Genshin Impact

The harbor itself was extremely underwhelming

yay got all the fontaine achievements for exploring and whatnot

that's two countries done now

The Traveler has always been on the receiving end of gameplay and story segregation, with a lot of their power being whatever the plot demanded at the time. So them getting totally bodied by Arlecchino feels like balancing the scales. I wouldn't take any of this as an assessment of their power level though.

Especially since it effected Arlecchino as badly as the Traveler, given how her weekly boss fight is one of the easiest in a long while. Even if you don't have Neuvillette to go all powerwash simulator on her, there are just too many great healers to keep clearing her bond of life.

So from what I'm getting, the Traveler forced Arlecchino to use her trump card technique to get them out of the fight in an instant, which is implied to be a rather taxing technique because Arlecchino is left weakened after that, right? That doesn't sound as bad.

Said trump card attack is also a mental attack, which the Traveler has been established as being vulnerable to with how they were barely able to walk when Raiden was exerting her killing intent and how much they get launched into other people's memories and get left spacing out, staring at nothing. I think it's fine for the Traveler to lose in that way.

Edited by PhiSat on Apr 25th 2024 at 9:55:01 AM

While I still like Arlecchino a lot, she's got style for days for one, I am disappointed that the dark rumors around her are just rumors, and she's basically portrayed as edgy good. Feels like I keep getting teased with an "aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you just want to go apeshit?" character only to back off once again. I know Eastern cultures value reserved personalities but sheesh. Given it's Hoyoverse I know it was silly to get my hopes up but I can't help it.

She’s about what I anticipated since playing the first Fontaine quest, I just wish she’d stop talking in an edgy chunni manner since I find her ultimate characterization too sauceless to earn it. If only she was in literally any other game.

Yeah, that tracks, the Traveler does have a weakness to that sort of attacks across the story between the Raiden Shogun and Dottore so being instantly incapacitated by Arlecchino's mental strike is actually consistent. It's less a thing of power levels but rather her attacking their weak spot.

So… can we assume the Traveller has a low WIS score? They keep failing those saving throws.

Fraudveler couldn't even beat the Fourth, gonna get cooked by Capitano

I was under the impression that Arlecchino's trump card was her Mystic Eyes, given how they glow before she uses it, and in one of her voice lines she warns the Traveller not to stare to deeply at them.

This Traveler is a nuisance.

One thing I find fairly amusing is that one of the characters who absolutely steamrollers over boss!Arlecchino is Furina

Mademoiselle Crabaletta says "touch my gurl and you're gonna hurl!"

Various Remuria BGMs

I think unironically one of my favourite areas in the game, everything about it is so pretty

The only disappointing thing about the Remuria BGM is the lack of a different underwater combat track. I'm not a fan of the basic Fontaine battle theme underwater to begin with and hearing it in the depths when Enkanomiya had the best battle theme in the game imo (tied with Dragonspine) is pretty annoying.

Finished exploring the new areas, I think the Remuria quest is the best of the ancient civilization quests. While I do prefer the level design of other locations like the Hypostyle Desert, the tone and backstory for Remuria comes across very well. There's the framework for a whole proper JRPG in that quest.

Arlecchino battle BGM

All the Fatui boss themes hit so hard, I need a compilation of them.

Edited by asterism on Apr 26th 2024 at 1:23:02 PM

comparison of the various fatui motifs in the harbinger boss themes

It seems that mental attacks are currently the Traveler's greatest weaknesses (i.e., Dottore's hypnosis wave and Arlecchino's hypnotic eyes), and with the latter being confirmed to be Khaenri'ahn, this could also indicate that story-wise the Traveler would only be able to regain enough of their power to be able to match her (and perhaps also the top three Harbingers) once they have gone past Snezhnaya (and presumably into Khaenri'ah). Finally, with Tartaglia having recuperated, this could imply that the Traveler and Neuvillette are getting an update from Skirk regarding the Traveler's nature in the near future.

I think the Traveler's weakness is the writers requiring them to lose a fight because it's not climax time yet.

It really annoys me how much they hype up then completely shit on the M Cs of both Star Rail and Genshin.

Star Rail is FAR FAR worse than Genshin but its real bad in Genshin.

You mean, the hypothetical Khaenri'ah or even Celestia arcs? Earliest-case scenario, we might see a fraction of what the Traveler's true powers may look like as early as the next Traveler's Tale, now that Tartaglia is back from convalescence and presumably bringing an update from Skirk as to what exactly are they.

Edited by zero5889 on Apr 28th 2024 at 2:52:15 AM

Honestly, I feel like it’s the other way around if only because the journey to the other nations is about to end while in Star Rail the journey is still not past its midpoint.

Joking mode here: What if the journey through the Archon-states is only the first half of the game? The second could potentially involve Khaenri'ah, Hexenzirkel, the Abyss, and/or Celestia, maybe even revisiting the Archon-states with a significantly altered perspective as well as to tie up many, if not all, main-story-adjacent loose ends.

To be fair, though, the Trailblazer is being hyped up because they bear a Stellaron in their body, established early on as an Artifact of Doom, while it isn't until midway through the Traveler's adventures were they identified as a Descender.