I genuinely think genshin has gone crazily downhill with natlan in terms of the character design, archon quest and storytelling department. especially coming right after Fontaine which had beautiful character designs, an absolutely fantastic mainline story quest that told furina’s story and the story of Fontaine amazingly, not only that but the two story’s linked together to create one and it is genuinely some of genshin’s best story telling so far.

then we come into natlan and… what. Im listening to kachina whine for 2 hours for no reason. capitano makes a random ass appearance then dips. we are introduced to mavuika who has literally no flaws whatsoever and no substance? her writing is dreadful and I didn’t care for her character whatsoever. I didn’t feel like her story coincided with the main plot they felt totally seperate.

one aspect I did like was capitano’s story but even then I felt like it was rushed because we didn’t even have that much time with him before he dipped and went for good, like this is the conclusion to a story we only heard bits and parts of? It doesn’t feel full and rich like for example scaramouche’s was. It felt rushed, but the story itself was interesting I just wish it was fleshed out more and we got more time with him.

I also felt like the main archon quests were kind of just dumping the lore on too heavily? a key part of genshin is piecing together lore and trying to figure out what might happen next or how does this thing relate to this thing from a year ago. but it was kind of all handed to us without any investigation and it was boring. it didn’t feel suspenseful at all and I didn’t like how they just wrote in the end boss dragon without any lead up like we are just supposed to accept that the main abyssal enemy is a dragon? With no explanation or build up or story around it? Like that is stupid

next is character designs which. they’re just fucking bad im sorry. a few of them i can live with they’re good it’s fine but some others are just god awful. kinich, kachina and mualani who were the first bunch to release have genuinely good designs albeit they look a bit pokemon-esque I genuinely like them, I think they would look beautiful with dark skin though I think that was probably their initial design tbh.

but god. mavuika, xilonen, Ororon, chasca, varesa, I’m counting mizuki cuz she came out during natlan. these designs are just awful like they are just so bad. they don’t fit with the game, the bike is just absolutely fucking ridiculous and I hate it, the characters don’t represent what they actually are supposed to be (how the fuck is xilonen a forger??? and a dj??? it’s stupid. this is a stupid mix of something that is seen as more fantasy or medieval and then something completely modern and it makes no sense!) ororon’s jeans look ridiculous and chasca is just. she’s just hideous the design is actually ghastly.

there are too many modern elements within these designs that don’t fit in with the rest of the game and don’t make any sense whatsoever, it would be completely fine if there was modern elements to the other regions but there aren’t! how the fuck do you have a medieval bard and a DJ within the same fucking game ?!?!?! it makes no sense and it completely ruins the immersion of the game.

I don’t know who is designing these characters but they need to be fired. not to mention these themes literally don’t even fucking fit into natlan itself!!!! how does the concept of a motorbike or a dj spin table even exist to create that and now I mention it kinich’s retro theme doesn’t get away with it either.

natlan itself as a region is completely fine like the graffiti, dragons, saurus’, buildings theyre all good and they actually fit within genshin but the characters are just so bad. they genuinely hurt my interest in the game because it’s so immersion breaking, confusing and ridiculous.

anyway. I enjoyed the lore to a degree and I think the region itself is beautiful but I do not have high hopes for future natlan patches especially considering varesa