and everyone's memories of him. Likewise, we now know that Rukkhadevata couldn't *actually* wipe herself out from existence entirely, but could use Kusanali/Nahida as a sort of proxy to inherit the resulting alternate history (to minimize the "diffs," as it were). So we're back to the issue presented last time about why the traveler's sibling is considered part of the simulation. Was that "written in", by who, and why? And who is the Descender presumably "guiding" this change to Teyvat's history? (Meeting another descender is clearly the next important step to continue this plotline. I presume someone connected to the Fatui is a descender -- maybe Pierro given the lore drop in this quest?)

As for Scaramouche himself... this whole thing is basically trying to create a plausible quasi-redemption path for him (at least where he moves from pure-evil to more... chaotic-neutral?), but mostly for us to experience the rest of his backstory (which is really "The Puppet Without a Heart who Felt Too Much"). Even now, I'm not too sure what to think about him and everything that happened.

It seems a bit weird to me that, in all this time knowing the kind of person Dottore is, he seemingly never considered that Dottore/the Fatui might have been the one who set things up in Tatarasuna and instead just kept on believing that they betrayed him. (The blame he placed on the innocent sick child was messed up, and surely he knew that, and the "revenge" he took on the Raiden Gokaden is just inexplicably evil.) His villain motivation is basically "rather than feel sad again, I'll be the one making others sad and have my revenge!" All that smug superiority was, exactly as expected, masking a deep inferiority complex. He has the emotional development of a child/young teen, which I guess is partly why despite his big mouth he is not opposed to aligning (kind of) with Nahida -- it's like he wants to be useful to someone, which seems very on-the-nose mommy issues. And his weirdly accepting of us giving him a name (and rejecting the names from his past) is kind of "I still see myself as a tool defined by others" (which he also basically said) -- like he still hasn't really embraced that, as Nahida said, he's as human as anyone. So he got some character development here but it still in a weird unresolved place. I suppose maybe they're saying that it's in the course of his interactions with the traveler that it'll resolve itself over time, but I feel like it really only headed that way to give plausible reason for him to be a playable character.

The storytelling mechanics were pretty wooden this round, too. Having you read these two long stories/essays right near the start was such a blatant lore dump... even though there was another reason that came up later. And the plot points were way too convenient, even more than last time. Even though it ostensibly takes place in the open world, this is much more of a stage play -- in fact, if you see the whole thing as a standalone theatrical production, it may even work better in some ways.

The conversation at the very end is clearly leading us to the next region, and obviously the plot points here are carrying forward, so I guess we'll see where they go next.

[Liddo-kun]

finished the Interlude quest yesterday.

Spoiler:

one benefit is this scary puppet won't be hostile to the Traveler anymore. And now he's hostile to the fatui. Probably not enough strength to defeat the Doctor all by himself, because fatui ranked 2 have the power to fight a god.

Would be nice if there will be a follow up quest to this where the Wanderer would meet Kazuha, Ayaka, and Ayato.

[Liddo-kun]

Victory for Genshin. We get free primos.

https://thegameawards.com/brackets/players-voice

[Marina2]

TCG is so enjoyable. I have a lot of fun with it more than expected.

I am experimenting on Superconduct team right now. (Ayaka and Diona + Keijing or Fischl)

[Klashikari]

I can't say I enjoyed the Interlude due to the glaring contrived plot points.

Spoiler for 3.3 MSQ Interlude:

The one thing I was really afraid of happening was a half baked attempt to "redeem" Scaramouche. Even if they kept saying "people forgot your sins but you still have to bear them" as an attempt to make him more sympathetic while defecting the Fatui at the same time, it felt incredibly convoluted but also too convenient.

The erasure of Rukkhadevata was kind of a mixed thing considering how half baked the resolution was about her erasure in general but I could give the benefit of doubt since there was still some logic to her non existence. But Scaramouche's is a complete different can of worms considering his Harbringer status and how his actions affected so many people, directly and indirectly. Frankly speaking, the whole process of weak reality warping seems like a bandaid narrative element to justify the rewritten history without dealing with the usual butterfly effect to avoid any kind of paradox. Sure, it is heavily hinted that every individuals in Teyvat are stuck in some kind of matrix-like simulation but the effects of Inmirsul onto that world sounds more like a McGuffin than something properly established. Case in point: the fact Nahida could weave that tale as a backup, still existing AND containing a full backup of Scaramouche's memories, didn't sit well with me. Not to mention that Scaramouche didn't seem to have any issue to issue that erasure command just like that.
Additionally, the whole deal with the Tree makes the rest of the story not exactly thrilling because the interlude proved that Nahida isn't the only entity that can issue data manipulation with the tree. Because of this, every single bits of information are potentially tempered, including what happened to the Traveler's sibling, which is very likely the reason why they are treated as a Teyvat Native.


Meanwhile, everything related to Scaramouche converted into the Wanderer felt way too convenient for sake of making him playable to a certain degree. If anything, I'm not sure why they took that route instead of making him a more recurrent antagonist that could delves into his past over the course of the story. This is something I noticed with this interlude: Yes, Scaramouche was very dangerous every time the Traveler crossed path with him but that only happened twice, and very briefly to boot. Yet, during that interlude, the way how the Traveler and Paimon reacted felt as if Scaramouche was a nemesis, even though they pretty much interacted with him as much as Signora. I would have entertained that idea if Scaramouche was seen as often as Tartaglia to warrant such kind of treatment. If anything, if we had Scaramouche present during most Fatui incidents during the MSQ and some events like 1.1, it would have helped to shed some light to what's going on with the fatui.

Which also lead to another issue with Scaramouche: his motivations are distorded and petty but fit his backstory in general. What doesn't really make much sense is his willingness to cooperate with the Fatui who don't even seem to align with his objectives, except "maybe" Dottore, and even then, seeing Scaramouche complaining about Dottore experiments make me wonder if Scara is a complete masochist.

Really, while all the karmic retribution and acceptance of past sins and the likes could work with him, the execution is pretty flat and felt incredibly disingenuous, borderline insulting even.

Meanwhile, I sure hope MHY will add some QoL for the card game without spending too much resource on it overall. It is a cute minigame, sort of, but I can't say I dig the pacing and balance of the card game.

[Liddo-kun]

enjoying the new TCG game. Cute.

also now finally able to rest and relax on this banner, because not pulling for Wanderer or Itou.
during the Nillou, Nahida, and Miko banner.. was always sleeping past 12 pm everyday for primos on quests, events, bashing monsters in the abyss (lol). Can have the sleeping time back to 10 pm now.
Nilou is the only 5-star I have on all three servers (besides the traveler). She's very reliable.

gonna save primos for Raiden rerun.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Spoiler for 3.3 MSQ Interlude:

Which also lead to another issue with Scaramouche: his motivations are distorded and petty but fit his backstory in general. What doesn't really make much sense is his willingness to cooperate with the Fatui who don't even seem to align with his objectives, except "maybe" Dottore, and even then, seeing Scaramouche complaining about Dottore experiments make me wonder if Scara is a complete masochist.

Spoiler for 3.3 Interlude Plot:

Regarding this point in particular... I'm not sure about masochist exactly, but it seems like this "puppet" has a sort of compulsion for having someone serve as the "puppet master." I thought that even with the very end where he agrees quasi-align with Nahida and allows the Traveler to pick their new name. It's like he still doesn't entirely embrace his own identity; he still has to be partly defined by and tied to someone else. And that, I do agree, seems pretty much done as an excuse to make him a playable character.

If I imagine what would make sense for someone like Scaramouche having regained his memories but now being free of the obligations tied to them (a very convenient and enviable fate for a villain!), I would have thought he'd want to be totally free and tied to no one -- to truly embrace being a wanderer. And I guess he kinda sorta did, but he still has this sort of loose alliance and allows the traveler to pick his name. So it's like he hasn't really broken free of his chains yet... and in a way it's like we're keeping him caged (like "you're the puppet master, now"). It's almost a bit unsettling, and definitely made him feel a bit less than human (despite Nahida's statement otherwise). Again, like arrested development for the sake of giving them a tie to the traveler.

It feels like he didn't really have to pay anything for his crimes in the end, and there's no atonement or acknowledgement of guilt at all. (People had this complaint about Ei in the Inazuma questlines at first, but here it's extremely blatant.) I guess perhaps it will come up later, as he's clearly not written out of the narrative entirely, but I'm betting most likely he'll appear again as an occasional prop and they'll mostly treat the whole "past thing" as wrapped up now. We'll see.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Spoiler for 3.3 MSQ Interlude:

Meanwhile, everything related to Scaramouche converted into the Wanderer felt way too convenient for sake of making him playable to a certain degree. If anything, I'm not sure why they took that route instead of making him a more recurrent antagonist that could delves into his past over the course of the story. This is something I noticed with this interlude: Yes, Scaramouche was very dangerous every time the Traveler crossed path with him but that only happened twice, and very briefly to boot. Yet, during that interlude, the way how the Traveler and Paimon reacted felt as if Scaramouche was a nemesis, even though they pretty much interacted with him as much as Signora. I would have entertained that idea if Scaramouche was seen as often as Tartaglia to warrant such kind of treatment. If anything, if we had Scaramouche present during most Fatui incidents during the MSQ and some events like 1.1, it would have helped to shed some light to what's going on with the fatui.

Spoiler for 3.3 Interlude Plot:

Well, I do think the "nemesis" angle was fairly justified here. Not only is he a Fatui Harbinger (which they have plenty of reasons to distrust in general), they know of his past murder spree in Inazuma, he was overseeing the delusion factory that killed many in the Watatsumi resistance, and he personally tried to kill the traveler multiple times (1.1, 2.1, and the finale in 3.2). Plus, the traveler had that disturbing telepathic encounter while in the Gazebo with Haypasia where he talked about his hatred for all humanity, so it's pretty personal at this point. He could have appeared more, agreed... but I still think it's fairly justified to present him as a personal nemesis at this point.

Other than that, though, I agree that so many of the plot developments felt a bit too convenient/contrived -- the pieces fell together too nicely. (Walk up to the sanctuary and they're talking about him. Walk into the sanctuary and he's right there! Walk out of the sanctuary again and for some reason decide to immediately go to the one location where he of course is. Shocker! The whole world apparently is conspiring to bring us together with Scaramouche.) So in that sense developing this whole thing over longer in the story could have helped. It's using a very small stage to tell what is supposed to be a very broad tale. Some of the elements themselves I still liked well enough, but yeah... no avoiding the extremely blatant hand of the author.

Hopefully I'll have time to try the TCG over the weekend. I've never really played much of these kinds of card games, but I imagine it'll probably be rather newbie friendly given its placement in this game.

[GDB]

My favorite deck at the moment is a Yoimiya/Ayaka core. Will probably slap Chongyun into the third slot. Blitzes hard against setup decks, though Geo decks will probably give it a little trouble.

[Liddo-kun]

finished with Nilou story quest.

Spoiler:

satisfied with how it ended. Inayah in good relation again with her dad. Looks like he is glad to see that his daughter is able to find some good friends.

[Liddo-kun]

Done the first four Realm of Sand event. Primos are always good.

Surprised at how strong Nahida is. Feeling a bit sad I failed to get a copy of her in any server. She would have kicked butt in Spiral Abyss together with my Keqing.

[FlameSparkZ]

Originally Posted by Marina2

TCG is so enjoyable. I have a lot of fun with it more than expected.

I am experimenting on Superconduct team right now. (Ayaka and Diona + Keijing or Fischl)

Originally Posted by GDB

My favorite deck at the moment is a Yoimiya/Ayaka core. Will probably slap Chongyun into the third slot. Blitzes hard against setup decks, though Geo decks will probably give it a little trouble.

I've been using a Fischl, Collei and Keqing deck to trigger Quicken, and also summoning OZ and Cuilein-Anbar to deal bonus damage at the end phase.

[MeoTwister5]

After seeing the leaks on Alhaitham... he will be only the 2nd 5 star male I'll have rolled for, the first being Big Dong Zhong. Thank god I have enough for Dehya.

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

Surprised at how strong Nahida is. Feeling a bit sad I failed to get a copy of her in any server. She would have kicked butt in Spiral Abyss together with my Keqing.

Being able to get her when she was offered, I've had her on my team, and she definitely does a lot of damage when it comes to Burning, and considering how my "main" deck features Yoimiya and Keqing, I wonder if I should have her replace one of the other members of it in some situations.

[Liddo-kun]

@TnAdct1

congrats on having Kusanali. :>

my chance to get her was really low to begin with, had already exhausted the stocked primos to get Nilou on Asia, America, and Europe server. There was no time for me to re-stock, because Nahida banner came directly after Nilou. Europe literally started from zero Intertwined Fate. lol

just gotta wait for some months for dendro archon re-run.

looking on the positive side of things. Nilou has been great help, no regrets using up primos for her. Also managed to get Keqing during Nilou's banner (another character that I've always wanted to have).

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by TnAdct1

Being able to get her when she was offered, I've had her on my team, and she definitely does a lot of damage when it comes to Burning, and considering how my "main" deck features Yoimiya and Keqing, I wonder if I should have her replace one of the other members of it in some situations.

Dendro alone pretty much redeemed Electro in general, especially Keqing. This is particularly noticeable with Nahida considering her dendro application is strong enough to deal with Keqing electro infusion.
That said, I prefer using hyperbloom setup with Nahida, Fischl, Yelan and Shinobu since it is more flexible against group of enemies, whereas it is a bit more tricky with Aggravate even with Kazuha.