Support NeoGAF

[Fuz]

Happy Birthday to the greatest (Dec 2nd in Asia)

Spoiler

EDIT: Amazing preview for the 2nd one. Cocogoat feet.

You need a girlfriend.

 

[BlackM1st]

people prefer this style?

All 12 yo girls are beyond excited...

You need a girlfriend.

With his money he can afford a healthier alternative. Prostitution.

 

[Fuz]

With his money he can afford a healthier alternative. Prostitution.

I second this, much better than putting that cash in mihoyo's pocket.

 

[YukiOnna]

You need a girlfriend.

Sounds like a pain and a burden.

 

[Fuz]

I'm starting to like Albedo.

 

[Pejo]

Aren't they just shoving it into the same 3 model types they have? Outside of Rosaria who had a lot of pushback.

Funny thing is that each character model has subtle differences. I saw an image overlay of the wireframes of the entire cast of female "teen" model characters back in like version 1.6, and none of them were a perfect fit over top the other. So if they were doing it out of sheer laziness, why even change it at all? I thought we were eventually going to see costumes releasing at a steady clip instead of what we've had so far, so even that makes no sense from a practical angle. Also, while some animations are shared, there are enough unique animations per character that you can't assume it's just for animation skeletons either.

I'm actually at a loss of their reasoning behind no big booba and no larger male characters. I accepted the "boob clipping" reasoning for Rosaria at the time, but Honkai has since disproven that as a non-issue, so I don't even know anymore.

 

[Pejo]

I'm starting to like Albedo.

I was watching some videos on his freebie sword, it's pretty insane. They're clearly trying to get people to pull on the character because the sword is 100% worthless on any other character in the game currently. Wonder how his banner will end up? It's going to be hard to tell individual banner sales anymore since we're likely going to have dual reruns each patch now and we don't have any internal sales data directly from MHY.

 

[BlackM1st]

Honkai has since disproven that as a non-issue

Well, who knows what vision GI'S director has for it, really? One company, but different games with different leads.

Sure, it's predominantly a for profit affair, but as long as it makes money and doesn't make Chinese government angry GI team can do whatever they want. Look how TLOU2 turned out because its director went full retard. Quality made/profitable product with a lot of random ass decisions.

Wonder how his banner will end up? It's going to be hard to tell individual banner sales anymore since we're likely going to have dual reruns each patch now and we don't have any internal sales data directly from MHY.

https://paimon.moe/

Surprisingly more people pulled for Albedo. Never expected that.

 

[Fake]

I'm starting to like Albedo.

Don't do this.

 

[Pejo]

Well, who knows what vision GI'S director has for it, really? One company, but different games with different leads.

Sure, it's predominantly a for profit affair, but as long as it makes money and doesn't make Chinese government angry GI team can do whatever they want. Look how TLOU2 turned out because its director went full retard. Quality made/profitable product with a lot of random ass decisions.

www.Paimon.moe

Yea that's all user submitted though. That's a good metric for maybe the reddit audience, but you're underestimating how many casuals play this game that don't give a shit about online communities for it.

 

[Fake]

GI player base is too high for all of them to be from communities.

 

[BlackM1st]

Yea that's all user submitted though. That's a good metric for maybe the reddit audience, but you're underestimating how many casuals play this game that don't give a shit about online communities for it.

Well, it's either that or nothing at all haha

 

[YukiOnna]

Funny thing is that each character model has subtle differences. I saw an image overlay of the wireframes of the entire cast of female "teen" model characters back in like version 1.6, and none of them were a perfect fit over top the other. So if they were doing it out of sheer laziness, why even change it at all? I thought we were eventually going to see costumes releasing at a steady clip instead of what we've had so far, so even that makes no sense from a practical angle. Also, while some animations are shared, there are enough unique animations per character that you can't assume it's just for animation skeletons either.

I'm actually at a loss of their reasoning behind no big booba and no larger male characters. I accepted the "boob clipping" reasoning for Rosaria at the time, but Honkai has since disproven that as a non-issue, so I don't even know anymore.

Huh I never knew that... that makes the lack of skins and variety in body types even stranger. Especially when Honkai has no issue releasing them. It's not even a controversial thing so why such a difference from their sister game?

 

[YukiOnna]

Well, who knows what vision GI'S director has for it, really? One company, but different games with different leads.

Sure, it's predominantly a for profit affair, but as long as it makes money and doesn't make Chinese government angry GI team can do whatever they want. Look how TLOU2 turned out because its director went full retard. Quality made/profitable product with a lot of random ass decisions.

https://paimon.moe/

Surprisingly more people pulled for Albedo. Never expected that.

problem with this is with users reaching the 10M+ and Genshin always charting in the top 10 of the appstore stuff, a pool of 10K is not enough to gauge.

 

[Pejo]

All of the variants of the Paimon painting.

Neat that they actually reflect your dialogue choices.

Spoiler

 

[YukiOnna]

All of the variants of the Paimon painting.

Neat that they actually reflect your dialogue choices.

Spoiler

 

[crumbs]

This is the first event I've played since the Island stuff during the summer, but it feels like the production values went up a bit. Plenty of voice acting and some nice animation during the cut scenes. Did the events from August until now have this level of care?

 

[YukiOnna]

This is the first event I've played since the Island stuff during the summer, but it feels like the production values went up a bit. Plenty of voice acting and some nice animation during the cut scenes. Did the events from August until now have this level of care?

It's around the same quality as the other story event with Childe and Xinyan, so I'd say so. The cutscenes in this one were definitely more flashy than before though and bits that allow for different choice like above.

 

[InterMusketeer]

This is the first event I've played since the Island stuff during the summer, but it feels like the production values went up a bit. Plenty of voice acting and some nice animation during the cut scenes. Did the events from August until now have this level of care?

There's usually only one event per patch with this level of production value. I think the only noteworthy events you missed are the moon chase festival and the paper samurai one.

 

[YukiOnna]

There's usually only one event per patch with this level of production value. I think the only noteworthy events you missed are the moon chase festival and the paper samurai one.

Oh yeah Moonchase was also the other one.

 

[crumbs]

Interesting, thanks for the info. Did those other events have as much lore as the current Albedo event?

 

[YukiOnna]

Interesting, thanks for the info. Did those other events have as much lore as the current Albedo event?

If you want:
Moonchase was a Liyue Archon Quest After Story about how Guoba was the God of Stove who was essential in the establishment of Liyue Harbor and revitalizing the land post Archon War while Morax fought, which caused his power to diminish into what he is today as Xianling found him and Onmyou Chamber set up a future plot thread revolving around Childe telling Traveler that Scara went rogue after taking Ei's Gnosis and he is searching for him and gave more background/lore details about Kamuna Harunosuke and Onmyou Arts.

 

[Pejo]

Just finished the event story act 2. Fun little quest, spending some time with the 2 best girls. I tried to sneak off and find them bathing in the ice lake but it just reset the quest progress and I had to go through the whole dinner/campfire cutscene again.

We finally got some FMV cutscenes again too. I feel that they use those too sparingly. They own an entire animation studio, we should be getting a few of those per patch. There are also shockingly bad animations for just basic character interaction in the game world. I'm remined of scenes where it shows like Bennett running out of the camera frame in the bottom corner of the screen, like they couldn't even be assed to track him. And the creepy puppet like animations when they're focused on characters during dialogue. I distinctly remember an exposition speech from Albedo where he robotically moves his head like a chucky doll while talking. Also, all this time and they still haven't gotten the mouths to sync with the speaking character. Billion dollar game.

Too bad that things like this are considered "major patch events" though. There's not really much to it. A few cutscenes, go to here and there, unlock the boss. I'd like some more dynamic quests and stories if that's going to be "it" for the major content of a whole version. Or at least it'd be nice if we're always inching the story forward. For as much as I like seeing more characters that I like involved in quests, a lot of this stuff was easily predictable and just sitting in place spinning our wheels as far as story or lore.

 

[YukiOnna]

Just finished the event story act 2. Fun little quest, spending some time with the 2 best girls. I tried to sneak off and find them bathing in the ice lake but it just reset the quest progress and I had to go through the whole dinner/campfire cutscene again.

We finally got some FMV cutscenes again too. I feel that they use those too sparingly. They own an entire animation studio, we should be getting a few of those per patch. There are also shockingly bad animations for just basic character interaction in the game world. I'm remined of scenes where it shows like Bennett running out of the camera frame in the bottom corner of the screen, like they couldn't even be assed to track him. And the creepy puppet like animations when they're focused on characters during dialogue. I distinctly remember an exposition speech from Albedo where he robotically moves his head like a chucky doll while talking. Also, all this time and they still haven't gotten the mouths to sync with the speaking character. Billion dollar game.

Too bad that things like this are considered "major patch events" though. There's not really much to it. A few cutscenes, go to here and there, unlock the boss. I'd like some more dynamic quests and stories if that's going to be "it" for the major content of a whole version. Or at least it'd be nice if we're always inching the story forward. For as much as I like seeing more characters that I like involved in quests, a lot of this stuff was easily predictable and just sitting in place spinning our wheels as far as story or lore.

So about the last cutscene The other Albedo is basically confirmed to be Durin roaming the mountains, right? I was a bit confused by it

I agree they should do a bit more than the standard event cycle they have now. It also kind of sucks that Eula and Amber didn't have much of a role outside of that.

 

[BlackM1st]

It also kind of sucks that Eula and Amber didn't have much of a role outside of that.

Ikr...

Spoiler: Such a wasted opportunity...

.

.

 

[Pejo]

So about the last cutscene The other Albedo is basically confirmed to be Durin roaming the mountains, right? I was a bit confused by it

I agree they should do a bit more than the standard event cycle they have now. It also kind of sucks that Eula and Amber didn't have much of a role outside of that.

Yea that seems to be what they're implying, or at least that there are other mimic whopperflowers, maybe a "master" one? I actually sincerely hope that a villain with all of the potential and lore of Durin wouldn't just end up being an Albedo clone and getting his ass clapped before he even does anything.

There's going to be an Act III, so maybe that will give more info.

I'm also disappointed that so far it looks like they're not going to go much into Albedo's creator or his connection with Khaenri'ah.

 

[YukiOnna]

Ikr...

Spoiler: Such a wasted opportunity...

.

.

I'm actually glad no matter how hard they tried, it's just not picking up any fanart...

Yea that seems to be what they're implying, or at least that there are other mimic whopperflowers, maybe a "master" one? I actually sincerely hope that a villain with all of the potential and lore of Durin wouldn't just end up being an Albedo clone and getting his ass clapped before he even does anything.

There's going to be an Act III, so maybe that will give more info.

I'm also disappointed that so far it looks like they're not going to go much into Albedo's creator or his connection with Khaenri'ah.

Given he's Not the boss of this Event, I'm assuming we'll be hitting another cliffhanger for it to continue later. At least I'd rather it be that than conclude here.

Same. After getting Wolflord and the reveal about Albedo, I thought they'd have some form of lore dump on Gold and Khaenri'ah, but no dice so far. Not even some ice bath fanservice.


EDIT: Almost forgot

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Funny thing is that each character model has subtle differences. I saw an image overlay of the wireframes of the entire cast of female "teen" model characters back in like version 1.6, and none of them were a perfect fit over top the other.

There's three base models, from there they vary in height and bust size, and of course some outfits have straps/pinch areas so it deforms in those spots, but that's the extent of how much they "differ" from each other.
Changing anything on the base model, means they need to be rigged again to prevent any shared animations to look weird/broken.

I wouldn't say that means laziness per se, it's more likely just an extremely optimised development pipeline.

 

[Fuz]

extremely optimised development pipeline

= laziness

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

= laziness

That's a bit reductive, developers (the ones who actually build everything) are almost never lazy, but they also don't make the business decisions.
The producers/managers (the ones who don't build anything) are just acting like any business would [should] and maximise profits while minimising cost.

 

[Fuz]

That's a bit reductive, developers (the ones who actually build everything) are almost never lazy, but they also don't make the business decisions.
The producers/managers (the ones who don't build anything) are just acting like any business would [should] and maximise profits while minimising cost.

Come on. "Laziness" is just an umbrella term that includes greediness and such.
I used it just because you used it, but in this case it's just to cut the costs as much as possible.

 

[Pejo]

Don't forget your stardust wishes since we get a shop refresh. I'm in pity range on standard wishes again, but the 5 we got didn't produce anything fruitful yet.

I'm actually hoping for the skyward series spear, whatever it's called. I'm sure it'll be another Qiqi constellation instead though.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Come on. "Laziness" is just an umbrella term that includes greediness and such.

ok

I used it just because you used it

It was in context to:

So if they were doing it out of sheer laziness, why even change it at all?

 

[Pejo]

If you aren't afraid to show your power level, this would be a neat phone wallpaper.

 

[InterMusketeer]

The entire time I was doing this quest, I thought to myself "Why don't they agree on a secret word to determine who's the imposter?" which would be the first thing anyone thinks of in that situation, right? Then traveler is all like "I noticed the missing star mark!" I missed that detail entirely. His suspicious behavior was a lot more noticeable. Genshin writing in a nutshell.

I saw some people say that these were the best cutscenes we've had yet, and I guess that might be true? But it's not exactly a high hurdle. I agree with Pejo that the bar is pretty low for MHY. This quest could've been a lot more interesting but we're mostly just going through the paces. The concept is fine, but then the mystery is resolved a few days later and there's no payoff. Maybe it's because they can't just focus on the story, but have to find a way to include the event as well? Disappointing nonetheless.

 

[Pejo]

The entire time I was doing this quest, I thought to myself "Why don't they agree on a secret word to determine who's the imposter?" which would be the first thing anyone thinks of in that situation, right? Then traveler is all like "I noticed the missing star mark!" I missed that detail entirely. His suspicious behavior was a lot more noticeable. Genshin writing in a nutshell.

I saw some people say that these were the best cutscenes we've had yet, and I guess that might be true? But it's not exactly a high hurdle. I agree with Pejo that the bar is pretty low for MHY. This quest could've been a lot more interesting but we're mostly just going through the paces. The concept is fine, but then the mystery is resolved a few days later and there's no payoff. Maybe it's because they can't just focus on the story, but have to find a way to include the event as well? Disappointing nonetheless.

Well the worst part is that even though it wasn't voiced, the Tsurumi Island quest and storyline was a million times better than anything we get in "major events". Why isn't the team that designed that questline getting a promotion and being put in charge of the voiced "big ticket" quests? I was blown away with how good Tsurumi was, and expected that we'd get that level of variety/lore/storytelling from then on, only to go back to this shlock.

I'm disappointed even though this storyline featured Amber (and Eula). Just imagine how disappointed I'd be without best girl involved.

 

[YukiOnna]

Amber and Eula did nothing and we didn't really see Traveler participate in the "event" as they were told to while investigating the mystery of the mountain. It all sort of skips over again, which is the problem. The biggest difference between the WQ and the AQ is that they don't skip over details like this. Even the character quests go an extra step further in exposition.

 

[Fuz]

Amber and Eula did nothing

BUT WHO WE HAVE HERE? IT'S AMBER AND EULA!


AND THERE'S XIANLING WITH GUOBA!


Morons people wanted more game characters in the stories, but they need to have some sort of writing, not just be some stupid VIP guests in a TV talk show.
I know, too expensive.

 

[crumbs]

Since we're complaining about storytelling...

Having been away from the game for a bit, what really stands out to me during the story-heavy portions of the events & quests is the decision to have Paimon speak instead of the Traveler. I'm working my way through the early Inazuma archon storyline (along with completing the current Albedo event) and it's really jarring to have comic relief Paimon dominate conversations dealing with the more serious material. It's weird that the Traveler has voice actors that don't really get used, but I have to hear shrill-ass Paimon react to everything instead of the MC.

 

[Pejo]

Since we're complaining about storytelling...

Having been away from the game for a bit, what really stands out to me during the story-heavy portions of the events & quests is the decision to have Paimon speak instead of the Traveler. I'm working my way through the early Inazuma archon storyline (along with completing the current Albedo event) and it's really jarring to have comic relief Paimon dominate conversations dealing with the more serious material. It's weird that the Traveler has voice actors that don't really get used, but I have to hear shrill-ass Paimon react to everything instead of the MC.

Yea that's a pretty big shit sandwich to everyone that isn't a Paimon voice actor. I guess it's the cost associated with recording voice lines once instead of twice for Aether/Lumine.

 

[BlackM1st]

Yea that's a pretty big shit sandwich to everyone that isn't a Paimon voice actor. I guess it's the cost associated with recording voice lines once instead of twice for Aether/Lumine.

Naturally. But you know... for billions they're making they can definitely afford it.

But we don't really know how much money they're actually spending on the game. Maybe HQ just isn't increasing GI budget they way we are imagine.

 

[crumbs]

BUT WHO WE HAVE HERE? IT'S AMBER AND EULA!


AND THERE'S XIANLING WITH GUOBA!


Morons people wanted more game characters in the stories, but they need to have some sort of writing, not just be some stupid VIP guests in a TV talk show.
I know, too expensive.

Agreed. The devs set the bar so low with the first Lantern Rite Festival that events featuring player characters instead of generic NPCs felt like an improvement, but they need to start integrating them better.

One of the problems with the current event is the use of Eula, which is most likely done to promote her banner. From a story perspective, it would have made more sense to have Rosaria in the story considering her interactions with Albedo in last years Dragonspine event. Amber probably was added since she's the only character to really interact with Eula in the game's past events.

 

[YukiOnna]

BUT WHO WE HAVE HERE? IT'S AMBER AND EULA!


AND THERE'S XIANLING WITH GUOBA!


Morons people wanted more game characters in the stories, but they need to have some sort of writing, not just be some stupid VIP guests in a TV talk show.
I know, too expensive.

Funniest to me is still how Lantern Rite is entirely based on Xiao yet we do everything but interact with Xiao.

Since we're complaining about storytelling...

Having been away from the game for a bit, what really stands out to me during the story-heavy portions of the events & quests is the decision to have Paimon speak instead of the Traveler. I'm working my way through the early Inazuma archon storyline (along with completing the current Albedo event) and it's really jarring to have comic relief Paimon dominate conversations dealing with the more serious material. It's weird that the Traveler has voice actors that don't really get used, but I have to hear shrill-ass Paimon react to everything instead of the MC.

It is weird since they talk so much in the voice over section and it cuts back the overuse of Paimon. They went for this halfway route on a silent protagonist yet have a set story for them.

 

[BlackM1st]

Funniest to me is still how Lantern Rite is entirely based on Xiao yet we do everything but interact with Xiao.


It is weird since they talk so much in the voice over section and it cuts back the overuse of Paimon. They went for this halfway route on a silent protagonist yet have a set story for them.

Silent protag >>>> Emergency food VO

 

[Pejo]

Funniest to me is still how Lantern Rite is entirely based on Xiao yet we do everything but interact with Xiao.


It is weird since they talk so much in the voice over section and it cuts back the overuse of Paimon. They went for this halfway route on a silent protagonist yet have a set story for them.

There's also the fan theory that we (the travelers) are actually "stars" instead of humans, and Paimon is the being/god responsible for giving us human shape/physical bodies. From that viewpoint, it may make sense of why she always talks for us, but clearly other humans can communicate with the traveler, at least from our viewpoint. So that doesn't really hold much water unless all communication is done through Paimon kinda like a translator. It definitely brings some interesting points into play though like how we're able to hot swap party members not by having them actually in our party, but by accessing their memories and constellations and essentially "becoming" them.

Initial impressions of Shenhe are not looking so good. Apparently MHY is designing next round of Abyss to be done with a mono-cryo team. I just can't imagine that being worth it over the crazy good CC of Freeze comps.

I'm not a big fan of this focus on mono element teams to begin with. Elemental reactions are a core part of the game and essentially free damage. Seems odd to keep clashing with them like this. I guess Rosaria's niche is safe for now though.

 

[InterMusketeer]

Do they seriously balance new characters based on two weeks of Abyss challenges? Are they really that dumb? They better rethink those plans. I'm interested in Shenhe but if she's not capable enough she will be easily skipped in favor of others.

 

[Fuz]

Are they really that dumb?

No, their customers are.

 

[Pejo]

Do they seriously balance new characters based on two weeks of Abyss challenges? Are they really that dumb? They better rethink those plans. I'm interested in Shenhe but if she's not capable enough she will be easily skipped in favor of others.

This is the problem with the only endgame activity being a timed DPS race like Abyss, as BlackM1st said before.

In theory, there should be several endgame modes that encourage team diversity and different tactics. But if a timed, bloated HP trial is all we have, it's only going to leave room for best DPS or gtfo.

 

[BlackM1st]

No, their customers are.

Word.

Do they seriously balance new characters based on two weeks of Abyss challenges?

Nah.

Just letting people who actually pulled for the new heroes to feel good and powerful for 2 weeks.

Kinda similar to the "test runs" where cryo 5☆ is fighting water slimes. Anything to make new heroes look good in the eyes of the casuals who doesn't know better.

I'm not a big fan of this focus on mono element teams to begin with.

I'm kinda ok with that, double cryo and double Geo is already so damn good. Plus, I DO run Ayaka and Cocogoat together. Don't ask me why. I just do.

Nothing in this game requires as much DMG, but eh, same can be said about C6 EULA numbers.

It's just I'm not a fan of supports, especially the ones who can't generate energy.If she had a better numbers, better everything really, maybe I would've pulled.

 

[Fake]

Do they seriously balance new characters based on two weeks of Abyss challenges? Are they really that dumb? They better rethink those plans. I'm interested in Shenhe but if she's not capable enough she will be easily skipped in favor of others.

They never balance a char over Abyss, just when the money hurts they do something about.

I mean, Zonghly get 3 buffs at row.