As I’ve seen so far, the opinions on recent design releases have been very polarizing at best, very negative leaning at worst lmao.
I have very many feelings, unfortunately mostly negative. Honestly, I don’t know why I had any faith in this huge ass gacha company in terms of character design especially after the release of later versions, mostly looking at Natlan here… But I guess to sum up my feelings, a lot of it just reads as boring to me.
With Sumeru, Natlan designs, I’ve always been put off with the egregious lack of melanin and the sad lack of cultural references from the place it is said to be inspired from (HI TO NATLAN MOST ESPECIALLY).
Because why was it done relatively well with Liyue and Inazuma even with some questionable fanservicable moments (ex. “Why is Yae Miko’s outfit so short and revealing if she’s a shrine maiden and all the other shrine maidens dress—” “‘Cause it’s a fucking gacha game boohoo first time in the anime zone lady? Get a grip you’re too woke for my game.”) and then I have my light-skinned pyro archon wearing a wholebody motorcycle suit with a damn motorcycle? Without the context on where Natlan is based, I’d say I like her design, and I even really, really love Xilonen’s design (my only gripe is that she’s a bit too pale for her golden tattoos to stand out which I think would’ve been lovely). But you wouldn’t know the cultural context to both their appearances. And YES there’s an argument to how sometimes a person doesn’t really match the general expectations of how they’re expected according to where they’re from but, really? I am not having it PLEASE.
The BUT to this argument, and especially to Sumeru’s case is the recognizability. Looking at its lead characters, there is the design prominence of distinct colors and silhouettes.
Maybe it’s just just the trailer lighting but the colors are just so bleak and monochrome for a nation that’s been so long-awaited by many of its fans that it takes away from the recognizability of the playable characters. And maybe my opinion on this falls short because the gloomy colors ARE. THE POINT. with the Fatui being a long-time mysterious group that the traveler has to be wary of, even if at times, have found some of their friends and acquaintances from the organization itself. A lot of it just doesn’t personally appeal to me. My favorite of the bunch is Odette’s because her design is the only thing that makes a lot of sense to me, and the male designs are just very boring for me to even care for.
My gripe for nations like Natlan and Sumeru can be best summed up by a comment I saw in a video for Natlan’s music theme: “I hear my people, but I can’t see my people”. Mondstadt, Liyue and Inazuma had some misses from me personally, but set the tone for what to expect from future chapters in terms of character fashion. Fontaine made a lot of sense with the designs, though a lot might argue they’re a bit boring… Steampunk-ish aristocratic for Navia, Chloride with an elegant and androgynous outfit, Wriothesley, Furina’s ALSO androgynous and elegant look… The colors were very prominent with the designs, serving a lot in recognizability. In a sense, the Nod-krai region seems all over the place, but with the mix of clashing cultures to an influx of immigrants, the waning old culture of the Frostmoon Scions due to the changing into the iridescent moon, and the grip the Fatui had on a huge chunk of its land, it makes sense to me…
I just don’t know why Snezhnaya was the straw that broke my shitty artist camel back.
probably because the tsaritsa’s design is so boring to me?
i don’t know man, you guys were able to make Signora, a literal NPC that only lasted like a few cutscenes from three archon quest look so damn GOOD and interesting from a design perspective and we have this as our cryo archon?
and now, disregarding the designs, maybe i don’t care for the game as much as before is that i just don’t care for the travellers a lot?
from all i’ve seen personally and from spoilers i’ve got from the recent summer event, i REALLY despise any and all traveler ships now because of the way a lot of characters just react to them being there, i got an ick watching those videos i’m so sorry. it’s blatantly becoming a traveler harem joke that even if i picked lumine as my traveler i’m still so fucking uncomfortable???
i think i’m burnt out even if i just played a few of the luna versions and after failing to get another character and just logging off indefinitely.
maybe i’m not just bored of the designs, but of the whole game in general. a lot of story points were dropped especially from earlier characters (where a lot of my favorites come from, unfortunately) and some lore are allegedly retconned? i’m not sure if that’s true i haven’t played in a while too lmao.
the saddest thing is that i know i’m very prone to dropping this game more than picking it up due to the development choices of this company. i’ve detached a lot from the fandom especially after deleting twitter off my phone (because elon musk is a lot of what is terrible in this world and he figured to buy the social media site that also hold a lot of what is terrible in this world). And now, i realize i’m very on the fence with this game is because of the game itself.
it’s like a toxic ex you can’t let go of except i’ve never really been in a relationship and this is about me a lonely broke-ass player and a money-hungry gacha game company.
i don’t know. It’s just a shame because I’ve loved the game a lot through its early versions up to the end of the Inazuma patches even with a lot of its flaws. i’ve gravitated a lot to many of the older characters and stories and I still praise a lot of the writing they’ve done so well (ex: the overarching appearances of Scaramouche from Mondstadt, Inazuma, Sumeru, Nod-krai and his very, very slow character development growth into becoming Wanderer). a lot of its magic has long since worn off on me and maybe it’s also caused by my own aging and having less time to binge this damn game due to responsibilities and other interests. i’ve found a lot to enjoy with characters (OUTSIDE THEIR RELATION TO THE TRAVELER DON’T PISS ME OFF) and stories from recent quests but alas, i’ve long fallen out of love for genshin impact.
the only bright side is me being overly obsessed with some of the game’s og gay ships and hyperfixating on them enough to write little stories about them (and if i’m lucky, i’m motivated enough to edit and publish it for ao3) because hoyo is too cowardly to do that.
SIDE NOTE: i have nothing against traveler likers or those who like ships with them i just personally had it with hoyoverse shoving so much fanservice shit to me that i came to despise it in correlation i’m so sorry