Gotten used to the new UI, but still find it not as good as the original one in terms of stylization. A small pain I have is that it's hard to determine if you still have weapon skill charges. Compared to the original which is blue when it's full, a darker shade of blue when it's not and grey when there's no charge, this one is just grey and a darker shade of grey. Another one of my problems then was it's quite small, but it didn't really bother me much. I imagine that some people had a problem with how small it was, that's why in
7.4 they increased the size. Thanks to that, I could now see it in it's
*cough* full glory
*cough*.
A Hundred Years of Solitary Shadow
Another open world... hrrnnggg... I wouldn't be so averse to these if it weren't for the fact that most the story is not replayable. The last 2 and 1/2 arcs were instance-based and now we're back to open world. I still wish they wouldn't abandon the instance-based method in the upcoming future. There are some CGs and conversation I'd like to record or take pictures of and the only way to get them would be YT videos and sometimes they're too brief for a full loop. Oxia and Langqiu looks decent... though, my eyes aren't really trained/capable in determining if it's really that big of a jump from the Part 1 environments. Oxia's Antares Building is quite small... well, it is a building and I wonder if we'll ever get to see/roam outside of it.
The fucking settings being inaccessible while in Langqiu and Oxia irritates me. I often play the game on mute unless I'm doing the story or abyss. Before I would just pause the game the moment my story run starts and unmute it, you can't do that here. Hell, fuck nah. You have to leave the open world and go back to the bridge to get that shit turned on; the previous ones weren't like this. The prompt when trying to Quit and Restart are also gone here, so if you manage to press them accidentally, how often that happens, you're restarting/quitting no questions. It IS faster, but I don't think it was a good idea.
7.4 Update: They added the settings now, but only when you're roaming the open world. You still can't change it while in combat or in any other stage like Dream of Loss and Sea Mirage... I do wonder how you mess up something that you've been doing perfectly for the past 6-7 years. Who knows... they might make the pause menu complete again in the upcoming patches.
Story surprisingly wasn't that confusing, well... until some parts of Act 3, even then I feel like it wasn't at the level as the previous arcs and I don't remember any major localization issue outside the books. My only gripe is what the fuck was Duonigue's actual reason for what he did? The conversation between Litost and Baiji did not help, but did the opposite. All I know is that Litost's wish is to die and leave no trace, not just memories, but also every action and its consequences, but Duonigue said "No" and I don't remember them confirming it. I know I'm an idiot, but I didn't think I was 5-Star idiot. The fact that that mutt was just let go after all of that was weird... the thing's powerless, that's its punishment, I guess.
And from the looks of it,
Anne Dreamseeker is doing her own thing (Thank God). I do worry about the inclusion of Ai-Chan, I still dislike how she was introduced and woven into the story in Part 1.
Liked Sa (Boss) more than Duonigue (Boss), it gave me a good hit of that dopamine. This one feels a bit more sluggish than Sa. Yet again, I can blame character differences; Hua's playstyle is just built different, plus Sa was an arc finale boss compared to the mutt, who's the first of what I could assume 3 bosses. The music is good though.
Haven't really read all of the these, but from what I already seen these two stood out. We went from 1st, 2nd, 3rd, then
September, then back to 10th, 11th and such. The localizers should've just stayed with numbered months rather than switching between them and the Gregorgian calendar names considering we don't have names for, nor does the 13th-18th months exist. I'd would've made it much more consistent. It's funny 'cuz I don't really remember anything in the localization that made me stop in the story, if there was I would've hyper-focused on it. Also, what's with the random "
2"s?
The books that Youyun wrote makes me
dread their debut.
Okay, what the hell is with the midriffs? We already have 3 of them, also Helia and Thelema's hair reminds me of Vill-V.
So far, I like both Songque and Coralie. Coralie being quite a bully is nice and the fact she has that "no bullshit" kinda attitude makes it better. Her design also helps considering (together with Thelema) we already have 3 characters that have a midriff, I rank her design the best of the 3. Songque... somewhat laidback, quite capable but can be a bit of a klutz. I love her; the voice acting is also on point.
Kinda understand people's complaints about Senadina's lack of i-frames. I just brushed it off for a while up until I did the story and the things in Langqiu. My habit of just fighting everything I see regardless of the level difference leads me to have 5 to 6-minute bouts with those shitheads. The scorpions weren't a problem, they're easy to deal with. The soon to be sashimi™ (fish) on the other hand, were irritating... they fly around all over place and makes it quite hard to hit them all at the same time; wasting damage and ultimately, time (score). That's not even counting the bullshit dive, I thought we talked about this! This is the Void Chela (Quantum Crab) all over again, the last thing I need now is missing Sena's anchor. The positive to this is that they don't stay as long underground compared to that fucking translucent crustacean. The lack of i-frames mainly becomes a problem when dealing with those 4-idiot totem poles, the moment that shit spins while Sena's in an animation is moment to pray. I just end up getting surprised I apparently fucking died and it also takes quite a while to make them collapse back into 5'11" tall bastards. I should really use Coralie more than Sena when it comes to the totem poles.
The equipment takes quite a while to level up (to max) in this one or either it's just my stupid arse upgrading everything and not waiting until I get a golden creature aspect before upgrading, essentially wasting my Antares Cinnabars, 16 days since I finally unlocked commissions and I still haven't maxed everything (this includes the major one on the right). There's also the numerous vinyl from Darren that cost 10K each, I already have 2 (Moon Halo and Rubia, my personal favourites). But from the looks of it, we'll be staying in Langqiu and Oxia for a while, so it won't be a problem in the long run and honestly it's my fault for waiting this long to start the story when it was an 8-week patch. Just a bit of a pet peeve, but I absolutely
hate seeing the "garbage" in my inventory when levelling up the creature aspects, ended up using the other creatures to level up the one I'm using instead of the Starfall Blossoms and from the looks of it there's not really any difference in price, so it can't be the reason for the slow levelling.
I wish there was a way to destroy these shites; it doesn't even need to yield anything, just get them off my fucking sight.
[April 30, 2024] Correction: There was a way to destroy it. My arse just didn't go through all the menus.
7.4 Update: They seem to have increased the amount of cinnabar from the Comms and Dream of Loss. I'm not sure on the comms, but I distinctly remember the cinnabar reward for Dream of Loss III was 4,500 and now it's 9,000. It's quite faster now.
The commissions, it might be faster, but I rather fight enemies again and again or do those stupid arse puzzles than talk to the same NPCs repeatedly and deliver shit; especially the one with the Feartre Actor:
Feartre Actor said:
What do they collect in Fear Gathering?
This shit insults me, I normally wouldn't care, but damn, this shit insults me. At least the one from Vincent requires you to check your room before you get the right answer for the first question.
7.4 Update (Feartre Actor): Looks like they changed the questions (or maybe just
added more, who knows) to something
less insulting.
A Feast Sought in Data
Fun event, there's 2 parts to the gameplay. The diner with 3 roles, each subsequent role easier than the last and the side-scroller to collect ingredients. Half the cast seem to be adults: Alham, Yewei, Darren and Chenxue. The former 3 had a good amount of alcohol. Sweet's somewhat unhinged nature when it comes to his father makes me snicker.
The classic dialogue UI is back, but there doesn't seem to be individual colors assigned to (all) the characters this time. I think
Sweet had one, but only in name and only when interacting with her to upgrade things.
I find being the Server was the best of
three two on the Diner. Filling the drinks, delivering the food and the cleaning the damned plates can get quite hectic, especially when you're essentially going half random pressing on the last one. I started off decent on the plates, but somehow got progressively worse. How that happened I have no idea. When being the chef, the automated (default) server is slow and sometimes end up sabotaging you here and there, although this becomes a non-issue after a certain upgrade midway through the event which increases the customer patience and by the end you'd probably already have better employees making the 2 modes less hectic. The final additional table didn't really made it reach pre-midway levels of rush hour, that is unless... you're willing to cripple yourself and use the default employees. Which now that I think about it, I should've done a manager run with both of them to see how well they'd do. The manager mode doesn't need elaboration, it's auto with a 4x speed.
The side scroller is fun, liked the platforming. The "puzzle" that took the most time is the one in the Rusty Ruins that needs you to Drop-Dash-Jump near the first elevator, remember it distinctly because of the amount of tries it took compared to everything else. Didn't find the bow quite as good as the other 2 weapons, I was expecting it to auto-aim to any enemy visible on the screen and
Anne's the Dreamseeker's line of sight regardless of range, apparently needed to get a bit close, but then I just generally the use the hammer. That blunt motherfucker hits like a truck plus it's the only thing that breaks through shields and most of the time it's not hard to traverse back anyways.
The dailies are reminiscent of Honkai Ranch Tale, the only difference is that you ain't choosing anything on this one. Collect ingredients, sell 3 of this specific dish, kill a specific enemy and whatnot. The complaint I have is the fact that I had to skip 2 dailies because the required ingredient or dish was still locked behind story progression. Advance the story or skip a daily. My brother in Christ... why? The only time that happens is when you just started the event. After finishing the event story (or was it a specific task?) the source matter will refresh to max daily. It would've also helped if they uncapped the spendable source matter for each run from 100 to 400. They did give us a buff after maxing out
Anne the Dreamseeker to double each monster drop making it a bit more timely.
Wish the challenges had more requirements/restrictions rather than just kill enemies and a timer. I mean being restricted in what weapons to use for the later stages would've been nice. They had 2 stages that required you to run to the other side of the arena and kill an enemy (that can be killed in one hit) while there's a timer. A survival stage wouldn't hurt as well, they had a survival challenge from one of the pillars in Langqiu.
I kinda want coop back to a degree now... Mostly because I can at least guarantee that I'll get all the rewards unlike 3 weeks ago in Realms. The rewards are also higher, 15 toruses instead of the current 10. Increasing the time limit for the highest reward on the final stage of RoB would've been enough, probably around 1 minute and 45 seconds... or just 1 minute and 30 seconds or maybe it's just a skill issue on my part. Heck, you don't even need to increase the time if they just gave us the appropriate trial valks. The only problem I had with coop is "interacting" with other people and them having the chance to quit halfway through, either forcing me to wait up to >10 minutes or redoing all of it from the start and wasting more than the necessary amount stamina.
I haven't really experienced the equipment gacha properly. So, I can't really say if it's better or worse. One thing for sure is that the character gacha is fucking horrendous. The frequency of people hitting that guarantee or extremely near the guarantee just went from negligible to a point of actual visibility. Holy fuck, that's the first time I've ever experienced getting that close to that stupid arse guarantee. 88 damned pulls. I also better get used to unmaxed equipment 'cuz those cubes are expensive and scarce from the looks of it. I hate seeing unmaxed shit in my inventory unless it's a dupe, but there's nothing I could do about that.
As said in the other thread. Some of the older environments got ever so slightly washed-out(?) thanks to the new lighting system. Don't have comparison pictures unfortunately, but I remember rushing straight to Mirage - Illuminated Land the night after the update to do shit and somehow felt it looked less bright or something. Same with some of the regular stages I play in Mirage or Abyss... there was an off feeling about their look after the update; I remember Tai Xuan being noticeably greener when I did an abyss run one time. Unfortunately, I don't think this one is fixable. The old environments weren't made with the new system in mind, but it's not enough to ruin them, so I'll take as a win in a trade-off.
77 pulls now still no Thelema.
I suggest only pulling when you have enough for the guarantee, which is bullshit in my opinion (around 70 would've highly likely netted you that S-rank, but now? I doubt it), the consensus seems to be that miHoYo changed the way how rates work as a lot were complaining about it. Most probably the reason why I needed 88 pulls to get Luna.
The real PROMARE collab, doesn't have a midriff and wears a full fucking suit. Thank Elysia. On the other hand, another S-Rank. They really aren't giving us breathing room, huh? Really squeezing us dry. Is it the end of saving patches? The only positive I see here is that I can finally catch up on SSS-ing my A-ranks. I just managed to SSS Jediseo today (April 29). I still need to get Coralie and Helia to SSS plus their weapons which costs
*looks at shop* fucking 30K asters each for 1/4 of a part. My lord Jesus Christ.
How's everyone's Source Prism income/stash?
41. I'm too afraid to spend these shites. Plus, I lack Green Ether to craft anything. Unfortunately, I need the time structures for buying cubes.
Oh yeah... Also,
Quick upgrade? In this cube economy?
Goodbye to the final vestiges of what once was the birthday CGs as well. I slowly stopped reading those after it became just voiced letters though, can't even remember whose I last read (Elysia's a special case, not a regular letter, but I also consider it not the same as the original ones).
