#Watatsumi's Finest [Gorou]

[thundertide]

Tag Drop: General!

#Out Of Poms [OOC] #Updating Pom.EXE [Blog Update] #Howling Poms [PSA] #Summoning A Wish [Ask Memes] #Whispers In The Dark [Anons] #You've Got Mail [Asks] #Pages From A Storybook [Mun's Drabbles] #Scribbled Sketches [Mun's Art] #Calling Out [Starter Calls] #Two Sides Of The Same Coin [Yoroiis] #By The Light Of Dawn [Waltzofphoenix] #Shine Like The Stars [Aether] #Loyal Protector [Thoma] #Untamed Tides [Childe] #Watatsumi's Finest [Gorou] #Cyclone Of Tranquility [Heizou] #Ice Waltz [Kaeya] #Fiery Dawnlight [Diluc] #Golden Light Of Kshahrewar [Kaveh] #Maple Leaves On Autumn Winds [Kazuha]

[thundertide-a]

General Tags drop!

#Out Of Poms [OOC] #Updating Pom.EXE [Blog Updates] #Howling Poms [PSA] #Summoning A Wish [Ask Memes] #You've Got Mail [Asks] #Whispers In The Dark [Anons] #Pages Of A Storybook [Mun's Drabbles] #Scribbled Drawings [Mun's Art] #Calling Out [Starter Calls] #Two Sides Of The Same Coin [Yoroiis] #Shine Like The Stars [Aether] #Protector With A Loyal Heart [Thoma] #Untamed Tides [Childe] #Watatsumi's Finest [Gorou] #Cyclone Of Tranquility [Heizou]

[kyogre-blue]

Finally went back and did Inazuma act 2 on my alt. I forgot how short it is. There's like... four conversations, two cutscenes, and that's it.

Although there are a lot of small issues with the logic and they fall down hard in terms of the pacing of the character arcs, I will stand by my opinion that Inazuma is still a far more interesting story than Sumeru.

Sumeru is just... some evil dudes, of whom we see only one, want to make a god, and for this they choose... Scaramouche? Who is a non-entity except when he vomits out his backstory. And Nahida is there, don't you feel sorry for her because uuh reasons. Don't even get me started on the pointless diversions of going to Ormos (why), the dream loop of time wasting (just tell me the answer up front), and the entire pointless whatever out in the desert (literally exists just to provide one lore cutscene and waste our time).

Inazuma at least has a potentially interesting conflict, characters who have their own varied stakes in it, and they even use NPCs better.

I didn't have any particularly notable observations on second pass, but I did find these points funny:

There's a bunch of small "???" moments if you use your brain while watching this, including the entire situation regarding Thoma being a public sacrifice (???) to mark the 100th vision taken. Like, why did they tie him up, did he resist? Why was he not using a fake vision, like it's implied Yoimiya did to get around the decree? What are the political implications of all this, because it's very interesting if you think about it? In general tho, it's just hilarious if you remember that Shinobu and Itto both did not have any reaction to losing their visions, so maybe Thoma isn't even slightly in danger here.

That said, the escalation is pretty good. I do like the concept.

Teppei is actually pretty cute. And I do think they tried to make you care about the war via both the civilians in act 1 and the soldiers in act 2.

I still find it hilarious that the culmination of act 2 is a "fight of honor" where both sides select "their finest warrior" for "single combat" and then Sara sends three different randos to fight us. I think during the third fight, the resistance troops start complaining that we're doing consecutive battles, but it's dialogue during the battle, so I'm not exactly going to be able to read it, you know? In general, it's worth noting that this duel of honor isn't meant to have any actual stakes. It's just for moral and intimidation, which is why they still have a big battle afterwards. This is in the text, but it's very counterintuitive, so it feels bizarre.

During the cutscene where Kokomi appears, Beidou says she hopes Kokomi can help pay for all these mercenaries she hired and Kazuha calls Gorou an old friend. This is uh sure some interesting implications, but it really does not do an adequate job explaining why the hell they're here. Kazuha's characterization and supposed arc are a shit show in general, of course.

I do recall that the writing quality, such as it is, plummets in act 3. They probably needed 4 acts, realistically, one for Watatsumi and Teppei, one more for returning to Narukami, but I guess at this point they wanted to have the same schedule as Liyue's release? It really did not work out.

#playing genshin