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[Pejo]

Nice Yinlin cosplay:

 

[Icymanipulator]

Decided to say F it in Genshin and pull for Alhaitham…. Got him in 3 10 pulls and 2 copies of Sethos. Just wanted a Dendro unit, and I’ll never pull for Nahida, so that’s a wrap.

Hahahhahahaahahah I’ve beaten RNG yet again!

 

[jonnyXx]

Holy shit, I just realized there is now a "View Characters" button at the top right of the abyss character select screen and you can change equipment there. Now we don't have to leave abyss to change stuff around.

Why did they not mention this in the dev discussion?? They only said you'd be able to go back to the character select screen without leaving abyss but said nothing about this.

 

[Pejo]

Just finally caught up and finished the Penacony 2.2 story in Star Rail. I was expecting it to be like an hour or two, but it took a good 4-6 hours to get through (I was mixing some exploration and read most of the optional stuff too).

As Doom85 said, it was a big step up from 2.1 Adventurine stuff, but still didn't hit the heights of 2.0 for me, personally. I could have done without the hours of listening to fictional characters wax philosophic, but that's damn near a miHoYo staple at this point. I'm also tired of every character talking in riddles and lofty idealism. Sometimes you just want to see a touching/interesting story play out in front of you, and I think MHY getting so rich made them think that they're playing to a wholly different crowd of pseudo-intellectuals that sit around exchanging poetry verses and sipping on 1200 dollar Scotch.

Anyways, for a "free" game, it was definitely outstanding and beat most $70 games that I've played in the past year or two, so I can't be too critical I guess. The twist at the end was too predictable and yet the dialogue was too confusing at the same time, I don't know how they do it. I'm also a bit peeved that several of the dialogue choices (which actually somewhat matter in this game and are referenced occasionally in future bits) were ONLY meme answers like JJK brainrot memes (Nah, I'd win, etc). Usually in past story bits they were there as an option for ADHD zoomers, but you had 1-2 "normal" options to select without disrupting the flow of the story. This time though they were all 3 options for several choices, and I hated it. Those type of responses are so out of place in the spots of the story you're in, so I gave feedback on the fortuitously timed survey that just came up. I don't even mind if that type of dialogue exists in events, but when you're talking philosophical about the will of humans and the meaning of life itself, then your options are "FART JOKE" "BURRRRRP" or "THAT'S SO SUS AMOGUS" it just feels bad.

Also, 2 things - 1. The final music for the big boss fight in this patch was a huge mismatch. I get why they picked it, but the happy pop music did not match the situation at all, which is surprising considering how great their music selection was for Belobog and the Luofu's final battles. 2. The animation on those curtains being pulled back in the final area was amazing. I walked around in that area just running up to curtains and watching it.

 

[Nankatsu]

I didn't resist and spent a little bit of money in order to get Jiyan's weapon.

During that process I noticed that they use the Xsolla company to process their payments. Never heard of them, and a brief search kind of seems they're on the shady side?

Anyway, I just went ahead, changed my Paypal password and enabled 2-step factor just to be safe.

 

[Pejo]

I didn't resist and spent a little bit of money in order to get Jiyan's weapon.

During that process I noticed that they use the Xsolla company to process their payments. Never heard of them, and a brief search kind of seems they're on the shady side?

Anyway, I just went ahead, changed my Paypal password and enabled 2-step factor just to be safe.

For all of these games I always make my purchases through Google Play, whether or not I play the game on my phone. Pretty much exclusively for consumer protections and putting a layer between me and foreign payment companies. There's also small bonuses like Play Points where my welkins are usually free every month. A month ago or so I won a $150 Razer mouse from Google Play, which was pretty cool. I barely ever win anything.

Downside is that you need increasingly more space on your phone and some people consider it a waste to have games installed there just for making purchases. You can also use emulators but then it's eating up disk space so I dunno if that's better.

 

[Nankatsu]

For all of these games I always make my purchases through Google Play, whether or not I play the game on my phone. Pretty much exclusively for consumer protections and putting a layer between me and foreign payment companies. There's also small bonuses like Play Points where my welkins are usually free every month. A month ago or so I won a $150 Razer mouse from Google Play, which was pretty cool. I barely ever win anything.

Downside is that you need increasingly more space on your phone and some people consider it a waste to have games installed there just for making purchases. You can also use emulators but then it's eating up disk space so I dunno if that's better.

Yeah, I've always used Google Play too for almost every purchase I made for mobile games.

But in this case, since I don't have and don't plan on installing the game on my phone, I'll have to work around it somehow.

Either way, Paypal + 2-step factor is more than enough, but I won't get any juice google points in the future.

Maybe you can get a google play card and use it in game? I don't know to be honest.

Works in most games, but I didn't found an option in WuWa, at least playing natively on PC (not via emulator).

 

[Pejo]

Yeah, I've always used Google Play too for almost every purchase I made for mobile games.

But in this case, since I don't have and don't plan on installing the game on my phone, I'll have to work around it somehow.

Either way, Paypal + 2-step factor is more than enough, but I won't get any juice google points in the future.

Maybe you can get a google play card and use it in game? I don't know to be honest.

Works in most games, but I didn't found an option in WuWa, at least playing natively on PC (not via emulator).

Sadly other than customer confidence, there's no benefit for them putting Google Play payment methods into the PC versions. They probably want to avoid that 30% platform cut wherever possible.

I think Epic Games Store has a WuWa client, but then you're dealing with EGS launcher spyware that's probably worse than the Xsolla payment company. Like you said, PayPal is fine, that's an acceptable security layer for you. Paypal customer support is kinda shit though, where Google just refunds you no questions asked as long as you don't abuse it, in the event of an issue.

 

[deanote666]

I’ll never pull for Nahida, so that’s a wrap.

I'm not a fan of her design but she kicks butt and takes names. She's still one of my mains in the abyss.

 

[Doom85]

Just finally caught up and finished the Penacony 2.2 story in Star Rail. I was expecting it to be like an hour or two, but it took a good 4-6 hours to get through (I was mixing some exploration and read most of the optional stuff too).

As Doom85 said, it was a big step up from 2.1 Adventurine stuff, but still didn't hit the heights of 2.0 for me, personally. I could have done without the hours of listening to fictional characters wax philosophic, but that's damn near a miHoYo staple at this point. I'm also tired of every character talking in riddles and lofty idealism. Sometimes you just want to see a touching/interesting story play out in front of you, and I think MHY getting so rich made them think that they're playing to a wholly different crowd of pseudo-intellectuals that sit around exchanging poetry verses and sipping on 1200 dollar Scotch.

Anyways, for a "free" game, it was definitely outstanding and beat most $70 games that I've played in the past year or two, so I can't be too critical I guess. The twist at the end was too predictable and yet the dialogue was too confusing at the same time, I don't know how they do it. I'm also a bit peeved that several of the dialogue choices (which actually somewhat matter in this game and are referenced occasionally in future bits) were ONLY meme answers like JJK brainrot memes (Nah, I'd win, etc). Usually in past story bits they were there as an option for ADHD zoomers, but you had 1-2 "normal" options to select without disrupting the flow of the story. This time though they were all 3 options for several choices, and I hated it. Those type of responses are so out of place in the spots of the story you're in, so I gave feedback on the fortuitously timed survey that just came up. I don't even mind if that type of dialogue exists in events, but when you're talking philosophical about the will of humans and the meaning of life itself, then your options are "FART JOKE" "BURRRRRP" or "THAT'S SO SUS AMOGUS" it just feels bad.

Also, 2 things - 1. The final music for the big boss fight in this patch was a huge mismatch. I get why they picked it, but the happy pop music did not match the situation at all, which is surprising considering how great their music selection was for Belobog and the Luofu's final battles. 2. The animation on those curtains being pulled back in the final area was amazing. I walked around in that area just running up to curtains and watching it.

Spoiler

I didn’t mind the twist because I was proud I figured out well before something was off which is rare for me. As soon as Misha’s condition was first explained, I thought, “hold up, we met him in the hotel while we were awake, so how does that work?” I missed the other hint that Jing Yuan actually referred to TB as Galactic Baseballer, since no one uses that name ever no matter how much TB pushes it.

I don’t mind the philosophical talk but I’m a fast reader anyway. Normally I let the voice acting finish, but if it’s in a deep philosophical talk I can quickly read it all and jump ahead. My only issue was the dungeon where you hear Sunday narrating as his dialogue would cut off if you move ahead too quickly so I had to wait at times. That was my only major issue with 2.2, that dungeon should have been designed to never have the player stop and wait for a character to finish talking or they miss the dialogue for good.

Also, the heaviest philosophical part was Acheron talking to the mysterious old man, and that was worth it for the payoff of who he was. I almost got teary again hearing him lament never getting to see Mikhail ever again after all that time. I’ve not played Honkai Impact, so that Raiden element was just kind of like, “yeah, sure”, but I do think it was all worth in fleshing out Acheron, in that she follows Nihility yet still sees the importance in doing tasks such as leaving flowers on a grave. She also (maybe?) confirms this world does have some sort of afterlife as she promises him that he will see Mikhail again even after he passes on for good.

Also, I personally love the meme/troll dialogue options. Particularly when March is around, as she initially came off as the ditz but you can be so ridiculous that even she is like, “bruh, knock that off”. I can’t really remember though a moment where a meme/troll answer was forced on me, at least not during any serious bits.

I didn’t mind the music, especially since as Welt put it, it was essentially harmony vs. disharmony and Robin was established as a pop singer so anything else would have been inappropriate. And still a far better boss fight than the Luofu because the whole time I thought, “I barely know this villain since she was disguised as a seemingly good character for over 75% of this story, why should I care about this fight?” Belebog and Penacony led into their final bosses FAR better.

Also, I dug the vibe of the Reef town, just this sleepy little town at the bottom of the dream world, I’m hoping we get a side event that expands upon the area and we can see what else lies at the bottom.

Also, screw the crisis on Edo Star, I voted Lushaka! Ocean planet, aquatic races, that could be so cool visually looking! Of course, since the reveal means the IPC didn’t actually tell the Express crew about any crisis, it means Edo Star is presumably okay.

And yeah, I mentioned the cut scenes earlier. So many I loved. Misha resting for good, I legit got teary. TB taking Mikhail’s hat and marching forward with the crew to confront Sunday. Boothill summoning the Galaxy Rangers and Acheron assisting him to dispel the dream. Robin and the Express itself showing up to help us against Sunday. This was pure fire.

 

[Pejo]

Star Rail news - Looks like Summer Game Fest trailer showed March 7th upcoming alternate form. This supposedly isn't a new gacha character like Dan Heng got, but more of a Trailblazer switch alt. Kinda underwhelming but it'd be hard pressed to be worse than her Preservation version.

 

[Doom85]

Star Rail news - Looks like Summer Game Fest trailer showed March 7th upcoming alternate form. This supposedly isn't a new gacha character like Dan Heng got, but more of a Trailblazer switch alt. Kinda underwhelming but it'd be hard pressed to be worse than her Preservation version.

They’re surely saving her 5 star version for whatever planet/update is the one we finally find out about her past and her amnesia is lifted.

 

[Pejo]

Spoiler

I didn’t mind the twist because I was proud I figured out well before something was off which is rare for me. As soon as Misha’s condition was first explained, I thought, “hold up, we met him in the hotel while we were awake, so how does that work?” I missed the other hint that Jing Yuan actually referred to TB as Galactic Baseballer, since no one uses that name ever no matter how much TB pushes it.

I don’t mind the philosophical talk but I’m a fast reader anyway. Normally I let the voice acting finish, but if it’s in a deep philosophical talk I can quickly read it all and jump ahead. My only issue was the dungeon where you hear Sunday narrating as his dialogue would cut off if you move ahead too quickly so I had to wait at times. That was my only major issue with 2.2, that dungeon should have been designed to never have the player stop and wait for a character to finish talking or they miss the dialogue for good.

Also, the heaviest philosophical part was Acheron talking to the mysterious old man, and that was worth it for the payoff of who he was. I almost got teary again hearing him lament never getting to see Mikhail ever again after all that time. I’ve not played Honkai Impact, so that Raiden element was just kind of like, “yeah, sure”, but I do think it was all worth in fleshing out Acheron, in that she follows Nihility yet still sees the importance in doing tasks such as leaving flowers on a grave. She also (maybe?) confirms this world does have some sort of afterlife as she promises him that he will see Mikhail again even after he passes on for good.

Also, I personally love the meme/troll dialogue options. Particularly when March is around, as she initially came off as the ditz but you can be so ridiculous that even she is like, “bruh, knock that off”. I can’t really remember though a moment where a meme/troll answer was forced on me, at least not during any serious bits.

I didn’t mind the music, especially since as Welt put it, it was essentially harmony vs. disharmony and Robin was established as a pop singer so anything else would have been inappropriate. And still a far better boss fight than the Luofu because the whole time I thought, “I barely know this villain since she was disguised as a seemingly good character for over 75% of this story, why should I care about this fight?” Belebog and Penacony led into their final bosses FAR better.

Also, I dug the vibe of the Reef town, just this sleepy little town at the bottom of the dream world, I’m hoping we get a side event that expands upon the area and we can see what else lies at the bottom.

Also, screw the crisis on Edo Star, I voted Lushaka! Ocean planet, aquatic races, that could be so cool visually looking! Of course, since the reveal means the IPC didn’t actually tell the Express crew about any crisis, it means Edo Star is presumably okay.

And yeah, I mentioned the cut scenes earlier. So many I loved. Misha resting for good, I legit got teary. TB taking Mikhail’s hat and marching forward with the crew to confront Sunday. Boothill summoning the Galaxy Rangers and Acheron assisting him to dispel the dream. Robin and the Express itself showing up to help us against Sunday. This was pure fire.

Spoiler: Star Rail 2.2 spoilers.

I think you and I are into different things about the game, but it's really cool that it can have something for everybody like that. I don't mind some philosophy mixed into stories, but they just absolutely BEAT you over the head with it for the last hour or so of the Penacony arc, with nothing else happening to break it up other than solving some puzzles and navigating through a linear maze. Also yea I agree that the "invisible walking point" that skips to the next dialogue is annoying. I actually really enjoyed the Acheron parts with Tiernan, it was super cool and I have no problem with that part of the philosophy dump, it was the Sunday part about him going on and on and on. Plus if you'd have played HI3 like I did, you'd be triggered if you saw the phrase "why do birds fly?" because they spent like 20 hours in that game talking about it too in the final chapter of part 1 and annoyed like 95% of the playerbase with it.

The zoomerspeak absolutely takes me out of the main story, and if it's not a big deal for you, I can see you just picking an option and moving on. I always get stuck at sections like that and it leaves a negative impression on me, though. Usually it's not a big deal because 1 option is usually a normal option, but this patch and story was the first time I felt there wasn't a normal option. Maybe I'm too invested in pop culture and normal people aren't getting all the references and think the other options are just normal options, so that's a possibility too. I wish I could just shrug it off. Like I said, in events or non-important segments of the game, go ham. I know kids probably love seeing "Nah we'd win." every time it pops up (whether or not kids should be playing a gacha game with gambling monetization mechanics is another subject altogether, but I digress).

Regarding the battles, you're definitely right. The buildup and payoff was much better handled in Belobog and Penacony, but I'm just talking the song itself not matching the battle. I get why they picked the type of song that they did to show Robin and the Harmony supporting the Nameless, and using her powers against her brother. I just wish the song they chose was a little more emotional or harder instead of just a boppy little disposable pop tune. A remix of the Firefly song would have been more appropriate and left a bigger impression, for instance.

Reef town was great, but it still bugs me that despite Penacony being a land of dreams where anything is possible, most of the areas were just "1950s town" with bubbles and flying whales and talking inanimate objects. I thought they could have pushed harder and gone crazier. Then Reef town could have been as it was, and it would show a stark contrast between it and the other sections of the dream. But yea I loved the area.

But yea, it was a good chapter, a huge improvement over the Luofu and I dread going back to the Luofu if I'm being honest. That ocean planet sounds fun. I think I picked the planet that was the source of Idrillia the Beauty.

 

[Doom85]

Spoiler: Star Rail 2.2 spoilers.

I think you and I are into different things about the game, but it's really cool that it can have something for everybody like that. I don't mind some philosophy mixed into stories, but they just absolutely BEAT you over the head with it for the last hour or so of the Penacony arc, with nothing else happening to break it up other than solving some puzzles and navigating through a linear maze. Also yea I agree that the "invisible walking point" that skips to the next dialogue is annoying. I actually really enjoyed the Acheron parts with Tiernan, it was super cool and I have no problem with that part of the philosophy dump, it was the Sunday part about him going on and on and on. Plus if you'd have played HI3 like I did, you'd be triggered if you saw the phrase "why do birds fly?" because they spent like 20 hours in that game talking about it too in the final chapter of part 1 and annoyed like 95% of the playerbase with it.

The zoomerspeak absolutely takes me out of the main story, and if it's not a big deal for you, I can see you just picking an option and moving on. I always get stuck at sections like that and it leaves a negative impression on me, though. Usually it's not a big deal because 1 option is usually a normal option, but this patch and story was the first time I felt there wasn't a normal option. Maybe I'm too invested in pop culture and normal people aren't getting all the references and think the other options are just normal options, so that's a possibility too. I wish I could just shrug it off. Like I said, in events or non-important segments of the game, go ham. I know kids probably love seeing "Nah we'd win." every time it pops up (whether or not kids should be playing a gacha game with gambling monetization mechanics is another subject altogether, but I digress).

Regarding the battles, you're definitely right. The buildup and payoff was much better handled in Belobog and Penacony, but I'm just talking the song itself not matching the battle. I get why they picked the type of song that they did to show Robin and the Harmony supporting the Nameless, and using her powers against her brother. I just wish the song they chose was a little more emotional or harder instead of just a boppy little disposable pop tune. A remix of the Firefly song would have been more appropriate and left a bigger impression, for instance.

Reef town was great, but it still bugs me that despite Penacony being a land of dreams where anything is possible, most of the areas were just "1950s town" with bubbles and flying whales and talking inanimate objects. I thought they could have pushed harder and gone crazier. Then Reef town could have been as it was, and it would show a stark contrast between it and the other sections of the dream. But yea I loved the area.

But yea, it was a good chapter, a huge improvement over the Luofu and I dread going back to the Luofu if I'm being honest. That ocean planet sounds fun. I think I picked the planet that was the source of Idrillia the Beauty.

Spoiler

Interesting about the “why do birds fly?” bit. Tales of Berseria has that as a philosophical question that comes up at times, and it looks like it came out only two months apart from when Honkai Impact 3rd debuted, so presumably it’s just a big coincidence (unless Honkai Impact 3rd only started using it later on).

Honestly, all the planet options sounded potentially interesting. I feel they could utilize some/all of them, or just leave them as worldbuilding since as I said TB and company still being in a dream when the options were discussed meant at least some details are off (at first I assumed the real PomPom wasn’t even really there since he never went down to Penacony but stayed on the Express, but then I remember our first meeting with Acheron in a dream while still on the Express meant Sunday had managed to have people unknowingly enter the dream even slightly outside the planet’s orbit.

 

[SSfox]

Hell YEAH nice hsr week

Spoiler: Honkai Star rail pulls

Spoiler: Acheron Ornements rolls

 

[Nankatsu]

Anyone tried ZZZ?

Seems like the game changed a lot after the last closed beta and it's getting attention again.

There's too many gacha open world games right now, damn.

 

[Pejo]

Anyone tried ZZZ?

Seems like the game changed a lot after the last closed beta and it's getting attention again.

There's too many gacha open world games right now, damn.

You couldn't pay me to play another HoYo game right now. I just don't have the time or headspace for it. I won't support that one strictly due to the copious and repeated censorship that hit the game.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Anyone tried ZZZ?

Seems like the game changed a lot after the last closed beta and it's getting attention again.

There's too many gacha open world games right now, damn.

I will give it a spin once it’s out, not sure if I will stay with it though. Not super into animal people.

 

[Pejo]

So I did Yinlin's quest last night. Holy shit the VA work and dialogue was terrible. Made Genshin voiced quests look like the Cannes Film Festival. I laughed especially hard in the one spot where one of the villains mysteriously turned British for a few lines and then back to normal english. I know this was all part of the initial localization despite it coming out much later, but damn it was horrible. Shame too, I really like Yinlin but her VA was terrible at reading the situations while she was reading the lines. It sounds like they didn't give her any reference for how she should be treating the dialogue.

I read a few weeks ago that instead of working with NA voice acting companies, they just used some based out of England since it was closer and easier for logistics or something, so every one of the EN VAs are British imitating American english. It makes sense when you ask yourself why they sound so retarded. Crazy part is that I think British/Welsh/Irish VAs sound amazing in games, like XBC2.

Though it would have been extra hilarious for some reason to see characters named Yuanyuan and Jingling with british accents.

But yea you can definitely see why the writers and the voice director were fired. What a mess.

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

After playing WuWa for a while I just can't stand Genshin combat anymore. I have Jiyan and Yinlin now. Who is better between Encore and Jiaxin? I can pull them from the one time guaranteed banner.

 

[Pejo]

After playing WuWa for a while I just can't stand Genshin combat anymore. I have Jiyan and Yinlin now. Who is better between Encore and Jiaxin? I can pull them from the one time guaranteed banner.

My main team is Rover/Yinlin/Jiaxin and it's great. Jiaxin is kinda like a C6 Zhongli (shield that heals) and Venti (Resonance burst that gathers). Encore is probably the best subdps for fast-swap teams if you like swapping. There's not a bad pick between the two of them. I find Spectro Rover/Jiaxin good enough with their various healing that I don't need a dedicated healer, so it's been easy sailing even for those hologram trials.

To be honest, I think Rover/Encore/Jiaxin is a better team than Yinlin, but Yinlin is a hot redhead elf so....

*edit*

Just finished all of the rogue-like mode event missions. Not bad for a first attempt honestly. The character buffs are interesting and powerful, and it doesn't overstay its welcome in length per run. By FAR Yangyang was the worst trial character they gave us. Sleepytits (Taoqi or whatever her name is) is surprisingly great in that mode, too bad her overworld performance is shit. Yinlin absolutely wrecked the highest level one and she's only level 60 still (should have my union level high enough to break 60 cap in a few days). I'd like to see some more variations of stages, echoes, enemies, and buffs, but I would like to see that come back as a pseudo endgame mode.

 

[Nankatsu]

Just hit databank 16 and I think this crafting system needs some tweaks. While we can grind for echoes at ease, leveling them up and further unlocking their substats feels clunky.

From what I could gather when you use a leveled up echo, with already unlocked sub-stats, on another echo, you only raise it's level, no sub-stats what so ever. You also don't get anything back in terms of substat materials.

And those materials are incredibly scarse.

 

[Pejo]

Just hit databank 16 and I think this crafting system needs some tweaks. While we can grind for echoes at ease, leveling them up and further unlocking their substats feels clunky.

From what I could gather when you use a leveled up echo, with already unlocked sub-stats, on another echo, you only raise it's level, no sub-stats what so ever. You also don't get anything back in terms of substat materials.

And those materials are incredibly scarse.

Yea even Echo exp items are strangely rare right now. They have an echo XP farming stage in the game, but it's only accessible for that one mission and then they hide it, so I'm guessing they're making echo materials purposefully scarce right now to prevent people from min-maxing in the first month of release. I'm willing to bet we'll get farming stages for echo xp and those tuners in the future when there's more content overall.

I've got 3 full teams (only 2 of the teams leveled though) kitted out in purple weapons + gold tier echoes (not perfect substats and sometimes not even leveled echoes, but still) and gearing characters hasn't even been a goal for me. I never judge character build stuff in the launch window of a gacha. It almost always changes.

I'm trying to figure out which weapon to select with the 5* weapon selector coming up. Either Sword for Rover or Gauntlet for Jianxin or whatever her name is. I kinda like having Energy Recharge on Jianxin's current gauntlet because it improves the uptime of her Burst skill, but her damage is kinda middling with it. The Sword would be a universal upgrade for Rover though, so that's what I'll probably grab.

 

[Icymanipulator]

I might just wait for WW to come to console.
I have it installed but have still not gotten around to it. Not enough time in the day. On the flip side, it’s the only thing my gf is playing now, she hasn’t touched Genshin or Star Rail in over a week.

 

[Pejo]

I might just wait for WW to come to console.
I have it installed but have still not gotten around to it. Not enough time in the day. On the flip side, it’s the only thing my gf is playing now, she hasn’t touched Genshin or Star Rail in over a week.

Genshin mogs WW in terms of amount and variety of content, story, depth, etc, but WW is just simply way more fun to actually play. I have high hopes that Kuro can continue to invest their revenue into the game and make it truly a Genshin competitor, because it's starting with an incredibly solid gameplay base.

It also plays pretty well on PC with a controller. That's how I play, and I only occasionally need to keep a mouse handy to select on screen options because the contoller interface isn't perfect. But once I'm out of menus and playing the game, controller feels fantastic.

 

[Pejo]

Just finished the new Dain quest. This one was kinda a letdown. I think it ended up erasing more progress than the last couple have made, all for a few minutes of chatting with the sibling about mostly nothing important.

At least we know now that abyss sibling is preparing to fight the Heavenly Principles when it awakens. So I guess that's something at least. Still, not nearly good enough to make up for the huge amount of time in between Dain quests.

 

[Nankatsu]

Samuel L. Jackson, is that you?

 

[Pejo]

Samuel L. Jackson, is that you?

I saw a great meme about Lingyang's "Sorry you had to see me like that, ROVER" but I lost it before I could share it.

Star Rail's building hype for Firefly banner coming up soon. I personally think it's gonna break sales records, but I guess we'll see. The Acheron banner is gonna be tough to beat without resetting the first time purchase bonuses.

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

I saw a great meme about Lingyang's "Sorry you had to see me like that, ROVER" but I lost it before I could share it.

This one?

Spoiler

 

[Nankatsu]

Jesus, what a fucking fiasco for a 30M download celebration.

Repost, only 10 people get rewards

 

[Pejo]

This one?

Spoiler

Yep that's the one. His whole quest line was nonstop cringe.

Jesus, what a fucking fiasco for a 30M download celebration.

Repost, only 10 people get rewards

They'd be further ahead to do a share campaign and then give X pulls to everyone when we hit some sort of milestone. This is incredibly stupid.

*edit*

Oh ho ho, Emilie lost her penalty passive. Interesting...

 

[InterMusketeer]

Oh ho ho, Emilie lost her penalty passive. Interesting...

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

WuWa related:

As I progress in the game and level up I am seeing the issues the game has. Bad auto targeting, all regular and weekly bosses using 60 points, basic material farming needing 40 points, echo farming, tuning and leveling behind extreme grind, high level boss fights taking forever to finish, enemies reseting position and regaining health randomly within a very small area etc. etc. I will see for a few more weeks and if they don't do anything to address these issues then I will tap out before too much time investment goes into this. What issues are you guys facing?

 

[Nankatsu]

WuWa related:

As I progress in the game and level up I am seeing the issues the game has. Bad auto targeting, all regular and weekly bosses using 60 points, basic material farming needing 40 points, echo farming, tuning and leveling behind extreme grind, high level boss fights taking forever to finish, enemies reseting position and regaining health randomly within a very small area etc. etc. I will see for a few more weeks and if they don't do anything to address these issues then I will tap out before too much time investment goes into this. What issues are you guys facing?

Currently I would say more performance issues on my end, because my PC is a potato. Just the loadings itself, jesus, my sweet and beloved PS5.

My main grip for now is the echo grinding / tuning. If the combat wasn't so much fun people would be really ranting about this.

I get it that the game is new, and I'm sure things will improve, but the lack os materials, heavy cost on dungeons, bosses and tacet fields, it's overboard.

What's the point of infinite echo grinding if they grab us by the balls and won't let us roll sub-stats in a more frequent basis?

EDIT: Free x10 pull for everybody. By now I think they're doing this on purpose.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Just came here to say i saw a friend playing this in late April. Game looked interesting so decided to give it a chance.

I'm almost at world level 40, gave up on all other videogames i intended to play (and actually BOUGHT), have multiple characters at level 70 plus their weapons, etc.

This is not how i intended to spend my gaming sessions in 2024

Shit is addictive as fuck...

 

[Nankatsu]

Just came here to say i saw a friend playing this in late April. Game looked interesting so decided to give it a chance.

I'm almost at world level 40, gave up on all other videogames i intended to play (and actually BOUGHT), have multiple characters at level 70 plus their weapons, etc.

This is not how i intended to spend my gaming sessions in 2024

Shit is addictive as fuck...

Welcome to the gacha world. Now just keep your wallet closed .

You should check Honkai Star Rail (turned based RPG) and Wuthering Waves (fast-paced and skill combat) down the road too.

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

Just came here to say i saw a friend playing this in late April. Game looked interesting so decided to give it a chance.

I'm almost at world level 40, gave up on all other videogames i intended to play (and actually BOUGHT), have multiple characters at level 70 plus their weapons, etc.

This is not how i intended to spend my gaming sessions in 2024

Shit is addictive as fuck...

I have not been able to move away from it and have tried multiple times. The game is really great if you do not get into min maxing your characters and try to follow meta. The story is decent enough, combat mechanics good, the characters okay but the OST is the best IMO. I can just roam around the game world not doing anything but simply listening to the music.

As Nankatsu said, better to check all those games and decide which one you want to continue with. I have no experience of HSR but Genshin and Wuthering are both massive time sinks and very difficult to manage if you have limited time for gaming.

 

[jonnyXx]

Just came here to say i saw a friend playing this in late April. Game looked interesting so decided to give it a chance.

I'm almost at world level 40, gave up on all other videogames i intended to play (and actually BOUGHT), have multiple characters at level 70 plus their weapons, etc.

This is not how i intended to spend my gaming sessions in 2024

Shit is addictive as fuck...

lol this was me late april of last year. Started after a friend asked me to try it so we could play coop. He ended up dropping it after a week and I'm still here over a year later. Haven't been playing too much else since.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Welcome to the gacha world. Now just keep your wallet closed .

You should check Honkai Star Rail (turned based RPG) and Wuthering Waves (fast-paced and skill combat) down the road too.

No...and no.

My post wasn't trying to say i needed more games like this dude. One is already too much. But thanks for the advices ahah.

I have not been able to move away from it and have tried multiple times. The game is really great if you do not get into min maxing your characters and try to follow meta. The story is decent enough, combat mechanics good, the characters okay but the OST is the best IMO. I can just roam around the game world not doing anything but simply listening to the music.

As Nankatsu said, better to check all those games and decide which one you want to continue with. I have no experience of HSR but Genshin and Wuthering are both massive time sinks and very difficult to manage if you have limited time for gaming.

That's the thing...people are usually just so dismissive of gasha games. But the truth is, the game is better than many AAA games in gameplay, artstyle, OST. Story is...okay so far i guess, but that's not the main thing that makes me come back to it anyway.

lol this was me late april of last year. Started after a friend asked me to try it so we could play coop. He ended up dropping it after a week and I'm still here over a year later. Haven't been playing too much else since.

Oh...i hope this won't be me in a year. I have so many single player games to play lmao. PS Plus is useless right now. Rebirth is like...waiting for me as we speak as well.

My backlog watching me playing this game non-stop right now be like:

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

WuWa question:

I have about 70 standard pulls which I can use on the targeted banner or the standard banner. If I use those pulls on the standard banner and get a 5* will the targeted banner still remain? If yes then I am thinking I will try my luck on the standard banner and if I get Jiax, Encore or Catboy then I can target someone else on the targeted banner. Somehow I feel I will get a dupe of Cal or Verina with mu luck though. What do you guys think?

 

[Nankatsu]

WuWa question:

I have about 70 standard pulls which I can use on the targeted banner or the standard banner. If I use those pulls on the standard banner and get a 5* will the targeted banner still remain? If yes then I am thinking I will try my luck on the standard banner and if I get Jiax, Encore or Catboy then I can target someone else on the targeted banner. Somehow I feel I will get a dupe of Cal or Verina with mu luck though. What do you guys think?

Selectable banner only goes away when you pull your selected character there.

It's available for a year iirc.

Since it's early game I would just go for the selectable banner, get the unit I wanted.

Your strategy also makes sense, but it can take double the pulls.

 

[Pejo]

WuWa related:

As I progress in the game and level up I am seeing the issues the game has. Bad auto targeting, all regular and weekly bosses using 60 points, basic material farming needing 40 points, echo farming, tuning and leveling behind extreme grind, high level boss fights taking forever to finish, enemies reseting position and regaining health randomly within a very small area etc. etc. I will see for a few more weeks and if they don't do anything to address these issues then I will tap out before too much time investment goes into this. What issues are you guys facing?

My biggest issue right now is getting the 3 cost echoes with the correct "set" and the correct main substat (in my case relevant elemental damage). If they aren't making just any echo capable of being just any set, then they really should get rid of (for example) a monster from the Fusion (fire) set being able to roll a Spectro Damage main stat. It just makes no fucking sense whatsoever and serves no purpose other than to annoy players. I cannot fathom a reason why you'd ever want a mismatched element. It's like if you had to roll 2 elemental damage type Genshin goblets but they all had to be from the same set. Terrible design.

Otherwise, I look at most of these issues as a "the game is new and we don't have a lot of stuff to keep players busy so we made things purposefully take longer." The bugs like the enemies resetting I'm sure will be addressed, so I'm not worried about that stuff at all. The boss fights don't take that long for me, I think they're just the right length most of the time. Are you leveling your skills? I know a lot of players missed that you can even level those up, but it definitely makes a difference.

 

[Nankatsu]

For anyone trying to swap cancelling in WuWa: how stable are your swaps working? Sometimes I use Mortefi, use his echo (inferno raider) then instantly swap to another character, and even though the Inferno raider connected with an enemy, the rest of is animation is interrupted and he vanishes.

Sometimes, however, it works without any issues.

The same behaviour is pretty much transversal to every single character I mainly use.

This is rather unstable, at least on my end.

 

[Pejo]

For anyone trying to swap cancelling in WuWa: how stable are your swaps working? Sometimes I use Mortefi, use his echo (inferno raider) then instantly swap to another character, and even though the Inferno raider connected with an enemy, the rest of is animation is interrupted and he vanishes.

Sometimes, however, it works without any issues.

The same behaviour is pretty much transversal to every single character I mainly use.

This is rather unstable, at least on my end.

Some moves have "tells" and sometimes it's how far along you are in the chain. Like Inferno Rider I think you have to use it and then tap once or twice to get the combo to continue past swapping. Like Jianxin, her counter can be swapped and the tell for that one is when she blinks Gold. Unfortunately there's no hard rule on when it's safe to swap out, you just have to learn for each character/move.

So like Inferno Rider - If you just use his skill with one long button hold, he turns into motorcycle and lets you dash forward for a while, if you use his skill and tap just one short tap, he just does a single hit, if you use his skill then tap twice he does the full combo with the 2 hits + slam. I'm not sure how many taps you have to give him and how far his animation has to be to swap and get him to continue, but I'd guess the 2nd hit at least.

It's annoying, but once you get the rhythm and timing down, it becomes second nature. I really actually like that there's no "one size fits all" for swap combos, it gives you lots of tools to play around with and gives characters a unique feeling.

 

[Pejo]

So I wrapped up some stuff I'd been ignoring in both Star Rail and Genshin.

• The film editing minigame in Star Rail was kinda shit, though some of the special endings required more thought to be put into the math part. The side minigames/stories were all kinda uninteresting.
• Galactic Baseballer was actually kinda fun, I almost never like battle events in Star Rail, but the mechanics of the 'weapons' were interesting and the numbers got outright nutty on some of the final stages. My complaint there is that each battle took way too long. Still, better than usual.
• Exploring Penacony is a real chore. I hate the 3D map rooms where you have to walk on the ceilings/walls. Even with the rotating maps they give you, it's tough to keep track of what you've already collected. The origami birds are a huge pain in the ass too, and there's so many of them.
• Genshin battle tactics event was kinda fun. A bit of an evolution/dumbing down of the old tower defense modes, but some of the Offense challenges were actually kinda tough if you ignored the monster types. I had to restart a few of them when my flags got taken and the match was going on too long. Defense wasn't as interesting and seemed impossible to lose with.

I still have to explore the vast majority of Fontaine. I haven't touched a world quest since the first patch there, and my exploration for most zones is still around 40% or less. I will probably no-life it one of these weekends. I find that once I get into the mood it's easier for me to just rip right through it, but lately I've been spending as little time in Genshin as possible due to WW and other life related things going on. The timing of that 200 resin has been nice, but I wish it was the full 240 or had overflow like Star Rail does.

Anyways, some leaks are coming out about Natlan story, so if you care, be careful when reading Genshin related stuff on social media/Youtube.

*edit*

Looks like WuWa made almost its entire development budget back in the first month. Good that it didn't flop, and hopefully they're investing and hiring to bring up the quality in all the places it's lacking.

 

[Nankatsu]

So Wuwa is making a new event, an exploration type of event, where you see the rewards in the event page but not the actual tasks you gotta do.

You need to reboot the game in order for them to appear.

For crying out loud

Rewards are pretty generous though.

 

[jonnyXx]

Got lucky on weapon banner and nabbed Clorinde's weapon.
Also finished her set, lots of room for improvement though. And managed to build a TF set by strong boxing all the trash from farming her main set.

I stand by what I said before. Clorinde is very fragile and can be frustrating to play because of the short uptime and no interruption resistance. Getting staggered or knocked back during her uptime just sucks.
But it does get better with investment... enemies can't interrupt you if they're dead!

Trying out different teams I was surprised by which ones I liked most. Clorinde, Bennett, Xiangling, Furina is pretty great.
Benny, Xiangling, Furina is a powerful core.




Another team I ended up liking is Clorinde, Furina, Nahida, Dehya. With Furina's healing bonus and Dehya's interruption resistance + damage mitigation you can just face tank most stuff.

 

[deanote666]

The new archon quest short or is it just me?

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

The new archon quest short or is it just me?

Yes it was short. Not sure why they call it 'Archon' quest when the archon is not even involved. Also not sure why they chose Sumeru instead of current region Fontaine.

 

[jonnyXx]

The new archon quest short or is it just me?

Disappointingly short especially after waiting a year for it.