I started playing Genshin Impact in 2020. However, I don’t consider myself a hardcore gamer so I never imagined I would stick to it for four years. I blame the captivating exploration and scenery, incredible storytelling that leaves you wanting more, and characters with mesmerizing designs and personalities that truly connect with you via their beautiful pasts and present. Genshin Impact truly is one of the best Fantasy Gacha games you can play and the five nations have been ecstatically pleasing and heartwarming so far but little did I know things would change with Natlan.
Natlan has been underwhelming so far, and I’m sure a lot of players agree with this sentiment. Now, I know it takes a massive effort to develop something even remotely close to what the developers at HoYoverse pull off every major patch, and I deeply respect that. However, as a long-term player whose experience with the game has been nothing short of extraordinary, I had high hopes for Natlan. Alas, I couldn’t help but write this piece about the new nation feeling incredibly out of place in so many aspects, and overall it was a disappointing experience. Despite the disappointment, I am looking forward to Genshin Impact in 2025 and I have a few suggestions that could help Hoyoverse in shooing away this feeling.
Spoiler Warning This article contains heavy spoilers till version 5.2’s archon quest and major events that have occured so far. If you aren’t aware of the latest events in the game’s story, we suggest you click away. You’ve been warned.
The Characters
I play Genshin Impact for two main reasons — Characters and Lore — and both were underwhelming this year, especially the characters. Besides some of the controversial things that we will touch upon later, the Natlan crew hasn’t been great. I’ll try to put this bluntly — the main problem I have with them is the way they work. The phlogiston mechanism and the characters using the mechanic are equipped with things that make me feel like Genshin just had a Fortnite x Marvel crossover.
Sure, the idea was to develop characters to make exploring Natlan easier. I think the initial characters, although not very good, were still fine until they announced Chasca and Mavuika. Teyvat is set in medieval times and when you consider the fact that Fontaine is considered to be the most technologically advanced nation after Khaenri’ah, it makes no sense for Chasca to ride a colt and Mavuika to ride a bike. It’s a fantasy inside a fantasy.
A region’s NPCs and exclusive characters have always had differences but so far both matched the overall vibe of the region. I found that not to be the case with Natlan NPCs. Sure, they solved players’ complaints about giving more NPCs visions but it’s the differences in design and color that make the Natlan characters feel extremely out of place.
Coming to the most controversial part: the characters’ skin colors. There was a Genshin boycott, especially among North American players due to HoYoverse essentially “whitewashing” characters. I agree with the sentiment because Nataln is supposed to be based in sub-Saharan Africa; the issues on skin colors were raised during the Sumeru patches as well with Candace and Dehya. But there’s also another side of the coin that, bluntly speaking, HoYoverse is a Chinese firm with most of its player base in Asian countries. Hence, they probably prioritize different cultural and business values that could influence their approach to representation.
Lastly, the characters become a pain to use outside of Natlan because Phlogiston doesn’t exist in other regions. Hence the Nightsoul blessing state doesn’t last long and the characters’ main selling point, i.e., making exploration easy, is no longer a good argument to continue using them outside Natlan. The Nightsoul Blessing state lasts mere seconds outside of Natlan.
The English Voice-Over Issue
A big part of Natlan failing to live up to my expectations was the missing English voiceover. This ended up affecting Genshin Impact’s Natlan experience pretty heavily. Voice-over is a big part of the immersion in any RPG game as it breathes new life into characters and stories.
From version 5.1, half of the Genshin Impact characters from the main Natlan roster were completely missing their voice lines for English VO. For me, it completely ruined the experience of the storyline and I feel that’s true for most of the other English VO players as well. The 5.1 version was supposed to have the biggest impact in the Natlan story yet, having a full-scale war against the Abyss and even including the deaths of some closed ones. While it could have seriously moved players, the missing voice-lines made it feel lackluster instead.
I do not mind reading dialogues, we already have enough of that in 80% of the normal missions. But, getting immersed in a scene with really well-done voice lines during the war, while the next second having to read a block of text while looking at an emotionless face was far from a good experience.
Now, this was not entirely Hoyoverse’s fault, as there is an ongoing voiceover artist strike happening in the west. But, having a small message at the start of the mission giving a heads up would have made a massive difference. All Hoyo needed to do was give a heads up on the missing English voice-over at the start, give an option to switch to another voice-over language, or maybe add an option to fill the missing dialogues with voices from other languages. That would have been enough to salvage most of the problems, but they simply chose to ignore it.
Going forward, this cannot continue in Snezhnaya. Hoyoverse needs to make a decision, either change the artists or add the options I mentioned above if they don’t want to repeat this in their next major arc.
The Region
I think Natlan looks really pretty but it’s the exploration that’s been exceedingly bad for me. Saurians are a breath of fresh air and the lush and breathtaking landscapes of each tribe have something unique to them to love about. The music absolutely slaps and the different tribes, the people in them, and the Saurians are all greatly incorporated.
However, because the exploration is made so much easier with saurians, the land is mostly barren and it feels a bit too easy. An hour or two I spent exploring Ochkanatlan and doing the quest Lost Traveler in the Ashen Realm, the area’s exploration progress had already hit 90%.
The exploration is so easy that it robs the fun out of the game. The lack of puzzles makes it even worse. At the end of the day, it becomes repetitive and boring. Sumeru and Fontaine had some of the best exploration and mechanics, with the desert and underwater exploration, and they really set a bar that I expected Natlan to break past. I was expecting too much.
The Storyline Was Predictable
Fontaine really set the bar for impeccable storytelling with all sorts of twists in the tale that kept fans guessing and excited for future versions. With the patch 5.3 around the corner, I wouldn’t say I’m as excited as I was for, say, 4.2. And that’s fine. You can’t expect the story to outdo itself with its successor, but the issue with Natlan Archon Quest is that it was predictable, and didn’t add much to the existing story and what we know about the descenders, the primordial one, Celestia, or heck even Capitano who’s sort of the lead cast of Natlan.
The sky is fake? We already knew since 1.1 thanks to Scaramouche. Besides the information Capitano sided with Natlan to put an end to the abyss invasion that led to Khaenri’ah’s destruction, and a few things related to how things work in Natlan, we really didn’t get much information about what awaits us. I was expecting Natlan to reveal a lot about what’s about to come but, so far, the story has been pretty generic. The fact that we’re almost at the end of our journey and are still left to guess because the pieces of the puzzle still don’t fall into place is a bit annoying. However, 5.3 might reveal crucial information about the descenders but I’m not hoping for a big lore drop. Surprise me, HoYo.
Credit where it’s due, the world quest Lost Traveler in the Ashen Realm is one of my favorites. I’ve also enjoyed the tribal quests with each hero of the tribe. I think it added a bit of depth to the rather plain characters. Also, I loved the point of the quest where we had to fight the abyss. It got a bit repetitive, sure, and the balloon was painfully slow but I liked that the nation of the war stood up when needed. Besides, the cutscenes this time around were breathtaking, especially the Mavuika vs Capitano battle.
The Wait for the Characters
I speak for a lot of players when I say that the banner rotation hasn’t been great, and as a result, players have been unable to get their favorite characters for a long time; Four stars included. In my case, I’ve been waiting for Shenhe for so long to complete my Cryo Mono — team Ayaka, Ganyu, Shenhe, and Kazuha but I’ve started to run out of patience now after 621 days of waiting. I’m glad I pulled Ganyu in 2023 because it’s been 579 days since her rerun and I would’ve regretted it otherwise.
The upcoming chronicled wish banner in version 5.3 should give players some respite but with the growing roster of characters, HoYo needs to figure out an alternative way to offer characters. Perhaps a triple banner setup or more frequent chronicled banner rotations? I don’t know.
Artifact Sets Have Been Disappointing
Gone are the days when we had artifact sets like Emblem of Severed Fate, Nobless Oblige, and Marechaussee Hunter. The sheer number of characters that could use these sets or a combination of them ensured everyone had sort of their own different quirky character builds performing better than the norm. Like the characters’ exclusivity with Natlan’s phlogiston system, the artifacts have honestly been disappointing.
Characters outside of Natlan cannot use the Obsidian Codex or the Scroll of the Hero of Cinder City set because they work on the Nightsoul blessing mechanic which can only be triggered by Natlan characters. Now, it might sound like I’m making a huge deal out of this but as a long-time player, I’m disappointed I can’t use these two new artifact sets on characters from outside of Natlan.
How Snezhnaya Can Win Players Back
I believe Genshin is currently in its darkest period, at least for me and people who may agree with all (or most) of the points we’ve mentioned above. However, we remain hopeful for a brighter future through Snezhnaya and the stories yet to unfold. Not to mention, the interlude Archon quest might also reveal something very big considering we’re almost in the end game now. I hope Dainsleif doesn’t just show up, drop a lore bomb, and disappear into oblivion. Here’s what I’d hope to see Genshin go about Snezhnaya.
Back to the Basics; It Needn’t be Fancy
Every region has had a special feature. Sumeru had grappling hooks and Desert, Fontaine had underwater exploration, and Liyue had stone mechanisms. Now, Snezhnaya being the nation of Cryo, wait, HoYo, don’t you dare bring back Dragonspine’s sheer cold mechanism, I HATE it, perhaps the developers could try experimenting with Aurora Borealis which could both enhance the overall look of the maps and have a mechanic where players can manipulate the light and/or use Cryo to forge pathways, activate mechanisms that would help with exploration, etc. Since it’s a phenomenon that’s usually seen at the poles.
Genshin Impact’s previous teasers and trailers, specifically the chapter interlude teaser “A Winter Night’s Lazzo” did show us the Aurora Borealis effect above what looked like a freezing building which seems to be a common meeting place of harbingers. Or… Okay, perhaps the game could bring back sheer cold but with additional twists like the frostbite doesn’t affect if you have a Snezhnaya character in the party.
The Aurora Borealis mechanic could also power specific abilities, triggering synergy between Cryo, Hydro, and Pyro characters like creating ice bridges, melting excess ice, or freezing enemies. Very few people know that shatter elemental reaction exists in the game. Maybe the developers can make it a bit more prominent. For exploration, perhaps Snezhnaya characters and the Traveler can slide on the ice? I have so many suggestions, this article might never end.
Good Story Telling
There’s honestly so much potential in Snezhnaya’s story because we know the kind of archon the Tsaritsa is or has become cataclysm after cataclysm. Cold (pun intended) with no love for her people and someone who wants to rebel against Celestia by collecting Gnoses. It’s already been established in the game that the Gnoses are the remains of the third descender and are cursed objects, so perhaps the story could dig into what Tsaritsa’s ultimate goal is after she’s done collecting the gnoses.
Mind you, Capitano has failed to collect the Pyro Gnosis from Mavuika, so it’ll be interesting to see how the story progresses. It’s already been established that each Fatui harbinger has their own goal, so it’ll be interesting to see if the end result of that goal leads to the harbingers getting divided with some of them betraying the Tsaritsa.
Besides, we could learn about Pierro, rumored to be the strongest among harbingers in the game, the royal mage of Khaenri’ah, and someone who is rumored to have lived with the Traveler’s sibling for a long time. It could be filled with lots of twists and has the potential to be less predictable compared to Natlan. Since the Loom of Fate is complete, I feel the Abyss would take a backseat for some preparations.
Since rumors suggest there will be a Rebellion Arc before Khaenri’ah and Celestia, we could see the Abyss in action in the former, which may lead to another war. Or perhaps, our Twin loses and sides with the Harbingers to bring an end to Celestia. The sibling could be heavily involved regardless since their goal is also to overthrow Celestia and the Heavenly Principles.
Delulu is the New Solulu
Okay, hear me out. We’ve seen Harbingers wield Delusions. Childe has an electro delusion, Arlecchino has a Pyro delusion and a Pyro vision, La Signora had a Pyro delusion as well. Hence, I would love to see Snezhnaya characters who can wield dual elements, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. We’ve seen Kazuha wield Electro and Anemo, so perhaps delusions could extend a character’s elemental skill enabling sort of mini reactions. Perhaps you could have a Delusion energy bar for a strategic use of abilities.
The Delusion can trigger after a delay or under specific conditions after using a character’s skill or burst. To not make it extremely overpowered, the cooldown times can be reduced or it could be made in a way that it doesn’t affect either bursts or elemental skill.
From Natlan to Snezhnaya: Conclusion
And there you have it. Honestly, it’s still too soon to talk about Snezhnaya at the moment but after Natlan, HoYoverse needs to get back to the drawing board and really think about what makes Genshin Impact, well, Genshin Impact. It’s not the overengineered characters, nor the easy exploration. It’s mostly the opposite. I understand what HoYo was aiming for with Natlan characters, i.e., a fresh design and inspiration. However, in pursuit of the same, things ended up a bit complicated, and less than ideal.
The storytelling is still not out of hand and HoYo can make phenomenal progress with the same which would definitely make the players ask for more at the end of the day. That said, I hope the story won’t be rushed because it’s at a point where it could be rushed and ruined. I look forward to what’s yet to unfold. On the flip side, there were lots of quality-of-life improvements this year, and it has definitely made the game feel better. Although I wish HoYo would bring 120 fps and controller support on Android, something players have been asking since the game’s release.
What are your thoughts on Natlan and what do you want changed in Snezhnaya? Let us know in the comments.
