Ok so the livestream is done and that means it's time to talk about it.
Again I don't think anybody was surprised that Lantern Rite was coming back. And like I said before MiHoYo planned for it very well. I still don't appreciate the Childe rererun in v2.2 though so you can imagine my reaction to Zhongli's rererun now. I think they could do better but having a Xiao/Ganyu double banner with the new Liyue characters works well for Lantern Rite.
Weird though how inclusive this one is. The other events one is Mondstadt based and another is Inazuma based. Then there's Windtrace that's expanded to more areas. I think everybody was a fan of this event.
Personally though I was hoping for an upgrade to the format. With Ayaka and Mona both on the roster not to mention Sayu it would have been funny to see a team of hunters using them. I'm reminded of the Nightmare of Windtrace by Yukine7. (Go subscribe!)
Then there's Enkanomiya. For those that don't know this place is the original home of Watatsumi's people. As the story goes Orobashi sealed a Sea Dragon called the Dragonair -
sorry it's not spelled like that. I mean the Dragonheir -
erm it probably won't look like that [emoji]
- down in Enkanomiya and led his people to the surface where he created Watatsumi for them to live in peace. (and then Ei came and messed that up. Wah-wah)
Anyway from what it looks like we're basically opening the seal to take on the Dragonheir ourselves as a World Boss. But I think the idea is that the original dragon died long ago and its offspring down there weakened over time so what we're really taking on are "lesser Dragonheirs." That itself is kinda funny because the original monster was only a dragonheir itself not a full dragon. Guess that means we're fighting a couple of dratinis. [emoji]That said it would be the first time we had a dragon World Boss so that might be why it's in a diminished form.
Also it looks like Osial is already back. Really not sure why and also why it's happening along with the return of the Jade Chamber but ok. But I'm wondering now. This looks like a huge waste if they make the boss for the event only. Look at all the work they put in with the look and animations and even the underwater arena. So my guess is this is a new weekly boss too for Liyue.
There are implications abound with that. First is the story part. Osial was supposed to be sealed by Zhongli and only temporarily resurrected by Childe using tons of fake Permissions of Sigil. According to Moon Carver that means even if the Jade Chamber "seal" broke apart you know because it's just a building Osial still can't come back. So what is this about? Well my only guess is that the sigils still weakened the seal that was already weakening on Osial but it still isn't fully released and after all these years Osial is very weak. How weak? Well weak enough that he can be fought as a weekly boss anyway. Remember in the Archon Quest we barely survived the encounter and it took the combined power of the Adepti, Qixing, us and even then Ningguang still had to drop a building onto it like a meteor and even after all of that we were still worried it could come back until Moon Carver reassured us. So this is our MC being kinda right that Osial could come back but he's still much weaker than normal so we get it as a weekly just like Azhdaha. That said I'm going to guess it'll be a super hard weekly just like Azhdaha. Have fun guys!
Second the Jade Chamber is actually back. It's been over a year for us launch players (and about a year for players like me that did the Archon Quest just before the last Lantern Rite [emoji]) but it looks like people will be able to revisit this area again. That's really great news because that place was gorgeous! But that also makes me wonder. Does that mean Ganyu's Character Quest will be required for this event? In case you guys are as casual as me and haven't gotten to it yet doing Ganyu's quest opens up the World Quest Fishing for Jade which is about the Millelith salvaging the pieces of the old Jade Chamber from the water. Finish that and you get the World Quest Return of the Jade Chamber? and I don't think these quests can stick around if the Jade Chamber is just back thanks to Lantern Rite. Of course what if it isn't required? Would these World Quests just disappear after the event? Also what happens to players that join this game after this event? If they do the Archon Quest and destroy their Jade Chambers will it just magically reappear in the sky or are they just out of luck?
I have a couple of guesses. So the first one is that all of that stuff is required if you want to participate in the event so if you haven't yet (like me) get to it lol. If you miss the event you just don't get a Jade Chamber. But on the other hand maybe this is MiHoYo playing tricks. Maybe Lantern Rite has nothing to do with the Jade Chamber coming back so none of that is required. Instead the Jade Chamber is tied to Ningguang's Hangout which is also happening and just like Gorou you'll need to do Ganyu's Character Quest and the World Quests to unlock her Hangout where the Jade Chamber comes back. Hangouts are permanent so bringing back the Jade Chamber is permanent. Here's hoping it's the latter!
More costumes are always welcome and it looks like the Qixing will be wearing them during the event which is cool. Hope we'll get time for photo ops. But that's all nothing compared to Yunjin who is literally a Peking Opera performer. I didn't see that coming. They actually hired a real Peking Opera singer too to voice her (the singing parts anyway) and all her moves are based on the art. That said I'm not sure if this is a progressive thing but traditionally speaking Peking Opera was performed by men only and especially the warrior parts which is Yunjin's whole fighting style and Elemental Skill design. Women do perform these days as her singing VA shows but unless it's about someone like Mulan I haven't seen women performers in this role. Then again she is performing Shenhe's play so I guess it works but again only in modern China so chock that up as another point in my Genshin China topic. Also while it looks cool sometimes this is still a stage play performance and none of the moves are actual fighting moves. I guess that's why she scales off of defense haha.
Lastly these previews usually don't tell us how the events will run but a quick Google will tell you that Chinese New Year is nowhere close to now. I think it's a safe bet it'll be just like v2.1 where Moonchase ended off the patch instead of starting it. This is where Enkanomiya comes in. Just like how v2.1 started with Act 3 of the Archon Quest we'll probably start this patch with Enkanomiya and its the World Boss. Then we'll probably get Windtrace and Timaeus before heading back to Inazuma for the Tanuki event and then Lantern Rite will be the last 2 weeks of the patch taking place pretty much right on top of the real holiday.
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Ok now that I've gushed over the good stuff, this update still points out the flaws that exist within MiHoYo.
First why did they break apart the double banner, put the new character up first and also throw Zhongli at Ganyu? I've talked about this before but I feel like MiHoYo is still suffering from being tone-deaf. BUT that still goes to show how they are anything but greedy. Here's the thing. Itto is up right now meaning people have likely used up their Fates on him and f2p players especially won't be able to build up to pull for Shenhe if she's up in less than 2 weeks. Now maybe some players were planning to skip Itto for Shenhe so that will let them play with their new waifu earlier. But either way MiHoYo's pushed players to choose between characters instead of trying for both. So whales will still spend but they were always going to. Dolphins on the other hand will also likely have to pick either or. And on top of that Shenhe's paired up with Xiao so people who might have pulled for Xiao are likely not going to because of the new character. Similarly people who really like Xiao or had FOMO from not getting him before will pass on Shenhe. And on top of that Yunjin is a free character. We can pick her from the event so that makes pulling on the Shenhe/Xiao banner even less attractive for f2p and dolphins. And the same issue goes for Zhongli/Ganyu. So many people were waiting for Ganyu's rerun so most are likely going to pull for her especially since she's still the most broken DPS character in the game and you really want her C1 to open her up. The only people who might pull on the rererun are people who have Ganyu already or really really like Zhongli. Also they announced that Shenhe's a Support Character and those are never that popular. Between a choice of the broken DPS vs a Support I'm pretty sure I know what the sales figures will look like.
Bottom line the potential earnings from these banners are screwed. A Xiao/Ganyu start with Shenhe solo banner later on was the ideal choice. Xiao and Ganyu are still older characters so you'd be pushing players to make a choice on them like Eula and Albedo in this update. Sure the issue of Ganyu being broken and Xiao not being broken still takes place but that's fine since Xiao's an old character and this is just his first rerun not his second like with Zhongli. Meanwhile a solo new character banner means everybody would want to pull for her including f2p who by that point will be able to build up more Fates to use on her tempting them to spend if they just miss it by a tiny amount. Instead if Itto already made enough then he's fine but otherwise this move has limited the potential earnings of his banner, Shenhe's, Xiao's and Zhongli's rererun.
Speaking of spending it looks like the strategy for skins will play out just like with the beach gear for Jean and Barbara. 5* skins will be p2w only while 4*s will unlock with events. And they will only release a pair of 4 and 5*s at any one time. That is really silly MiHoYo. They are skins. Anybody who was going to spend on them will and anybody who wasn't won't. There's really no harm in releasing more at one time and creating sets. You know how you're chucking new emojis at us all the time now? Remember how back then you didn't and then you trickled them down per update? Hu Tao and Childe ones in v2.2? Albedo and Eula ones at the start of v2.3? But now they just keep coming? Same deal here. Since it's only for the look you might want to theme them instead of trickling just 2 at a time. I pointed this out for the anniversary but people were really excited for the evening attire look on the concert poster you put out. Imagine how many people would be convinced to spend because the attire that was released fit with the event that was running? Evening dress for the concert and anniversary so everybody looks fancy for the celebration. Winter wear for Shadows Amidst Snowstorms and a winter season theme. Chinese New Year attire for Lantern Rite. And so on.
And people think MiHoYo are greedy. [emoji]This is what greed looks like.
Windtrace. So I mentioned it before but one thing I didn't really enjoy about Windtrace was that if you were the Hunter it could get boring. As Rebels you ran around and worked together to try and stump the Hunter but as the Hunter you're just this boogeyman on your own. And you start out being locked away behind a blue barrier. I don't know if you guys remember the schoolyard but for an introvert that can bring back some memories. Co-op is already pretty lacking in this game so I was hoping they'd upgrade Windtrace to have teams of Hunters vs Rebels. I mean if it was just 2 on 2 that would suck and probably make being the Hunter even easier than it already is. (until late into the event when everybody realized they just needed to hide up a tall tree) But it could have been an opportunity to expand the Co-op to maybe like 6-8 players with 2 Hunters. It would set the stage for more Co-op modes in the future plus make it less isolating to be the Hunter.
Finally news. Is it just me or did MiHoYo not actually announce when today's livestream was going to happen? Until Friday I thought it was happening on Friday and I had to google for the correct date. Their space on Bilibili had a banner for it with the date and time for the Chinese livestream but I didn't see anything on their youtube channel and here on Hoyolab. Even now. But even if they did put up a banner for it now I feel they only tell us about the livestream around the time of the livestream. You have to look up gaming news sites if you wanted to know beforehand and that's just not smart. I'd suggest MiHoYo should be reminding people about the livestreams at least by the week they happen. Like last Monday we should have gotten a topic on Hoyolab telling us to tune in on Sunday. They could even chuck up a countdown clock on the main page of the site and a video on their youtube channel.
Come on guys. It's been over a year and this stuff isn't even the hard stuff.
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Anyway v2.4 is looking to be a huge update and I can't wait to get started! Merry Christmas again everybody!
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
