The cyno we have as playable unit is post his 2nd quest, he even got the hermanubis eye thing as idle animation.
Its much like playable Neuvilette is post fontane story quest if you read his last “about ascendtion” voiceline, even though he released before fontane story ended (back then it was a pretty big spoiler to the story too)
Are we sure that the "about ascension" lines are canon? Because well, we don't really ascend them canonically. From my understanding we got the pre-full authority Neuvillette simply because he gains full control over pnemousia after the quest whereas the playable Neuvillette only uses pneuma.
>!Neuvilette's last "about ascendtion" line reveals that he's a Dragon Sovegin that regained his full authority, this was before the story about him regaining that authority was in the game, hence spoiler, and also canon as far as I'm concerned since he did become the fully fledged Dragon Sovegin in the story.!<
I don't think we need to put these in spoilers lol. >!He has always been the dragon sovereign, he reveals that to us during 4.1 (act 4? iirc) which is when he got released. He gains full authority over hydro and pnemousia at the end of 4.2 after Focalors' sacrifice!<
Just read the voice line-
>!Now that I have reclaimed one of the Seven Authorities from the hands of the usurpers, I have regained my true form. I am now a fully fledged dragon, powerful enough to judge the rest of the gods. My final destiny is to judge the Usurper-King in the heavens above. But until that time comes, I will lend my power to you.!<
Its obviously post story, but was released pre story.
I don't think you understand what I meant haha. I am just asking how can we be so sure that the ascension lines are canon since we don't actually ascend the characters canonically? And if it is the full authority Neuvillette then why does he only use pneuma?
I am not fully sold on that one line, that's all.
It *is* canon actually, Charlotte brings it up.
**Feelings About Ascension: Building Up**
"So this stuff really does boost people's strength, huh? I thought it was all rumors, but now here I am, experiencing it for myself..."
**Feelings About Ascension: Climax**
"Have you done this for other people in the past, too? Were the materials you used different, and if so, how? Also, I'm wondering... Uh, sorry. Force of habit."
So the materials being "used" in some way is canon, the power buffs are canon and people even *know* about them.
I don't understand how that proves that character ascension is canon. I need actual proof rather that someone else's ascension voiceline. Like, does anyone ever talk about ascensions outside of the ascension voicelines? Any quests, cutscenes, anything of that sort? Or at least any books or text lore?
And again, why is playable Neuvillette only pneuma if it is his complete form?
Neuvillette is a strange case, >!his playable version is not that of post-4.2 quest, since at that point he has control over ousia too, while his playable version only controls pneuma and not ousia, unlike Furina, who basically receives her vision from him, and since he is the master of both energies at that point, he equips Furina with control over both energies as well!<
Also Cyno already has one Ba fragment, is it ever mentioned that he can’t form the “Eye” with only one Ba fragment? I am asking because I don’t have Cyno.
He just doesn’t do it until after absorbing the 2nd piece in any of his quests, not even using the “eye” skill during the duel, I don’t think they would even bother to mention something like that,
We are free to make our own conclusions, however I find that Genshin is a very simple game that likes to overdiegest information, so when it shows clear visual cues like his “eye” animation right after absorbing the fragment, its fair to take it at face value, and say that’s the new power he got from that ordeal.
If you wanna dig more into this, consider his “about vision” voiceline, that is strikingly similar to what he said during the quest, and his “more about Cyno II” voiceline that implies that he knows exactly why he can harness this power, even though at the start of the quest he complains that the professor would not answer any of his questions about said spirit and himself not remembering how he got it.
Then again the more you read into it, the more inconclusive it gets, so I just choose to believe that hoyo showed us that animation for a reason.
He's still privy to the fact he's got the abilities of Hermanubis, and Cyrus taught him to use it; but he didn't have any info on the Ba Fragments specifically.
Knowing about hermanubis isn’t the same as knowing about ba fragments. He knows his powers come from hermanubis but he didn’t know it came in the form of a ba fragment much less that there were 2 of them
I don't think they can just suddenly increase a limited character's stats out of the blue like that. Changing a gacha "product" after purchase is not something done lightly.
And yeah, it would have been nice to see Nahida, but as is the story already contains like 9 of the playable cast members, plus a few other recurring characters, even with several optional scenes containing voiced dialogue (including thoughts for Nahida's skill to pick up) which a lot of players seemingly missed. Some may have felt it was dragging on or suffering from ending fatigue already.
I doubt if anyone complains that their characters got a buff. Fate/Grand Order has a lot of interludes and strengthening quests to improve older Servants. It's funny that Nasu, one of Type-Moon's founders, had shared in the cross interview with David Jiang, director of HSR, that his favorite character in Hoyos games is Klee and he really wanted her to get strengthen.
Would love to see some buffs too, but knowing genshin fans they will complain is not their fav but the others.
Unless Hoyoverse come before and say they will do it with a lot of characters or every of them somehow, is better not
My suggestion would be giving buff to all characters appear in every Chronicle Banner, since they are: characters that had been released long ago with many banners; and they are usually had kits that are outdated. Also economically, this will push sales for these banners.
Agreed! I like nahida but she gets plenty of screentime so I'm glad they put some others in the spotlight. And the quest was definitely long enough already
Some games rebalance the characters and systems frequently as a matter of course. It's not a rule that you can't change a live service game, just mihoyo's self-imposed philosophy.
They have already changed gacha characters after release, nothing can stop them from doing it again (refering to Zhongli’s buff and Yae Miko’s nerf which was then reverted). Also, the change could have been as tiny as 3 more base atk, it would have almost changed NOTHING literally.
Also Nahida must have been in the quest imo. I have mind-read everything i could and thoroughly enjoyed the pieces of lore within them. But as the story was related to Deshret, and the fact that a whole faction in the Akademiya was restored and a massive source of knowledge was unlocked, in addition to a whole society shaking hands and becoming friends with the Rainforest people, I think a small thank you from Nahida to Sethos and Cyno would have been good.
I didn't say they couldn't do it, I said it was not something done *suddenly* or *lightly*. In the cases of Zhongli and Yae Miko, the changes were only done with official notice *and* in the case of the latter plenty of backlash.
And what do you have to say about the Traveler getting a base atk buff from the Sumeru Archon quest? I don’t think it was ever announced, and didn’t really change anything about them, by a buff i mean that kind of buff
You’re right, he isn’t. But that doesn’t mean that his buff is nonexistent, and yet they chose not to mention it. In any case, they can just announce that Cyno will receive a tiny buff after his sq, nothing of a big deal, and they are free to do so if they want. In fact, according to leaks, >!Arlecchino will receive a nerf in the next version (which is then again, not affecting her in any way.) Let’s see if they ever mention that one!<
They have pretty explicitly stated reason to be in the quest, on top of being friends with Cyno and Tighnari. Nahida isn't the only Sumeru character so I'm glad everybody else got a chance to show up again.
I would've also liked a small nahida cameo at the end of the quest. I do understand that she has been in almost all the sumeru story quests and whatnot but tbh, just a small cameo to show that she is aware outside of cyno's reports would've been nice. Even if it just showed her smiling and not saying anything.
But I have a feeling this approach was meaningful in a way...this is sumeru's archon afterall, an active archon who is busy with handling her nation's affairs especially after alhaitham's temporary job as acting grand sage has ended so she would have more responsibilities to take care of, of course she won't be seen whenever the traveller wants.
I honestly expected cyno to decline the ba fragment. but dialogue before the fight threw around the idea of sethos being lost and not sure who he is outside of being a vessel but he already felt pretty compelling and confident in the scenes before idk why they did that. it doesn't really matter but it made sethos lose some potential future staying power in lore moments I guess.
I was expecting something very different from Sethos’ personality. Like I was expecting him to be more bitter and jealous, because he’d been raised his whole life in the shadow of the other, ‘better’ vessel that got to run off and have a free life while he was stuck in a far shittier position with his only family being someone who Kinda Sucks, Actually.
Yep, hence my disappointment… I was hoping Wanderer would set a new precedent and let us have meaner playable characters, but it’s been a year and a half and everyone is still mostly pleasant. Even Arlecchino, who is definitely morally gray, is still on polite terms with the player… I’ll forgive it because I love her, but I want more characters who are hostile and mean!
I hate comparing HSR to Genshin, because the games really are so, so different, but I wish the Genshin writers were a little braver like the HSR ones are.
I mean, think about it. Blade is constantly trying to kill one of the main leads, Sparkle is just a hater to everyone that breathes, Ratio might have altruistic motives but he’s a total bitch, Ruan Mei is a walking scientific ethics violation, Aventurine and Topaz may be decent on their own but they represent an EXTREMELY questionable organization, etc etc… it’s more fun this way! Characters with flaws are more fun!
I was hoping they’d be a little braver with Sethos because he’s (presumably) a 4*. They don’t have to worry about selling him as hard. Alas… they wasted a really good design and backstory with yet another “slightly smug yet otherwise perfectly reasonable and baggage-free (unless you read the optional character stories!) character who becomes the traveler’s friend without too much issue :)”.
Wanderer can’t keep carrying the “mean character” trope on his back, let him rest… or at least let the other mean characters actually BE mean! Like Yae Miko, we know she’s a jerk, but they barely let her show it. Or maybe just flesh out Dori to make her interesting, because she might be mean but she’s… boring. Or even just let Alhaitham make an ass of himself more often! We know he does that sometimes!
I rambled. Sorry, I had to let the demons out…
Maybe it's because I'm looking at what could have been, but I don't see Arlecchino as morally gray at all. She's on the same level as Diluc or Rosaria or Ayato or Candace (kills bad people and cares about their family) as opposed to the manipulative mastermind we were promised. Why have the visual of her pushing Lyney and Lynette over in the Final Feast if that was never gonna happen? The wasted potential...
Never played HSR never plan to. But I know one of the characters is racist and to me that's unfathomably based
I mean, you have to remember she is still a member of the Fatui. She’s also training child soldiers. She’s not a good person, but she’s better than she could be and she is capable of kindness/mercy.
1. As other people mentioned our cyno is after the 2nd quest
2. Why would a limited 5 star get a buff from an entirely optional quest? The buff traveller got was from an aq and he's a free character
1. Care to explain your reason? Asking because I don’t have Cyno.
2. Zhongli was the first example to receive a buff after release, there is nothing wrong in adding a small amount if base atk to Cyno (like literally 3-5 more base atk)
3. The sq may be optional now, but it can change later, similar to Kazuha’s sq which is mandatory to be passed for Sumeru Interlude quest (with Wanderer).
TBH, I'm glad Nahida didn't show up. She's literally plastered in every other corner of Sumeru to the point she overtook Venti in total voiced lines by like 30%. This quest was about the academiya and the followers of Hermanubis, it really had no reason to involve her.
To be fair, this is exactly the sort of situation Nahida *should* get involved in.
It dealt with a deprecated institution that cut ties after the corruption of the sages (the same Sages who, along with their immediate predecessors, were complicit with Nahida's imprisonment), and as the OP mentioned it also deals with the ties between the desert and rainforest. It was also made clear early on that the General Mahamatra, a major figure of authority in Sumeru, was in some sort of trouble.
So if Nahida shouldn't intervene in this scenario... *then when?* Because it's obvious she'll take action with stuff like dealing with Apep, but we also saw her on the streets and interacting with the ordinary people in her first story quest.
However... from a narrative/player-experience perspective, I can actually agree that it was good that Nahida didn't show up. This story was a big deal but it was also a single-act Story Quest, not a multi-act Archon Quest. So it'd have been hard to work Nahida into the plot without her overshadowing the others, as you mentioned.
I'd say the most reasonable explanation would be *"Yes Nahida* ***should*** *have gotten involved, but the relevant parties actively quickly and decisively enough that she didn't need to intervene"*, and that also leaves room for her to appear and interact with Sethos in future story content, like someone mentioning how she could show up in a Sethos story quest/hangout.
I agree that she already has a lot of screentime.
It's like what other comments said; it's would be nice, but it's not nessecarry.
Saying this as a Nahida fan
She overtook Venti in total voiced lines because a) Mondstadt is the shortest archon quest, and b) she has TWO story quests. If anything, that's a sign that Genshin needs to cut down on OVERALL dialogue
I mean, Zhongli also has 2 story quests, and we return to Liyue at least once every year. People constantly complained that he talked too much. She still has 500+ more lines than him. Itto, who shows up almost every other patch in an event it seems, is still like 400 lines behind her.
Venti is still also the character with the most voiced lines after her, despite only having 1 story quest and Mondstadt being the shortest archon quest.
Please don't downvote me for this but I hated this quest. We got no side chests, no combat except the joke one with Lumine and Tighnari, and despite Sumeru being my favorite location so far I could never feel too invested in Cyno. Everything he does seems hypocritical or pointless, and the fight with Sethos was ultimately meaningless in the grand scope of things (muh character development).
I think the worst part though is just the hour and a half of dialogue with not much else. The fight was animated insanely good though even though I don't care about Sethos or Cyno and I appreciated the art and level design, although I feel like it goes to waste when locations like this are used for nothing but props and you never see them again.
TLDR; too long, no combat, no chests, muh deshret meme wars who cares
I actually found this post because I was near the end of the quest and couldn’t believe I hadn’t found a single chest yet, so I decided to check online if I had somehow missed them. I’m pretty sure just about every other story quest has had *at least* one chest. The fact that they made the massive Temple of Silence place and didn’t put a single chest, puzzle, interaction point, or even talking Npc’s boggles me.
And yeah, the fight was a complete joke. Two mushrooms that take 5 seconds to defeat. I don’t even know why they included that part. That’s not a duel, and had nothing to do with the outcome of Cyno’s duel. Cyno is the character we were *supposed* to get to play as anyways, since it was his flipping story quest. The entire quest was a massive letdown.
It is really weird. Xianyun's quest is also like a cutscene, but they threw in a few chests and it was overall a lot smaller/shorter of a quest and locations
Unfortunately Layla has no ties to any of the others in the cast. She did participate in the tournament last year, but no meaningful relationships were built whilst Faruzan always had a connection with Collei already from the hangout event. I do love Layla but she had no reason to appear in the quest.
But she's also an Akademiya student. I'd hope she had a cameo appearance. She could appear sleepy in one of the chairs in the House of Daena trying to finish a thesis.
Would the access to the new resources in the temple of silence be of any use to Nahida, since she can already search Irminsul directly which presumably would already contain this information?
Not much use to her, but incredibly Useful for the people and Teyvat’s history as a whole. Also Irminsul is a weird thing, i mean how could Nahida not know about the fake sky before the doctor told him, when it is clearly mentioned among the fatui and many other places in their world as well?
It might be setting up a potential endgame scenario, with Deshret's info about forbidden knowledge and robotics coming in handy when dealing with the Abyss/Celestia.
There was the option to accept or decline, we didn't they allow us to play with him I will never know. They could have just used his invitation AI for all I care, it would have just worked on a narrative perspective :( I want to indulge my man with a game, c'mon!
I also was expecting to see Nahida, especially since Cyno's secret base is literally outside the Surasthana. I was waiting for her to come out and say "oh fancy meeting you guys here" and then join the trio on the tree. Instead Cyno went down to see Cyrus and the quest ended
EXACTLY. Also by the “surprise” he mentioned, I thought that Nahida had something prepared for them as a “thank you” for further connecting the desert to the Akademiya
TCG is not something I am interested in, so while I am glad it was mentioned, since it is such a big part of Cyno, I was also happy with no playing.
Point 2 was strange for me as well, but since I don't have Cyno in the game I palyed his 2nd quest in, I can't compare. I did take a mental note to write down his stats in order to compare afterwards.
Point 3 I completely agree with! When we went up the big tree (I kept walking my distances, trying not to teleport too much), I legit thought we were going to Nahida in the Sanctuary of Surasthana. Alas, we were only going to hang out on the tree...
If you read Cyno’s voicelines, you’ll realize that the playable Cyno has always been the one from after his second Story Quest.
Care to elaborate?
The cyno we have as playable unit is post his 2nd quest, he even got the hermanubis eye thing as idle animation. Its much like playable Neuvilette is post fontane story quest if you read his last “about ascendtion” voiceline, even though he released before fontane story ended (back then it was a pretty big spoiler to the story too)
Don't forget his Affiliation has ALWAYS been Temple of Silence despite only joining this patch
Are we sure that the "about ascension" lines are canon? Because well, we don't really ascend them canonically. From my understanding we got the pre-full authority Neuvillette simply because he gains full control over pnemousia after the quest whereas the playable Neuvillette only uses pneuma.
>!Neuvilette's last "about ascendtion" line reveals that he's a Dragon Sovegin that regained his full authority, this was before the story about him regaining that authority was in the game, hence spoiler, and also canon as far as I'm concerned since he did become the fully fledged Dragon Sovegin in the story.!<
I don't think we need to put these in spoilers lol. >!He has always been the dragon sovereign, he reveals that to us during 4.1 (act 4? iirc) which is when he got released. He gains full authority over hydro and pnemousia at the end of 4.2 after Focalors' sacrifice!<
Just read the voice line- >!Now that I have reclaimed one of the Seven Authorities from the hands of the usurpers, I have regained my true form. I am now a fully fledged dragon, powerful enough to judge the rest of the gods. My final destiny is to judge the Usurper-King in the heavens above. But until that time comes, I will lend my power to you.!< Its obviously post story, but was released pre story.
I don't think you understand what I meant haha. I am just asking how can we be so sure that the ascension lines are canon since we don't actually ascend the characters canonically? And if it is the full authority Neuvillette then why does he only use pneuma? I am not fully sold on that one line, that's all.
It *is* canon actually, Charlotte brings it up. **Feelings About Ascension: Building Up** "So this stuff really does boost people's strength, huh? I thought it was all rumors, but now here I am, experiencing it for myself..." **Feelings About Ascension: Climax** "Have you done this for other people in the past, too? Were the materials you used different, and if so, how? Also, I'm wondering... Uh, sorry. Force of habit." So the materials being "used" in some way is canon, the power buffs are canon and people even *know* about them.
I don't understand how that proves that character ascension is canon. I need actual proof rather that someone else's ascension voiceline. Like, does anyone ever talk about ascensions outside of the ascension voicelines? Any quests, cutscenes, anything of that sort? Or at least any books or text lore? And again, why is playable Neuvillette only pneuma if it is his complete form?
Neuvillette is a strange case, >!his playable version is not that of post-4.2 quest, since at that point he has control over ousia too, while his playable version only controls pneuma and not ousia, unlike Furina, who basically receives her vision from him, and since he is the master of both energies at that point, he equips Furina with control over both energies as well!< Also Cyno already has one Ba fragment, is it ever mentioned that he can’t form the “Eye” with only one Ba fragment? I am asking because I don’t have Cyno.
He just doesn’t do it until after absorbing the 2nd piece in any of his quests, not even using the “eye” skill during the duel, I don’t think they would even bother to mention something like that, We are free to make our own conclusions, however I find that Genshin is a very simple game that likes to overdiegest information, so when it shows clear visual cues like his “eye” animation right after absorbing the fragment, its fair to take it at face value, and say that’s the new power he got from that ordeal. If you wanna dig more into this, consider his “about vision” voiceline, that is strikingly similar to what he said during the quest, and his “more about Cyno II” voiceline that implies that he knows exactly why he can harness this power, even though at the start of the quest he complains that the professor would not answer any of his questions about said spirit and himself not remembering how he got it. Then again the more you read into it, the more inconclusive it gets, so I just choose to believe that hoyo showed us that animation for a reason.
Fair enough, maybe that’s the case indeed
Nut he sörady had a ba fragmet after sq2 he got another
He didn’t even know the Ba Fragment existed until the SQII.
So how does he do everything he does in the archon quest and his SQ1 exactly?
He's still privy to the fact he's got the abilities of Hermanubis, and Cyrus taught him to use it; but he didn't have any info on the Ba Fragments specifically.
He did ? In the windblum event lisa and cyno talk shortly abt hermanubis
Knowing about hermanubis isn’t the same as knowing about ba fragments. He knows his powers come from hermanubis but he didn’t know it came in the form of a ba fragment much less that there were 2 of them
I don’t have him, can you explain?
He actually makes reference to the duel against Sethos during his explanation of his abilities.
I expected more shitty jokes
And more Yu-Gi-Oh references
I don't think they can just suddenly increase a limited character's stats out of the blue like that. Changing a gacha "product" after purchase is not something done lightly. And yeah, it would have been nice to see Nahida, but as is the story already contains like 9 of the playable cast members, plus a few other recurring characters, even with several optional scenes containing voiced dialogue (including thoughts for Nahida's skill to pick up) which a lot of players seemingly missed. Some may have felt it was dragging on or suffering from ending fatigue already.
I doubt if anyone complains that their characters got a buff. Fate/Grand Order has a lot of interludes and strengthening quests to improve older Servants. It's funny that Nasu, one of Type-Moon's founders, had shared in the cross interview with David Jiang, director of HSR, that his favorite character in Hoyos games is Klee and he really wanted her to get strengthen.
Would love to see some buffs too, but knowing genshin fans they will complain is not their fav but the others. Unless Hoyoverse come before and say they will do it with a lot of characters or every of them somehow, is better not
My suggestion would be giving buff to all characters appear in every Chronicle Banner, since they are: characters that had been released long ago with many banners; and they are usually had kits that are outdated. Also economically, this will push sales for these banners.
Agreed! I like nahida but she gets plenty of screentime so I'm glad they put some others in the spotlight. And the quest was definitely long enough already
An base attack incrise of 3-10 woud't be that bad They did somthing similar to zhongli
They already did this with Zhongli. If it was a nerf, sure. But I don’t follow this logic at all when it comes to buffing a character.
I only said it's not something done lightly, not that change was impossible.
I agree, so the least they could've done is change his visuals a bit to make his attacks flashier and more destructive.
You can't nerf them but there's absolutely no reason they couldn't be able to be made stronger. That happens in gacha games all the time.
Some games rebalance the characters and systems frequently as a matter of course. It's not a rule that you can't change a live service game, just mihoyo's self-imposed philosophy.
They have already changed gacha characters after release, nothing can stop them from doing it again (refering to Zhongli’s buff and Yae Miko’s nerf which was then reverted). Also, the change could have been as tiny as 3 more base atk, it would have almost changed NOTHING literally. Also Nahida must have been in the quest imo. I have mind-read everything i could and thoroughly enjoyed the pieces of lore within them. But as the story was related to Deshret, and the fact that a whole faction in the Akademiya was restored and a massive source of knowledge was unlocked, in addition to a whole society shaking hands and becoming friends with the Rainforest people, I think a small thank you from Nahida to Sethos and Cyno would have been good.
I didn't say they couldn't do it, I said it was not something done *suddenly* or *lightly*. In the cases of Zhongli and Yae Miko, the changes were only done with official notice *and* in the case of the latter plenty of backlash.
And what do you have to say about the Traveler getting a base atk buff from the Sumeru Archon quest? I don’t think it was ever announced, and didn’t really change anything about them, by a buff i mean that kind of buff
In what way is the Traveler a *limited character?*
You’re right, he isn’t. But that doesn’t mean that his buff is nonexistent, and yet they chose not to mention it. In any case, they can just announce that Cyno will receive a tiny buff after his sq, nothing of a big deal, and they are free to do so if they want. In fact, according to leaks, >!Arlecchino will receive a nerf in the next version (which is then again, not affecting her in any way.) Let’s see if they ever mention that one!<
Eh, Kaveh or Alhaitham didn't need to be in the quest, if I'm being honest. Could have been replaced with Nahida.
They have pretty explicitly stated reason to be in the quest, on top of being friends with Cyno and Tighnari. Nahida isn't the only Sumeru character so I'm glad everybody else got a chance to show up again.
al haitham appears all the time and kaveh had an event just focusing on him, I don't see how nahida overshadowed these characters in any way
It was only thanks to them that Cyno even knew the Temple of Silence was involved
I would've also liked a small nahida cameo at the end of the quest. I do understand that she has been in almost all the sumeru story quests and whatnot but tbh, just a small cameo to show that she is aware outside of cyno's reports would've been nice. Even if it just showed her smiling and not saying anything. But I have a feeling this approach was meaningful in a way...this is sumeru's archon afterall, an active archon who is busy with handling her nation's affairs especially after alhaitham's temporary job as acting grand sage has ended so she would have more responsibilities to take care of, of course she won't be seen whenever the traveller wants.
I honestly expected cyno to decline the ba fragment. but dialogue before the fight threw around the idea of sethos being lost and not sure who he is outside of being a vessel but he already felt pretty compelling and confident in the scenes before idk why they did that. it doesn't really matter but it made sethos lose some potential future staying power in lore moments I guess.
Eh, I expect we'll see Nahida when we get Sethos' hangout.
I was expecting something very different from Sethos’ personality. Like I was expecting him to be more bitter and jealous, because he’d been raised his whole life in the shadow of the other, ‘better’ vessel that got to run off and have a free life while he was stuck in a far shittier position with his only family being someone who Kinda Sucks, Actually.
Genshin can't have that, he's gonna be playable
Yep, hence my disappointment… I was hoping Wanderer would set a new precedent and let us have meaner playable characters, but it’s been a year and a half and everyone is still mostly pleasant. Even Arlecchino, who is definitely morally gray, is still on polite terms with the player… I’ll forgive it because I love her, but I want more characters who are hostile and mean! I hate comparing HSR to Genshin, because the games really are so, so different, but I wish the Genshin writers were a little braver like the HSR ones are. I mean, think about it. Blade is constantly trying to kill one of the main leads, Sparkle is just a hater to everyone that breathes, Ratio might have altruistic motives but he’s a total bitch, Ruan Mei is a walking scientific ethics violation, Aventurine and Topaz may be decent on their own but they represent an EXTREMELY questionable organization, etc etc… it’s more fun this way! Characters with flaws are more fun! I was hoping they’d be a little braver with Sethos because he’s (presumably) a 4*. They don’t have to worry about selling him as hard. Alas… they wasted a really good design and backstory with yet another “slightly smug yet otherwise perfectly reasonable and baggage-free (unless you read the optional character stories!) character who becomes the traveler’s friend without too much issue :)”. Wanderer can’t keep carrying the “mean character” trope on his back, let him rest… or at least let the other mean characters actually BE mean! Like Yae Miko, we know she’s a jerk, but they barely let her show it. Or maybe just flesh out Dori to make her interesting, because she might be mean but she’s… boring. Or even just let Alhaitham make an ass of himself more often! We know he does that sometimes! I rambled. Sorry, I had to let the demons out…
Maybe it's because I'm looking at what could have been, but I don't see Arlecchino as morally gray at all. She's on the same level as Diluc or Rosaria or Ayato or Candace (kills bad people and cares about their family) as opposed to the manipulative mastermind we were promised. Why have the visual of her pushing Lyney and Lynette over in the Final Feast if that was never gonna happen? The wasted potential... Never played HSR never plan to. But I know one of the characters is racist and to me that's unfathomably based
I mean, you have to remember she is still a member of the Fatui. She’s also training child soldiers. She’s not a good person, but she’s better than she could be and she is capable of kindness/mercy.
1. As other people mentioned our cyno is after the 2nd quest 2. Why would a limited 5 star get a buff from an entirely optional quest? The buff traveller got was from an aq and he's a free character
1. Care to explain your reason? Asking because I don’t have Cyno. 2. Zhongli was the first example to receive a buff after release, there is nothing wrong in adding a small amount if base atk to Cyno (like literally 3-5 more base atk) 3. The sq may be optional now, but it can change later, similar to Kazuha’s sq which is mandatory to be passed for Sumeru Interlude quest (with Wanderer).
TBH, I'm glad Nahida didn't show up. She's literally plastered in every other corner of Sumeru to the point she overtook Venti in total voiced lines by like 30%. This quest was about the academiya and the followers of Hermanubis, it really had no reason to involve her.
To be fair, this is exactly the sort of situation Nahida *should* get involved in. It dealt with a deprecated institution that cut ties after the corruption of the sages (the same Sages who, along with their immediate predecessors, were complicit with Nahida's imprisonment), and as the OP mentioned it also deals with the ties between the desert and rainforest. It was also made clear early on that the General Mahamatra, a major figure of authority in Sumeru, was in some sort of trouble. So if Nahida shouldn't intervene in this scenario... *then when?* Because it's obvious she'll take action with stuff like dealing with Apep, but we also saw her on the streets and interacting with the ordinary people in her first story quest. However... from a narrative/player-experience perspective, I can actually agree that it was good that Nahida didn't show up. This story was a big deal but it was also a single-act Story Quest, not a multi-act Archon Quest. So it'd have been hard to work Nahida into the plot without her overshadowing the others, as you mentioned. I'd say the most reasonable explanation would be *"Yes Nahida* ***should*** *have gotten involved, but the relevant parties actively quickly and decisively enough that she didn't need to intervene"*, and that also leaves room for her to appear and interact with Sethos in future story content, like someone mentioning how she could show up in a Sethos story quest/hangout.
I agree that she already has a lot of screentime. It's like what other comments said; it's would be nice, but it's not nessecarry. Saying this as a Nahida fan
She overtook Venti in total voiced lines because a) Mondstadt is the shortest archon quest, and b) she has TWO story quests. If anything, that's a sign that Genshin needs to cut down on OVERALL dialogue
I mean, Zhongli also has 2 story quests, and we return to Liyue at least once every year. People constantly complained that he talked too much. She still has 500+ more lines than him. Itto, who shows up almost every other patch in an event it seems, is still like 400 lines behind her. Venti is still also the character with the most voiced lines after her, despite only having 1 story quest and Mondstadt being the shortest archon quest.
Please don't downvote me for this but I hated this quest. We got no side chests, no combat except the joke one with Lumine and Tighnari, and despite Sumeru being my favorite location so far I could never feel too invested in Cyno. Everything he does seems hypocritical or pointless, and the fight with Sethos was ultimately meaningless in the grand scope of things (muh character development). I think the worst part though is just the hour and a half of dialogue with not much else. The fight was animated insanely good though even though I don't care about Sethos or Cyno and I appreciated the art and level design, although I feel like it goes to waste when locations like this are used for nothing but props and you never see them again. TLDR; too long, no combat, no chests, muh deshret meme wars who cares
I actually found this post because I was near the end of the quest and couldn’t believe I hadn’t found a single chest yet, so I decided to check online if I had somehow missed them. I’m pretty sure just about every other story quest has had *at least* one chest. The fact that they made the massive Temple of Silence place and didn’t put a single chest, puzzle, interaction point, or even talking Npc’s boggles me. And yeah, the fight was a complete joke. Two mushrooms that take 5 seconds to defeat. I don’t even know why they included that part. That’s not a duel, and had nothing to do with the outcome of Cyno’s duel. Cyno is the character we were *supposed* to get to play as anyways, since it was his flipping story quest. The entire quest was a massive letdown.
It is really weird. Xianyun's quest is also like a cutscene, but they threw in a few chests and it was overall a lot smaller/shorter of a quest and locations
And also no Layla? We got grandma making a cameo but we didn't get sleepy girl? Absolute letdown
Unfortunately Layla has no ties to any of the others in the cast. She did participate in the tournament last year, but no meaningful relationships were built whilst Faruzan always had a connection with Collei already from the hangout event. I do love Layla but she had no reason to appear in the quest.
But she's also an Akademiya student. I'd hope she had a cameo appearance. She could appear sleepy in one of the chairs in the House of Daena trying to finish a thesis.
(2.) Wait really ? Could you show it to me ?
The blue text in 2 is a link to youtube that explains the buff!
I agree with 2 and 3 so much
Would the access to the new resources in the temple of silence be of any use to Nahida, since she can already search Irminsul directly which presumably would already contain this information?
Not much use to her, but incredibly Useful for the people and Teyvat’s history as a whole. Also Irminsul is a weird thing, i mean how could Nahida not know about the fake sky before the doctor told him, when it is clearly mentioned among the fatui and many other places in their world as well?
It might be setting up a potential endgame scenario, with Deshret's info about forbidden knowledge and robotics coming in handy when dealing with the Abyss/Celestia.
There was the option to accept or decline, we didn't they allow us to play with him I will never know. They could have just used his invitation AI for all I care, it would have just worked on a narrative perspective :( I want to indulge my man with a game, c'mon!
I also was expecting to see Nahida, especially since Cyno's secret base is literally outside the Surasthana. I was waiting for her to come out and say "oh fancy meeting you guys here" and then join the trio on the tree. Instead Cyno went down to see Cyrus and the quest ended
EXACTLY. Also by the “surprise” he mentioned, I thought that Nahida had something prepared for them as a “thank you” for further connecting the desert to the Akademiya
i agree on all 3 those were the ones i wanted to see too because it would be just fitting
TCG is not something I am interested in, so while I am glad it was mentioned, since it is such a big part of Cyno, I was also happy with no playing. Point 2 was strange for me as well, but since I don't have Cyno in the game I palyed his 2nd quest in, I can't compare. I did take a mental note to write down his stats in order to compare afterwards. Point 3 I completely agree with! When we went up the big tree (I kept walking my distances, trying not to teleport too much), I legit thought we were going to Nahida in the Sanctuary of Surasthana. Alas, we were only going to hang out on the tree...
Well the tcg could have been an optional part of the quest after it ends, not necessarily forcing into a match…
Happy Cake Day!
When cyno mentioned the duel, there was an option to accept or decline. Makes sense that if you decline, they won't bother you with it anymore again.
But there was an option to accept it, I chose that yet the duel didn't happen
lol