Two weeks in Fontaine - how does it compare?
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- Fontaine is fresh and exciting, and it's easy to get carried away with the brand new thing, but before the memories of Sumeru fade, let's take a look at how the two compare.
It's hard to match up an entire year's worth of content to just half of one patch, and any final verdict has to be left until the end of Fontaine's arc, but major versions tend to add a ton of new mechanics and stuff to do, so there's already enough there that we can see what direction they're taking, and make some interesting comparisons!
Sumeru felt like a big step up from the previous regions, with a whole host of positives, but it did have its downsides.
Has Fontaine managed to keep up the standards where Sumeru did well? Has it improved on the things which burned a lot of people out in Sumeru? And how does the brand new stuff which was introduced in Fontaine fit in?
00:00 Intro
00:55 Characters
03:34 Archon Quests
06:38 Exploration Mechanics
07:51 Quest Restrictions
09:47 Exploration Blockers
12:28 Desert Fatigue
13:53 New Features
16:59 Conclusion
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My favorite part about Fontaine is the wildlife. Since a good number of the mobs are cute animals* that do not attack you on sight, it makes the area feel more alive and less game-ified.
(Edit: corrected spelling for animals)
Very much this! I honestly wish the seals beasts wouldn't be enemies at all because fighting them (when you do have to) makes me kind of sad haha, but I love that for the most part you can just walk/swim past them and they'll keep doing their thing!
omg I love when I just see some of the birds hopping about in the overworld!!! Sometimes I just sit and watch because they're so cute!
Have you found the unmarked quest where you make friends with a starving blubberbeast and nurse it back to health? It's in one of the underwater buildings east of Fontaine city.
@@themightydropbear Yes!! It's things like that that really bring happy emitting forth when exploring the area.
I feel bad for fighting crabs and seals cuz they’re harmless
The lack of an oxygen meter is something i never considered. Ive really enjoyed underwater in this game and kept wondering why.
if drowning would just get removed, like that you cant drown in Fontaine, you just stop swimming fast, until stamina regenerated, that would be a blessign for the game to make the game more fun and less annoying..
And Stamina has to increased finally retroactively for inazuma, Sumeru and now Fontaine from laughable 240 Stamina to what it should be by now - 420 Stamina (+60 per Region) We stat with 120 +60 for Monstadt + 60 for Liyue.. but from then on MHY suddenly stopped increasing our Stamina because they put the game into a constant Stagnation Mode from then on in regard of Character Progression for the last 2 years.
With 420 Stamina we coudl sprint on land alot longer, wouldnt run out of stamina so extremely fast in combat with the more n more aggressive enemies that force us to dodge alot more oftenly, unless you fight with Zhongli or other strong shielders in party. Theres also barely any characters yet in the game, except Yaoyao, which help regenerating Stamina in combat ... its like as if its a kind of game design oversight for them, or they just forgot Stamina exists >.> and is part of the combat system and overall exploration on land..
We could climb, glide and swim then fast also alot longer distances, makign this way the game more comfortable too, making Stamina food more redudant, so that these recipes could get changed into more useful effects ....like Exp/Mora Buffs instead or Attack Speed/Movement speed Buff Foods that are still missing for 3 years now ...
@@aesune thats why characters should get rebalanced, because it is INEVITABLY that by adding more content over time, old content will degrade over time eventuell in value tue..this is why games get over tiem rebalanced and finetuned.. something that MHY hasnt done once at all so far in 3 years ..MHY can with rebalancign the game always give whale players another reason to whale for constellations..as long the changes there are no directl nerfs, but feel like buffs, is everything ok ...
Underwater vibing with all the creatures is just perfect.
But the combat :( and it hurts my soul to kill the cute animals for loot
Yeah, I like the fact that most creatures there don’t go aggro on us and we can just vibe with them if we want to.
Berrypuff is the real hydro archon!
@@Malinzo i felt so satisfying killing those small seals right before its parent soul. then watching its parent soul crying face and wailing voice. lol.
@@talesj1987😀
My partner actually described Fontaine as "literally feeling like a fresh drink of water" and I couldn't agree more. I was one of the people that loved Sumeru through and through to the point I said it was my absolute favorite gaming experience of all time, especially the desert portion, but Fontaine is so fresh in a way that's just perfect. Jury's out on if it'll top Sumeru for me (and I don't expect it to, since I think Sumeru was just entirely too special to me and it's too much to ask anything to live up to that), but it's definitely an amazing region that I can't get enough of.
Same, one of the things I think Sumeru did very nicely that kept it enticing was allow you to see things in the distant that looked interesting. The massive sandstorm looking tornado immediately kept me on bated breath for a new update I'm so happy they haven't hid things that are enticing in the background in Fontaine as well.
I absolutely hated Sumeru, honestly it just ticked me off with the desert, the archon quests were dry and boring, the world quests also sucked for me, but all the other regions i enjoyed especially fontaine which is my new favourite region by far
@ndz1541 that's fair the archon quests got repetitive very quickly but I was so excited with what the outcome was going to be I trucked through. The Aranara quests also was long but I was happy to have something that I could do rather than only getting 3 hours of content
Fontaine revived my love for exploration, the last time i fully explored an area was when Dragonspine came out.
Fontaine is just so beautiful, underwater is so fun and, above water is simple and not overwhelming. Exploration mechanics isn't locked by tree levels (Inazuma) or quests (Aranyaka)
You know a level designer is successful when someone who hasn't done exploration for 2 years love exploring again.
Like many others, Fontaine brought me back to Genshin. The amount of hours I played in this month alone already surpasses the hours I played in the first six months of this year. I really hope future updates keep up the quality!
Me too! I'm back into the game and it's just... I haven't had fun with genshin in a year and i'm so happy i like it again
Same for me! Pre 4.0 I'd fallen into a routine of logging in, spending some resin, doing my dailies, finishing events and that's it, for months, vs these past 2 weeks where I've not only done quests but *paid attention* to them!
@@saurusness it's crazy to me as i got so burnt out i straight up quit but i've been playing genshin for hours on end within the past month
for me easily the best region, used to be inezuma, but fontain is like the took every complaint fixed them and then went above and beyond. its really amazing to see a game almost have a sequal with all the improvements you'd expect as an expantion.
Most games tend to add deserts areas and for the most part, they are often blend or very empty, often I can't wait to get out of there and never go back. When we compare the 2, Fontaine seems like a very well balanced and interesting new area with the underwater aspect, which can indeed be difficult to include in a game without giving it the same "emptyness" feeling like the desert can do. It's great to see that even the environment, is and feel, very detailed and alive.
Very much this! Just the other day I was swimming around looking for any challenges I hadn't completed yet, and even though it took m forever to find one it just felt so pleasant swimming around!
true, sumeru desert is just empty.
I love the underwater aspect. I kinda want them to include a slightly more eerie area in future updates as the underwater feature reminds me of a much less stressful subnautica.
@@someoneinasia You must be blind if you think its nothing but just sand.
@@acedias12 it doesn't have to be just sand to make you feel sumeru desert is empty.
the underwater exploration is so calming but also made me so happy to go through, i think the only thing i miss is the feeling sumeru world quests gave with going through and discovering cool new things tho to an extent they do this in an intriguing way
I do think there'll more to discover especially re: oceanids and melusines 👀
i finished the main melusine and ann quest and now im very excited for what they do i hope they let us explore giant underwater ruins@@saurusness
@@kingalex105x7 YES that'd be great!
The desert ruins held some really great awe and mysterious nature
Truly feeling ancient
In Fontaine, the ruins are recent from scientific accidents or lost in rising waters
Different vibes
This laid out such a nice outline of all the things I loved and liked a lot less about Sumeru. I am totally with you about Nahida's sacrifice being the highlight of the Archon Quest, and now that I think about it, Hoyoverse did everything right with Nahida. From her first being teased at the end of the summer event, to her being a figment during the first part of the Archon quest, to the release of her teasers and that legendary birthday trailer, not to mention her gameplay and character story. I feel like they did an amazing job creating, implementing, and marketing her. This can totally be said about the whole host of Sumeru units which were released but Nahida truly stood out for me. And I thought there was no way they would be able to top that in Fontaine. But after experiencing the Archon Quests and some of the world quests, I am of the opinion that maybe Fontaine might end up being my favorite region in Genshin. But that might be a testament to Hoyoverse constantly improving their gameplay, story writing, and character development with each new region that came out. As Sumeru was a huge step up from Inazuma, Fontaine feels like a huge step up from Sumeru even.
TBH, 4.1 can't get here fast enough for me and I tried to actually take my time exploring and really relishing in the new region during 4.0 but there was just so much to explore, too many puzzles to solve, too many otters to save! I nearly gobbled it all up in one weekend! It has been amazing so far and I am super hyped for 4.1!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts; super fun to watch! ☺
Thank you so much! 💜🥰
And same, I went from barely doing more than dailies and some resin wasting, to gobbling up all the new content at legendary speed despite trying to really savour it 😂 I'm so so excited to see more of Neuvillette and to meet Wriothlessley as well!
@@saurusness Neuvillette!! (And Navia and Lynette for that matter.) What a huge surprise for me personally! I had absolutely no interest in either of them prior to finishing the Archon Quest and Lyney's story quest. I was far more intrigued by Freminet, Chlorinde, and Wriothesley coming into 4.0 than Neuvillette, Navia, and Lynette but the more lore I found out about them, I was blown away by how layered these characters are turning out to be. And I might be in the same boat as you when it comes to Furina too -- I find her super obnoxious and bratty at this juncture of the story but I have high hopes we will end up seeing some major character development for her. What a transformation that might turn out to be! The potential for all of the characters are there! Fingers-crossed that Hoyoverse delivers! :D
This entire comment deserves its own video
Same! I got all hydroculi, almost every chest, done all world quests. This was my fastest clear of any region thus far. Fontaine is my favourite region. The archon quest, The ambience, the MUSIC 🎶 😍. Chef's kiss. One thing I didn't enjoy in sumeru was the underground and desert explorations. It got tiring for me. Fontaine was definitely a step up for me.
I loved Sumeru! after Inazuma (which was sort of depressingly purple) it was a breath of fresh air. The pyramids and the desert exploration, while initially locked behind quests, was soo much fun too. BUT the 3rd desert expansion did feel like too much even with Sorush's gameplay. Honestly I was ready for a change with Fontaine and it has not disappointed!
I feel like that part has more lore and fun feel that's my favorite part of the dessert
Absolutely LOVE fontaine so far! Definitely favourite region if they keep it up. They do tend to start strong and taper down over the later patches, but guess we'll see 👀
fingers crossed it keeps up! Honestly my biggest pet peeves tend to be blocking my ability to do stuff so as long as that's kept to a minimum, I'll probably be happy even if there's less content!
I’ve yet to try underwater controls on another device than mobile, but I must say I’m so impressed with how easy and natural the controls feel on mobile. Apart from struggling a tiny bit with the water stream movements sometimes, it’s felt really good.
Oooh that's very good to know 👀 I have no idea how people play on mobile at all, but I would've imagined underwater movements to be quite difficult!
@@saurusness None of the mobile controls are that hard tbh. The only 'hard' part is using charged bow attacks since you're limited in where you can aim by dragging your thumb across, due to the small screen size.
I found the mobile controls in general quite hard at the beginning (in the beginning i’d only use mobile to condense resin and fish), but with practice they’re good :)
@@saurusnesseverything they said was right, and the bit about currents is VERY TRUE. It’s very irritating moving the characters around in the currents, it just feels very delayed and like it doesnt quite match how you’re directing them
Tbh Sumeru and Fontaine are both amazing and by far the best two regions so far
I agree, I think this is quickly becoming my favorite region so far. I really hope it continues in this direction! It feels SO different than anything we've been given as far an environment in the game, so far, and the fact that I wanted to truly make the journey (started in Mondstat and flew/sprinted to whole way to Fontaine), further fueled the feeling of being "far away." I'm really excited for 4.1, and what else they've dreamt up for us. Although I haven't yet started region quests, I've love everything so far. Great video!
I keep being sort of surprised that Fontaine feels so unique even above ground because I expected it to feel more similar to Monstadt but it really doesn't!
Thank you so much 🥰💜
First of all, the joke you made about Genshin players knowing how to read actually made me laugh out loud and I loved it! 🤣 Secondly, I unsurprisingly agree with everything you said about Fontaine, especially regarding the underwater mechanics!! I was so worried it wasn't going to (ironically) flow well enough and the thought of an oxygen meter was literal nightmare fuel. That being said, I'm soooo happy with how it's turned out so far! I do something similar as you said in your video: I'll often just swim around and enjoy the underwater scenery and music because it's just that good!!! Fontaine definitely helped me get back into Genshin and even had me excited to do quests?? And listen to dialogue??? I'm obsessed with so many of these new characters - especially Neuvillette, Navia, and Furina (and how she grows!) - and actually cannot wait to see what they do in the next patch!!! You captured all the exciting essence of Fontain and more too!! Thank you so much for another wonderful video! 🌊
Thank you so much 🥰💜 and RIGHT?? The fact that I not only listened to the dialogue but READ THE additional info bits related to the quest - I never do that??
Its less to do with not knowing how to read and more to being too lazy to read really.
It was a joke, and a very good one imo :)@@acedias12
@@acedias12 yes the joke comes from the gamer phenomenon where one skips all the rules and instructions for a challenge or a minigame , and then acts all shocked pikachu when they have no idea how to complete said challenge or minigame LOL
Of course most of those people *can* read, we just joke that it's illiteracy instead of poor attention span/patience.
Sumeru has been my favorite region ever since i completed the archon quest , seeing my culture being represented in my favorite game and the lore bomb they dropped were enough for me to make sumeru my favorite , however after Fontaine's release , i fell in love with it , the underwater experience and the modern city were breath-taking , if Fontaine's archon quest ended up like sumeru's or better , it's probably gonna be my favorite region , btw u got a new sub , keep up the good work ☺️👍
Fontaine is definitely better , everything in suneru feels like a slog. Not to say Fontaine isn't but it's more bareable.
as someone who has been waiting for Fontaine ever since i watched the travail trailer, Fontaine really lived up to my expectations, just on the first day i have played for 13 hours, with breaks, ofc course, i got Lyney and luckily his bow too. the exploration is great and underwater felt amazing even as an area to just swim around and enjoy. as a lore enthusiast the quests are some of my favourites, absolutely loved Ann's quest, and Mamere's too, i hope in the future we get to revisit Elynas's.. insides? and Mary-Ann's house again, those quests felt like they're gonna get a continuation and i really look forward to those
Same for me! My expectations were pretty high and were more than met, and I can't wait to see more!
Honestly, the more I think about it the more Fontaine exploration feel like Liyue. It might be due to time eroding the memories but I do not remember everu bit of exploration tied to quest amd being handheld for every single bit of it in Liyue. It was like "here are some stone tablets, read them and go find everything you can". I really wanted to love everything in Sumeru but it felt TOO MUCH. Too much bloated dialogue, too much following random NPC, too much handholding. **SPOILER AHEAD FOR THOSE THAT DIDN'T COMPLETE WORLD QUESTS IN FONTAINE** I loved world quests in Fontaine, they arr mysterious with random plot twists, enriching the world in concise yet effective manner, especially the one with melusine, Seymour and Ann. And that all of them tie together yet leave more mystery for further world building in future updates is just *chef's kiss*
For me, Sumeru killed my motivation to explore it with all the underground areas in the forest. It was so vertical and no way to keep track of where you were. Even if I was using the interactive map I was still beyond confused. Even now looking at the interactive map to work on 100%ing sumeru I still get confused.
Fontaine was beyond better with it! It was the first time since Mondstadt that I explored almost everything without the help of the interactive map, and just swimming around underwater and listening to the music is so relaxing and doesn't make me stress out.
It was such a flip when I started exploring Sumeru again. realized I hadn't even finished the aranara book so I started to work on that and immediately I felt like I was dragging myself. I'm making progress, have one section at 100% and most the surrounding areas at 70+%, but man it's reminding me why I stepped back from exploration
As for the desert, I'm probably one of the few that loves it. Above ground at least. The underground areas of the pyramids, as cool as they looked, we're so confusing to move through. The interactive map d i d n o t help at all. Honestly though, the main reason the desert is at mostly below 50% is because of the forest. That killed my motivation before the desert even had a chance.
Oh come on - you expect complete guide with map when entering ancient and forgotten ruins? Hehe - sorry to tell you, but things don't work like that.
Stop using interactive map. Go explore yourself
@@pontoancora I do, but when I finally reach the point that I can't find things myself, or I can't figure out a puzzle, I go to the interactive map
First of all, thank you! This was pleasure to listen to.
I love all of english voice acting in quests so far and I welcome Furina's personality as presented in the quests and hope it will go along the directions you expect too. However, I have hear that Neuvillette's VA has asked for re-recording a lot of his lines after he got to the end of second quest and realized what kind of person Neuvillette actually is. While this is very commendable and professional act of the VA, it raises some doubts on level of direction because I don't think VA should need to discover what kind of character they're playing. That information should be provided to them in advance by the writers or the director. To give an example, the way Faruzan was presented gave me high hopes we'll be kind of teaching her a lesson in upcoming quests and this potential was completely abandoned later on, with her hangout presenting her as very relatable character who's highly respected by everyone else. I loved her hangout but it was totally not what I expected it to be from how she was initially painted. I hope Furina will not go through similar transformation.
With regards to quest locking, I have noticed that I can't leave the Opera house during the investigation in Archon Quest 1 and I don't remember that being clearly indicated in advance. And that quest took me good three hours for which I did have to postpone things I'd otherwise do in that time. But there was option to leave and reset the quest back to certain point, I believe to the point of entering the Opera. Which I chose not to use as the things I wanted to do were not as important to me as the time I'd lose on the quest progress. I appreciated that certain multi stage world quests did give me option to leave and later continue even in cases where I needed to leave from area that's only accessible through the quest.
With regards to quality of the story, nothing beats Sabzeruz Festival in my mind, not even Fontaine quests. But that does not mean I think Fontaine quests might be lacking. They were great. Honestly, I only found archon quests dragging in Mondstadt and maybe Liyue, starting with Inazuma I had fun and I was always very happy about what the quests brought.
With regards to exploration tools, I found Sumeru's four leaf sigils a bit lacking. The ones that spawn when you need them during quests are fine, but those that are permanently available are too sparse in my opinion and even though I still regularly visit Sumeru for farming various things, there is very rarely a sigil I could use. I can't talk much about Fontaine in this regard as I don't have any regular routes established there but the drop launchers don't seem to be much more frequent either. In general what gives me the most mobility is the whole diving mechanic alone.
With regards to exploration blockers, they are present in Fontaine too, though maybe it's not as serious as in Sumeru. At the very least I have noticed a Hydroculus popping up in my map which I could only access after finishing a lengthy world quest. Personally I don't mind that too much, my personal approach to exploration is that when I run into a blockage, I put a mark in my map such as "locked door here" and leave it for the future. Lack of underground map in Sumeru was much more serious problem to me than locked doors.
I love Fontaine's underwater mechanic. I love it so much that I have already 100%ed all of accessible Fontaine (no guides used, just random walks) and as result I don't really have reasons to return to exploring. Now I hope more will come soon.
The only thing I have left in Fontaine now is some quests. I am forcing myself to do only one quest a day and hope they will last me until next update comes. Otherwise I might start feeling like Fontaine, while new and exciting, just did not bring enough.
In those terms, I regret that you need to finish Archon Quest 2 to unlock commissions and reputation. I would definitely spread them over longer period if that was not needed.
OH yes, having to finish the archon quests in order to unlock dailies and reputation has always been my pet peeve! Because of that I always ended up semi-speed running those important quests instead of truly taking my time 😩
Yeah I was fully hoping to take my time with the archon quests especially, would've loved to do like one segment per day to really make it last because it was that much fun, but ended up doing them in a couple of big chunks so I could unlock the commissions. Hopefully the next ones are just as good, will definitely be savouring them if they are!
I think my general feel of Fontaine is that it feels the exploration/region is more serialized or WIP where Sumeru's forest just felt complete. Like all the sightlines to big landmarks in Fontaine are teased on the border where ive probably ran into the Paimon "lets come back later" in 2 weeks of Fontaine than 2 years prior. It's probably the biggest distinction in general. But the rest of the video is great even as a desert world quest enjoyer lol. The on rails droplets vs the agency of the 4 leaf clover, the legendary enemies being nice, the set piece world quests being excellent and digestable. Meka enemies are probably the more underappreciated addition in Fontaine, they animate so well, are the right level of aggressive and react to you hitting them.
If you have a dislike of Furina’s personality early on, to me that shows good writing as, IMO, that’s the goal. I feel like she’s meant to be an annoyance at this point. Her insecurities come through in such subtle ways, especially the post AQ Easter Egg.
I agree with so much of this video. Great work!
I actually really like Sumeru, so when Fontaine opened up, I was actually sad to leave Sumeru. I love forests and deserts, so it's something I really like!
I actually really liked Sumeru deserts and dread having to swim in the waters in fontaine, I just don't want to do it! lol It gives me flashbacks to old games involving water.
I think that the desert area of Sumeru could've been halved and no value would've been lost. I am actually sick and tired of it and there's way too many chests to collect and I don't like the idea of leaving hundreds of chests behind so I am exploring it but there's very little enjoyment. I think that is by far Sumeru's biggest problem. So far it seems like Fontaine will not be as massive and exhausting as Sumeru, which makes me very glad
Same here. I HATE exploring Sumeru. Those chests don’t offer enough for the tedium. Fontaine is a significant upgrade in that regard.
I disagree.
If they cut the desert into half then the desert lore wouldn't make sense anymore.
I feel like the dessert isn't big enough to contain the lore.
But i can see why some players get tired of it.
Well, that's your self-inflicted problem, you're only in it for the chests and nothing else.
Where would half of the world quests take place?
@@acedias12true this is typical genshin behaviour
Fontaine was my most awaited nation when I was new in 2021, and now that it is here, it still feels unreal. Watching the AQ of Fontaine on YT was like a movie. Surreal, magnifique and wonderful.
I will say I was dying to get to Fontaine as I started Genshin in 2020 and didn’t play seriously until 4.1. Furina was my first 5 star.
That being said I have never found myself crying about a Character like I did for Nahida. Focalor on the other hand also had me in tears. Sad for Furina. So touching it made a grown man cry.
Same! Both Nahida and Focalors had be sobbing 🥺 Both stories beautifully written and voiced 💜
I loved the sumeru archon quest, they pulled me in and touched my fellings! But Fontaine ha been feeling like breath of fresh air, I loved being a detective, it's one of my favourite types of story genres. The character interactions in sumeru where defintly my favourite, but i'm looking forward for fontaine character interactions especiallly between neuvillette and furina and Navia and Clorinde!! I also cannot wait for the next patch to see where the story will go!!
Also!! Loved the video!! As always well planned and well scripted!!
i loved your sumeru video so much, and this for sure didn't dissapoint ^_^ hope to see you grow more in the future, this channel is a gem!
Thank you so much, so kind! 💜
Genshin players can read? LIES we cannot 😆(OK maybe we can we just don't like having too much text thrown at us and they haven't done that this time so YAY!!!)
Sumeru, and the desert portions specifically, made me almost anxious when trying to explore. Fontaine since the first moment has felt soothing almost? Like they've come back to the freedom we were allowed in every area before. Even the little bit of desert they added didn't feel like a burden or anxiety inducing to me to explore. Maybe that was because it had water attached to it? There was a hint that we were looking at things very much related to Fontaine and not Sumeru desert specific. Having that distance helped A LOT for me! I feel like they brought back the joy of exploration - and that's important!
Some days when I log in I find myself just swimming and vibing to the underwater music. It's soothing - it's not like "Oh no! I'm going to drown if I don't get air!" it's just very soothing because you don't have the stamina mechanic, you don't have an air mechanic, you get to JUST BE. I love it. Underwater is my favourite place in Fontaine so far, I can't wait to see how they build on that in future expansions of the narrative.
YES soothing is exactly what it fee like, and just care free and pressure-less? I feel like a lot of people are feeling the same way it seems!
I remember when patch 3.6 released and I started the Sorush questline. Controling her was an instant tell that they were testing the waters for underwater controls and 3d movement. I remember putting in the survey back then: I know Sorush is definitely you guys testing the waters for future underwater/3d movement mechanics, so please, make us able to aim the direction we want to move to with the mouse/joystick instead of locking the vertical movement to 2 keybinds. You can leave the 2 keybinds as secondary options, but do allow us to use the mouse/joystick, so that the character movement follows the camera movement, that's way more intuitive. And lo and behold, the underwater movement in Fontaine has this very kind of movement. Thank goodness they polished it. Not saying they even saw my survey answer, they probably receive thousands of answers... But just seeing that they polished it was great.
Yeah I thought the same thing with Sorush! Same with the barking fox thing in the summer event, which felt similar to Sorush but with more responsive controls. So glad they tweaked that, both Sorush and the fox felt awkward without the free movement on the mouse/joystick, underwater controls are so much better!
To say fontaine made me fall in love with genshin again would be an understatement. I started in 1.6, and finished most of the content available right before inazuma released. Inazuma for me was really good. Sumeru's forest was great, but the desert was the most boring and unoriginal feeling place. Fontaine was a breath of fresh air. Everything felt so welcoming and cute there. I have 100% explored all of fontaine (which I never do) and didn't regret it at all. The music, story, environment, and most importantly the underwater exploration was incredible. When I'm underwater it fills me with happiness and nostalgia unlike anything else in genshin. The only other area that had me feeling similar was the golden apple area, but fontaine is a huge improvement on that as well. I cannot wait for more expansion and eventually another region.
Yes I also get this odd feeling of happy nostalgia underwater - it almost feels like one of those dreams where you just float around through air that feels as thick as water but isn't hard to breathe, and the sound effects and music just add to that peaceful feeling. I also really miss the Golden Apple areas, I do hope they make a come back one day!
@@saurusness Exactly! Very well said, I missed golden apples second event in late version 2 and have always hoped it would come back again (Preferably permanently)
Have to say I really loved sumeru - including the deserts. They were beautiful in their own way. They were vast and the sparseness was appropriate for the geographical nature of the area. Tbh they weren’t all that sparse anyway when one thinks of a real desert, and the lore of the area was fire 🔥
Literally, I don’t get how people say the sumeru desert is empty. It’s filled with stuff, especially the last desert area.
Great Summary and Insights!
saw someone say, "after 4.0, i realised i wasn't tired of genshin, i was just tired of sumeru" and that precisely sums up how i felt. sumeru is by no means a poorly designed region, but gosh was it DREADFUL to explore. fontaine in contrast, is the most fun i've had exploring in a long while! the new underwater mechanics definitely helped.
i can't put my finger on exactly what they did right with this region, but i really hope they apply these formulas in upcoming areas.
man i am so glad i got back into genshin when i did, i took a long break after the first part of the dessert was released, and i came back about 2 and a half months before fontaine was scheduled to release, it gave me so much time to prepare for fontaine and because of that, the fontaine experience has been so much fun. i cant wait for the rest of the archon quests to come out.
i agree with all your points!! and your voice and vocabulary are both so satisfying LOL. your voice is so calm and soothing
Hey! Absolutely loved the video. To answer your final question, yes, Fontaine singlehandedly dragged me back into Genshin. I've had more fun playing the game this past week than I have in the last six months. It's amazing what a change of scenery can do for players, haha! Keep it up
Thank you so much! 💜 And welcome back 🥰 I hope they keep this up - if they do, Fontaine might just end up being my favourite nation of all!
Like the desert, Sumeru World Quests were overly long and for many tedious. Some of my friends just could not finish them as they felt it was to long and not worth it. In Fontaine, the world quests so far have been beautifully done. Not overly long and interlocking plots between each World Quests giving you more lore and ideas of what's ahead for future patches. I've greatly enjoyed Fontaine, and am looking forward to future updates!
Pretty sure those quests are meant to be done over a period of separate play sessions rather than rushed in a day or two since updates take time to be made.
@@acedias12doesn’t make it any less tedious
@@ilikepointlessinternetargumentif you don’t like a good and detailed story don’t play
@@lamis1053 you realize this game is more then unvoiced quest correct?
@@lamis1053your attitude is the reason why Genshin is slow or doesn't improve. Criticism is important and even I someone who read a lot and played a lot of story focused game thinks that Sumeru is such a slog
For me, dessert fatigue and filler patches really killed all my enjoyment for Genshin. After coming back to Fontaine for about a month now, I'll say I finally found my love for exploration again. The diving mechanics is a huge thing that sets Fontaine apart from other regions.
There also doesn't seem to be a lot of regions that are locked behind chain world quests. They definitely reduce those linear guided chain world quest, which is a huge win in my opinion.
I would also like to add how the dialogues have gotten much more diverse - a good example of that is Childe throwing his vision, and the movements of characters overall seem to be more soft compared to the “sharp, abrupt” movements that were abundant in the earlier versions.
Very true!
I already was very excited about Fontaine. First, it’s based on France, a country that I absolutely adore. And second, Fontaine sounded exciting by its own right, with all of the information that we have been collecting these years. It didn’t disappointed at all. I loved the story, the characters and the landscapes. It’s gorgeous, it’s fluid, it’s entertaining! I’m so excited for the expansions to come, and the twists the story will have. And the city for me was a huge deal. It’s massive when you compare it to previous cities. Or maybe it’s because it’s more organized, but it truly feels like a huge metropolis.
It's my favorite region already. Been playing since 1.3
I'm excited to find out more about Focalors story.
I've read comments that said Fontaine was like a 'second Monstadt' to them and I can see why. It's just so relaxing seeing the alps and open spaces full of grass and I find myself traversing the area just to look at the sights as well as to listen to the music in different locations. The underwater is really nice as well, it suddenly brought me back to when I first saw game footage of Abzu. I also liked that you can just leave the sea creatures alone if you didn't want to fight (mostly) and just look at them going about their day.
That's very true! Exploring Fontaine feels in a lot of ways kind of nostalgic, it's exactly how I felt when I first started Genshin and the exploration was 100% what sucked me in. I was so busy exploring I didn't even finish the tutorial quest and get my glider - I was literally climbing up and down mountains with my lvl 1 character trying to take it all in 😂
I loved your take on everything!
Also, one of the things I hated the most in Sumeru was the fact that a lot of exploration was quest-locked. You couldn't do anything unless you had done a certain quest, and I hate that particularly bc I love to explore everything to 100% and for me, there's a time for exploration and a time for quests and lore. Simply because I want to focus on the story in cutscenes and all, instead of having my mind on a chest I see in the back of a cinematic and that makes me impatient to end the dialogs, and I hate that because I am a reader, I love the quests and I don't wanna rush them.
I did it for Fontaine and was pleasantly surprised that actually, very little content was really quest-locked.
Love your videos! ❤
I know i'm a bit late and as of 4.3 i can confidently say Fontaine is the best region in the entire game so far.
A beautiful Main Story with only a few low points, amazingly written chracters, very refreshingly fun exploration and especially the region design is gorgeous.
The only bad part is there is another 6-8 hour long world quest chain here, but its more bearable than Aranyaka or the Jeht ones.
One thing I LOVE about Fontaine so far is the lack of high-stress overworld zones. Something that absolutely destroys my enjoyment when exploring the Sumeru Rainforest, is the Withering Zones. As someone who is (predominantly red-) colourblind, the red-black Withering Nodes you have to attack with Dendrograna to remove them, are often almost impossible to see against the reddish-brownish gloominess of the withering zone itself. Then add the barrage of enemies and the ticking clock of accumulated Withering affecting your HP, and every single Withering Zone becomes an anxiety-filled pit of despair that makes me want to throw my monitor out of the window.
Fontaine, however, has very vibrant colours, and even underwater, the water-themed points of interest are pretty distinguishable due to outlines or texture differences like the water creatures you can steal the abilities from, so you don't start panicking (as quickly) when you feel trapped in a situation.
Oof it's such a shame that they didn't add anything to the withering zones to help with colourblindness... those areas were really fun for me, sucks that the design meant that you couldn't enjoy them ☹
Wow didn't even think of this! Hoyo really ought to work on a colour blind mode for some of these areas at least :/
@@saurusnessyeah, I actually put it in as feedback on the player Survey when it came around. I was also scared about not being able to see the Hydroculi but that's not an issue luckily. A lot of developers forget to make their games or UI colourblind-friendly even though almost 10% of men are colourblind, but more and more developers are paying attention to it, luckily. And to be fair, this has been pretty much the only instance of this in Genshin. in the Desert puzzles, they mainly use red and blue which is easy to distinguish, the Pari fragments are a very bright green, etc.
this is one of the greatest videos I’ve ever seen and the most agreeable. People really like to bring down the game but you highlighting it’s massive ups is amazing
Thank you! 💜
great vid! i will just say, let's hope underwater expansion doesn't become the new desert fatigue lol
thank you! And I hope so too 😅
I wasn't burnt out on Genshin itself since I still loved the characters and combat, but after Sumeru's release I was definitely tired of questing and exploration. Sumeru's archon quest sat unfinished on my account until last month and most of the desert regions has >20% exploration with one of the newest areas having a whopping 8%.
Fontaine changed that tho. I've been really happy swimming around and have absolutely *loved* the archon quests so far to the point of actually being eager for the next acts. I don't think I've been this excited for a Genshin quest since 2.1 so needless to say Fontaine has been an absolute hit for me
regardless of how they compare, one thing is for sure and its that sumeru's release was a major relief once u get out of inazuma
I hope you make a sequel to this since 4.2 is out. The story and development of Furina's character, as well as the others is amazing, I'd really love to see your opinion after the quest 🙂
Excellent Gonshon vid as always🤩 Fontaine is doooopppppeeee!!!! Big time FIRST & I love yooouwuwuwuwuwuwuwuwuwu❤❤❤
two weeks in fontaine : 32 fate wish
two weeks in all other regions combined : 2 wishes worth of primo
I have been loving Fontaine. it is my favorite area so far as well and all the new characters are amazing. I personally love Furina already and I am saving up to pull her when she is Available.
Thank you :)
Interesting to hear someone echoing exactly how I feel about Sumeru and Fontaine so far XD
I wish all of us a happy Fontaine experience. Can't wait for the Skywater Cubes and going to prison 😁
Hahah, thank you and likewise! 💜😁
Sumeru has been my favorite region overall so far. While I enjoyed the variety of the Inazuman islands more, I feel they really went above and beyond with the writing and the attention to details in Sumeru.
So far, Fontaine feels...simple. exploration-wise(at least above ground), it feels like we're back in Liyue/Mondstadt, where you can just go wherever. the one thing I loved the most while exploring both Sumeru and Inazuma is how creatively they would combine regular world puzzles with the unique characteristics of that area's gadget. While I do agree that locking a gadget behind lengthy world quests was a bad idea, I really enjoyed the variety of puzzles they would come up with just by mixing different world mechanics and gadgets. underwater exploration is nice, I just hope they add new submarine powers in future patches.
the pneuma and ousia thing feels very much like a rushed idea they didn't actually know how to properly implement. Sumeru already had enemies you could stun using specific elements, so this feels like a lazy way of forcing us to pull for Fontaine characters(like we ever needed such underhanded tactics to make us pull for someone in genshin), so I actually kinda hate it, and I'll likely hate it even more due to it likely being shoehorned in Floor 12 abyss enemies
The fact that I'm actually reading the dialogue in Fontaine (something I haven't done since Mondstadt) makes me so much more invested in the characters and story
the pneuma and ousia mechanism probably is gonna be an important part for fighting only fontaine mobs or enemies,especially mechanical enemies like the guards of fontaine,where they have a pneuma or ousia battery on their shoulder,new character lyney has the skill effect of pneuma when attacking enemies while lynette has the skill effect of ousia when attacking enemies,the pneuma skill effect can stun enemies that has ousia batteries on their shoulder,causing them to get stunned for a few seconds and continue attacking.Meanwhile ousia skill effects causes enemies who has pneuma batteries on their shoulder to get stunned for a few seconds.This is what I found by playing lyney,and I find it interesting and hope to see what it can be developed into in the future during our combat with enemies and how it changes the combat playstyle.
The desert burnout was too real for me. I really enjoyed the first two parts, 100%-ed the areas without looking at the pins on interactive map, simply running around solving all puzzles and checking every corner for chests. Exploring the tombs was so much fun, I even ended up being some kind of a desert guide for my partner and friends. I loved every bit of it, every minute felt well-spent. Then the last desert expansion came with the pari and long unnecessarily complicated dialogues and it just hit me like… “nah I’m not doing this anymore. I’m done done.” lol. Barely checked in for the entire 3.7 and 3.8.
When Fontaine arrived though, after exploring underwater for a bit and discovering familiar names, I found myself revisiting the desert. I finally finished the pari quests there and honestly, being into lore especially anything connected to Khaenri’ah, it was very well worth it.
i think doing a quest to then be able to open the doors in the desert was not bad, at least there were more things to do in the game, and that keeps bringing you back to it more often.
Sumeru exploration took longer to complete, i loved the Aranara side-quests, so much things to do there.
I think patch 3.0 took me way longer to complete everything, now patch 4.0 i got 100% in all 3 area in less than a week.
i quit genshin while i was exploring sumeru due to its large scale. I was quite hesitant on playing genshin again when Fontaine came out but the moment I experienced the exploration of Fontaine i was refreshed and was enjoying the game again! Now, I started to explore the desert part of sumeru and I have never felt such fun exploring.
First of all thnx for your opinion. It was hilarious about ur take on furina as it is the same reason i love her 😂. I was nervous abt the archon quest as Inazuma was a bit disappointing but I loved sumeru's aq. But so far the story is good. I agree with ur points on breaks btw as i remember once in the sumeru aq where we met scara and tighnari i went to the statue to heal myself the story started again which ruined my mood 💀. I also agree with ur points on exploration. Personally I hate exploring the desert as it feels never ending and empty but I loved Fontaine so far. Even if i 100% explore the area i would just go back underwater just for the peaceful vibes. Even I need specific moods to do world quests . Infact i haven't done any in desert. But i didn't have much problems in Fontaine. Guess it's just the vibe of the place
Navia is by far my favourite character in the game. She’s so alive just like friends around us.
I took a pretty sizable break from Genshin in April, mainly from sumeru burnout but admittedly honkai star rail and tears of the kingdom being released didn’t help, but around early July I got back into the game, bought a few welkins, and have had a blast since with Fontaine! I’ve almost 100% explored all of the new regions and I’m only missing 4 or 5 hydroculi. The Fontaine characters are also shaping up to be some of my favorite, and even though furina’s personality has been polarizing, she’s absolutely my favorite character in the game right now and I’m very excited to pull for her!
Navia is indeed pretty chill.
As far as I remember Caribert did have a description when we started it that "this is a domain based quest you will not be able to leave it once u start it....." something like that so I totally believe it is everyone else's fault who didn't read it
I've literally never seen a message like that in Genshin... believe me, I would notice, since it's something I've asked for for years at this point!
@@raptori I swear on my life, I did
I absolutly LOVE how Genshin improved themselves with all the additional Features and how they aren't afraid to try out stuff
17:08 yes!!! Sumeru made me quit and fontaine made me come back and it has DEFINITELY held my attention
my partner has a fear of being underwater (even in video games) but the underwater exploration in fontaine is actually his favorite thing now due to how open and bright it is :)
Talking about Furina, only other archon that change during the story was El/Raiden, Rex Lapis/Zhongli nor Barbatos/Venti didn't change during the story.
I think Furina changing and growing makes for a better story and is more likely to happen unlike Zhongli and Venti.
Dendro Archon growing was most interesting, considering there are 2 versions of her in the story, one generation of Dendro Archon passing the torch to the new one. Parent to child story.
The only thing that hooked me so hard that, despite the utter uselessnes of it, I kept on using them is the aquabusses. Aevels tour is the only thing to actually make me take a break in this game and appreciate the beauty of the world. I've even begun to optimize my dps, just so I can spend less time fighting and more time with the aquabus.
One thing I like in Fontaine is that there's a layer map to determine whether your point of interest is underground or above. I have so much freedom in exploring in Fotaine. Heck, I even discovered the Underwater ruins of research facility first before meeting & finishing Oceanid Ann and Seymour WQ 😂
Lol I must be biased. I know perhaps childe felt more shallow or whatever, but I just love him so much that I had a bunch of fun every time he was on screen. I enjoyed all of his appearances a lot and am eager to see him again in the story. I guess it’s different when you don’t feel any connection to him prior to Fontaine, but this is just my biased opinion.
Fontaine underwater exploration is wonderful 👏🏽.
After 4.2 , although I loved Fontaine's archon quest, I am one of those very few who is a little bored of the exploration in Fontaine. It's not bad but a little unremarkable. But I'm also one of those people who enjoyed the hell out of exploring the Sumeru desert through the quests so I just might have a completely different taste in landscape. The combat under water is a little annoying to me and I'm not motivated to explore areas that don't feature in any of the quests (I'm also writing this comment after two months of exploration so I don't know if this is a hot take now compared to the video's release date)
Another thing I liked about Sumeru are the world quests and I also love the Fontaine world quests so much. My favourite quest line so far in Fontaine is not even one of the archon quests, it's the narzissenkreuz series of quests. The lore dump on that series of quests is absolutely crazy . As for the archon quests, I enjoyed 4.0, was a bit bored by the 4.1 and thought the story in Fontaine peaked at 4.2. I was a bit frustrated by the childe and skirk part in the story (coz that was a whole lot of nothing) and that's the only reason why I don't rate it above the Sumeru archon quest even though it felt less long winded. The All-knowing Narwhal also felt like it needed some more relevant exposition. However the trial in this quest was the one I enjoyed the most so far and Furina's conclusion was really important to me.
Yeah whther or not you enjoyed the sumeru desert quests is DEFINITELY a key detirmining factor in how it left you feeling, because I noticed that most of us who grew tired of sumeru all are primarily explorers who like to do quests on our own terms, and not because they're blockin the map, and sumeru was particularly "guilty" of that. The sad part is I'm sure the ques(s) really were good, I simply didn't have the patience as I wanted to be free to explore, which in turn made me not enjoy the story one bit :(
The combat under water probably splits opinions a lot but persoanlly I've I've enjoyed it a lot funnily enough 😅
Also your viewpoint is never late, there'll always be newer people who're just experiencing this stuff 🥰
The skirk childe and whale stuff was literally redundant
They never explained the stuff about why childe's vision stopped working etc
As well it makes no sense why all the animals survived the flood from the prophecy
At first I really wasn't feeling the underwater combat, but the way the puzzles interact with the different abilities you can get is very satisfying. The underwater areas are really helped by a clear focus on exploration instead of combat, since it would have been hard to completely recreate the detailed character combat mechanics of the overworld in this setting.
Speaking of the exploration though -- I love it so much. I definitely got bored of the desert to the point where I'll admit I probably have hardly set foot in most of the desert areas in Sumeru aside from the archon quest and the character quest portions that forced me to do so.
As for story and characters. The characterization definitely lives up to the standard that Sumeru set, and I love the designs of Fontaine characters even more, though I might just be a sucker for lace. Furina in particular I already adore -- it took me about 5 minutes into the story for me to go from "wow...she's so annoying" to "she's so annoying...and I love her" as I've always loved over the top bratty characters. The story is strong, though I'll actually say that so far it feels just a tad weaker than Sumeru. Overall I like the story so far, but Sumeru just set a very very high bar for Archon quest opening acts with the mystery of the Subzerus festival. That said, I can already see the stage that's being set in Fontaine for the mysteries to come, and it's making me very excited to see what's coming next.
This video is great. Says everything that's on my mind about the dreadful exploration of sumeru and why I gave up on it for star rail until fontaine came out. I felt so restricted in the underground levels of sumeru. Why couldn't I see where I was going? Why was I being stopped from accessing more places? Like seeing that red book just me turned off from exploring anything and came off genshin. Kudos to this vid
thank you so much!💜
Everytime you try to explore sumeru "you can't come here till you go through 10 hours of dialogue from a sidequest"
Archon quest wise, Sumeru is the best for me, as at the end you feel somewhat satisfied but not really fully satisfied. Nahida by the end of the archon quest, just made me feel so sad for her, and yet we learned so many more new things regarding our twin, and a few other bits and pieces of info.
Fontaine has been fun so far, I honestly loved the swimming mechanic (But I also love swimming in games).
I'm not much for the archon quest at the current time, but I'm not much into the whole 'detective mystery' thing. It actually annoyed me a bit more then it should have, though I do really love Navia's part within in the archon quest, but the mystery and being a dectective didn't really appeal to me much.
I love all the other archon questlines, even the quests going into Enkanomiya and The Chasm, but Fontaines archon questline, kind of fell short for me.
I even explored all of Fontaine to 100% in each part of it, before the archon quest, the exploration was much more fun for me.
I hope others had a lot more fun with both the exploration and the archon questline for Fontaine.
I hope the next part will be more exciting for you as well! 💜
Underwater diving in co op mode with the boys is the best
@11:15 its a real shame caus jehts story was AMAZING. i did hate those doors too but kinda adopted the "itl be 100% by the time fontaine comes out" and got there eventually from dailies and maybe 2-3 hours of chest seeking for the last couple % before fontaine hit.
I did power through fontaines exploration suprisingly fast, but wow it was fun to explore, very much agree with fontaine being great for desert fatigue.
I was nervous for underwater too but imho they NAILED IT.
and SAAAAME about the music being a key part of those overworld bosses
I think the quest lock issue was most likely a bug as you can leave the quest area to end and reset the quest in case you something more important to do and with the reset you can enjoy the full experience of the quest without any half completed plot
The desert fatigue is understandable as it's not meant for everyone. But personally loved desert exploration as it actually felt like a desert. Long stretches of nothing but sand Dune as far as the eye can see. It can be tiring trying to traverse the desert but it's part of the desert experience. I loved that they didn't just give us a box of sand and called it a desert that would've felt really halfassed for me.
Now the locked doors I'm on Hoyo's side for this one as all the locked location are very important places for the story and the lore, they simply cannot just be given out. Khaj Nisut, the Golden slumber, Deshret's tomb (the hourglass pyramid), the Eternal Oasis, Ruins of Gurabad are prime locations for the history and the lore of the Desert which cannot be explored alone and require a local and schoolar to act as guides with benben, the magic slate and the jinni acting as important puzzle mechanics for their areas
And I don't see the difference as Fontaine also hides major locations behind quests, maybe it feels different because these locations in Fontaine are more hidden then the one's in the desert which were mostly out in the open
I also love underwater music it's very good and peaceful. I wanna keep floating amongst the fish as long as the music is playing. If its possible I also try to move around Fountaine through underwater if possible as it's much faster then running or gliding
Loved the Cityscape too but I have to say Genshin's cityscape keeps getting more and more complex with every new reason I only just got used to sumeru City but I still get confused when walking around in port Ormos and not I have no idea where I'm going when walking around in the court of Fontaine.
So far Fontaine has been great the only thing I feel is keeping it a bit down for me are soundtracks, not saying that they're bad in any way they're awesome from where they're coming from just that they feel a bit lacking when you compare them to Sumeru tracks which always felt diverse and full of all sorts of emotions, Sumeru tracks had a certain flare to them that Fontaine doesn't seem to be able to reach just yet
Yeah I think it's partly because they're hidden, and partly because there was nothing else in the desert at all... Don't mind there being *some* places like that, but when it's 90% of the map I'd say it's a bad decision. I'd also personally much prefer lore to be something you discover through exploration than just by having a tour guide NPC to tell it all to you, but again definitely a personal preference thing!
@@raptori that would work under normal circumstances however even withing Genshin's lore focused and attention to detail map designs the Desert is in a league of it's own probably will stay as one of the most important locations till the end of the game. Genshin prides itself for it's attention to detail so it cannot just put a location of such importance and nature out there Willy nilly.
Plus the world quests unfortunately are meant to spoon feed lore to players as the other way that you suggested players will most definitely miss or skip the lore. It's mostly to prevent confusion regarding said lore when it get involved in the main story
@@Ren_rz Heh funny that it'd be intended to prevent confusion, when for a lot of people anything which characters say in world quests is instantly forgotten (or not paid attention to in the first place)! I love reading, generally read like 50+ novels per year, but in Genshin the way it's handled in world quests rarely holds my attention even when I'm actively trying to care. Environmental storytelling would be much more compelling for me.
Totally get that it'll be different for everyone ...just sad that an area I'd have loved in theory was frustrating for me because it skewed almost entirely towards a style that I find very tedious 😬
@@raptori "Prevent confusion" for those who actually pay attention and of course that part of the fanbase will always exist, the one's who blatantly ignore such information and later complain that it was never given
Sure not understanding or thing's not making sense or interesting is expected, any and everyone would be confused and uninterested if they started reading a novel from middle to nowhere close to the end. No one's gonna like it like that
@@Ren_rz Yeah I get where you're coming from, and glad that you enjoyed that aspect of it!
Personally I didn't find any of the archon quests confusing despite skipping the lore, but yeah I'd also be perfectly fine with a bit of confusion if it's caused by me skimming those parts, since I just don't enjoy them 😅
Or rather, I do enjoy them a lot ...just not when I'm specifically in the mood to explore instead!
Quite the walltext here but i wanted to share my opinions on some of the points you made in this video as someone who has 100% Fontaine for now
The Archon quest left me with doubts because a lot of the evidence we present in both trials doesnt really prove anything.
In Lyney´s case all of our evidence is basically: "Lyney told me that he was doing this other thing instead of being the killer so he couldnt possibly be the killer" which is not an actual defense that the Nation of Justice should take seriously (specially since characters that spend their lives studying law like Yanfei say that Fontaine legal system is very complex). But at the same time we know that Fontaine focuses more on the theatrics than the actual case so i kinda want to give the quest the benefit of the doubt until its finished in 4.2 and i can judge the trials with a full picture.
As for the underwater areas, im loving it but i knew immediately that it would get boring really fast because, while Genshin managed to be one of the very few games with a good underwater system, they did it by simplifying A LOT of the gameplay. The controls are great (tho kinda anoying when going straight down) but the fact that theres only 3 abillities that you can master immediately because theres no depth to them, the fact that your characters don´t really matter (because while underwater only your HP is relevant and between the healing fish and the crab shield even the HP can feel irrelevant), and the one time nature of all of Genshin exploration makes the underwater feel underwhelming. I hope 4.1 and future Fontaine expansions add more to the underwater than just more zones, a new ability would be nice at least.
Theres also the Pneuma/Ousia mechanic which on one hand im really happy it doesnt really matter that much because the gacha is already enough FOMO and the last thing i want is to feel forced to pull because of garbage restricting mechanics.
But on the other hand the fact that its not that relevant and that theres so little puzzles that use it make the Pneuma/Ousia mechanic feel like a last minute addition only made because maybe the devs didnt think Fontaine was "new enough"
The rest of Fontaine has been really nice. The Melusine world quest is a big step up from the Aranaras, adding equally important lore in a quarter of the time it takes to do all the quest. Same for all the lore regarding the Narzissenkreuz Institute and the Ordo. And the overwater exploration while nothing crazy it feels nice sumply because, unlike Sumeru, the areas are not the size of Liyue (seriously i hate that just the Sumeru forest is as big as the whole of Liyue and then the desert is even bigger and with even more underground areas that we didnt have a map for in 3.x)
For now i definitely prefer Sumeru and if the 3 main points i made are never adressed i still will prefer Sumeru, but if at least the underwater is adressed i think Fontaine has potential to be my new favorite are in Genshin
LOL very true about the whole trial "evidence" being feeble and not at all proof someone did or didn't do something 😂 I did notice that and initially it meant I was so confused as to how I was supposed to "prove" anything, but in the end I just figured I guess it's like kids playing at court..
Definitely would be nice if the character or their elements at least could have a little more effect on under water battles, also not having the ability to self heal underwater is a little uncomfy sometimes. You CAN of course eat food but I don't like relying on snacks really.
I do wonder if the Pneuma/Ousia might be a groundwork for future possible element additions.. 🤔
@@saurusnessyeah I feel like just making it so that the 3 basic underwater abilities change element according to your active character element would be enough of a change to make underwater exploration and combat a little bit better.
I think Pneuma and Ousia are definitely groundwork, they are too basic in terms of gameplay to just be there but in terms of lore we have seen similar things in places like Enkanomiya and one namecard about how the 7 elements are not all the powers in the world. And there's also HoYoverse other games like Star Rail and HI3 with Imaginary and Quantum as elements that look very much like Pneuma and Ousia
@@zafkielvondegurechaff3634 OH BRILLIANT POINT about imaginary and quantum 👀👀👀
With regards to the mazes and locked doors in the underground portions of the Sumeru Desert, I think it has more to do with the design of pyramids irl. If we think of pyramids using movies such as "The Mummy" as a reference point, we think elaborate structures with myriad traps and inaccessible spaces. This is fine in the context of a movie, since we're watching actors go through and solve the puzzles.
From a gameplay perspective though, it ends up feeling very restrictive and sometimes tedious for players. Lots of backtracking, marking spots, running into walls, etc. What would have definitely helped relieve some of the more negative experiences would have been the multi-layered map we now have for Fontaine.
So, map aside, I don't really fault the Genshin devs as much since the source material they were drawing from already lends itself to being tedious from a gameplay perspective.
sumeru desert explore was a nightmare for me
I really hope they add a lot more under water sections in future updates. They definitely nailed it and I need a nice long dip in the ocean after walking around the hot deserts for so long
"Before the memories of sumeru fade"
Me: hasnt finished all the world quests
I joined genshin when sumeru was first released, and I loved the Aranara, wandering around in the ruins of the desert, and discovering hidden lore on the oceanids in the last desert expansion we got before Fontaine. I do have to say, the sand and never ending dunes on the horizon did fatigue me after a while, but Fontaine is just so peaceful (the enemies dont usually attack you on sight like Inazuma and Sumeru), and you can really savour the new sights!
Almost completely agreed with all your points here. I also was so tired of sumeru's endless dialogue and deserts, and was almost considering quitting Genshin entirely after 4.0. But lo and behold, Fontaine's airtight pacing along with the surprisingly good story and world design has kept me hooked these past two weeks. I've even started doing my dailies again.
And the last thing for me is, I absolutely ADORE Fontaine, this is clearly my favorite region.
At the beginning, I was scared, because I waited for Fontaine since, pretty much the very first day I learned about it, and it was during my beginnings as a genshin player.
I have to admit, that impatience and subjective attraction was kind of "patriotism" lmao
But the morning where I booted up my laptop to open the game after the 4.0 was done, I was just left in awe (and tears hahaha).
I cried because, my fears were unjustified, and the game simply amazed me once again, it felt magical, the musics, the ambiance, the scenery, all of it left me silent and submerged by a wave of emotions (no puns intended). I cried because the nation I awaited for years now, answered to all of my hopes and did even better than whatever I could have expected.
I feel proud whenever I see someone gushing about how Fontaine is amazing haha
I just internally giggled every time I saw Paimon in those prop glasses. Whoever thought of that I'll probably have to marry since I adore their sense of humor.
SAME!
To come back on the Furina part :
Yes, but I think that even then with Furina being bratty, she's not dumb, I mean, we all know she's always just putting on a show (a little like Fischl, they are both a little delulu lmao).
But seriously, I think she has great potential as she tries to avoid making the same mistake twice, as we all saw, she first made a impair by judging Lyney as the culprit very quickly (And, okay, she's the goddess of justice she should have known better than to make decisions that quickly, but let's say I am someone who doesn't know Lyney personally, what happened also would have struck me as VERY sus of him, yes it's often not as it seems, but you can't allow yourself to just put aside assumptions just because it seems "Too easy" to accuse someone that has a lot of evidences against them) but on the 2nd trial we had the chance to see her in, she was much more careful as to avoid being too quick in her judgement.
She learned not to make a fool of herself by being more careful thus, making her a little wiser.
Well, I guess I'm being a little biased because I actually like her.
I also LOVE Lyney so much, and I honestly want to trust him, but for the quest, although knowing it wasn't him, I also put myself in the place of the NPCs, Furina and Neuvillette (well, mostly the NPCs and Furina cuz Neuvillette is calm and methodic so he knew not to judge too quickly, he's seriously one of the best characters we've had the chance to met in a while)
Yeah good points! I think that's part of why, even though her brattiness got on my nerves a lot, she felt like a well-crafted character who I can totally see having a redemption arc. The fact that even though she was still blustering and being really theatrical, she was actually changing tack and correcting her mistakes was a good thing for sure!
Most archons have a change of heart. Venti embodies freedom but he learned he still needs to take charge from time to time, Zhongli embodies contract but for the growth of his people he has to break his former contract, Ei embodies eternity and wanted her country to be in stasis but later realize changes for the better are not bad. Nahida embodies knowledge and most of the time is curious but later she learned some knowledge should be left unknown or forgotten.
As for Furina, love her or hate her but you must admit, the archon quest wouldn't be as entertaining as it was without her silly antics, she's such a court jester. Her growth will be coming probably once 4.2 is live.
As much as I love desert as a concept maybe having whole three areas of it instead of any new forest area felt even weird. Though the last desert area was incredible, best of best. Even musically my favourite
I just sat down to eat dinner and was wondering whether to wathc youtube or play genshin, so this was perfect timing ❤
hehe tysm 💜
As much as i loved the characters and quests of sumeru the exploration felt overwhelming. The rainforest was messy and difficult to navigate and the desert was locked behind hours of world quests.
Fontaine on the other hand feels much more organized and clear, with the underwater part being colorful and interesting.
Most areas of Sumeru in my world have around 50-60% exploration (and they'll stay that way), while in Fontaine its already above 80% everywhere and i'm aiming for 100%.
For me, there was only two things I dislike about Sumeru: the underground caves in the desert, and some of the quests where there are too many "traitors". Makes me think something is not right with these people and I don't want to help them, but I must!
So far, Fontaine is not quite as good as Sumeru. I love how the made it possible to play Subnautica there, but the overall atmosphere in Fontaine is quite depressing, while in Sumeru you just immediately wanted to hug everyone.
exploration is my personal fav part in genshin and fontaine has to be my fav region so far!! i rly rly liked the archon quest so far but even if they pull an inazuma where the beginning is rly strong but the end is kinda eh fontaine would still have to be my fav region solely bc of the underwater exploration! them not adding an oxygen bar was def the best move they couldve made