Some thoughts about Natlan by a 1.1 player

Now with Natlans Archon quest being concluded and most of the region released I thought about reflecting over the content we got over the last 5 months. Im trying to cover most of the aspects like gameplay, story and how i feel about the setting. I wont talk too much about the controversies because tbh I dont really care about them. Lets get started.

Setting:

I have mixed feelings about the looks and theme of Natlans Landscape. This is probably due the me belonging to the part of the fandom that expected Natlan to look like an ashen wasteland. We clearly didnt get that, and hoyo went for an African/australian theme. Overall they did a fine job. The terrain is (mostly) relatively easy to traverse and i cant complain about the looks either.

Story (Spoiler Warning):

Natlans story felt a bit dull on release but looking back it was actually okay. We got a good balance between background story and action. The Story of 5.1 was one heck of a bombshell though. Lets be honest that "War simulation" was a really cool and novel idea for the game and 5.1's archon quest was by far my favorite of Natlans entire storyline. 5.2's story was rather trivial, and sadly this was for me by far the version that felt the most boring. With 5.3 we got the finale and finally the weekly boss. Oh and PYRO TRAVELER (yay). I'll skip that banquet part, it wasnt really that interesting, but the part in the Nightkingdom was pretty cool including the (story) bossfight. We also got a bittersweet conclusion to Mavuikas deal with the Devil (rip capitano mains).

Overall I cant complain about Natlans archon quest. It had a good balance and wasnt too long.

Reputation and Character Stories/Tribal Chronicles:

Natlans Reputation System was an Experiment by Hoyos and tbh. I hope it stays that way.

Pros: Technically we get more rewards in Natlans Reputation System. The Request part is replaced by a suppy notice were you can instantly spend items to increase your reputation (it means less effort). The tribal chronicles were a cute idea and their storytelling was okay. The only one i didnt like, was the one from the children of echoes, but thats probably more of a personal preference.

Contras: Unless they are the two gifts we cant get yet, were tf are the gadgets? Along with the glider they were by far my favorite part of the reputation gameplay. We got such a cool gadget in Fontaine for gliding and vertical movement and in Natlan we get nothing. And no i do not count in the resonance stones and compass blueprints. And finally, why do we need to remove the weekly quests bounties and requests? We lost a way of getting additional mora and BP-exp and got nothing in return. They didnt even remove the lvl 2 reputation requirement for bounties. Hoyo killed reputation quests in 5.0 and thats pretty sad because they were actually fun for me.

Exploration:

If Sumeru had way too much content Natlan has way to less and Jesus Christ its not even close. I have the entire map on 100% and it felt like you had 3 puzzles PER REGION. I know there are parts of the community which hate to much content. Be honest with yourself: You have no Advantage when there is less content on the default map. It wont run away from you and especially in genshin less content (chest) means less primos and pulls you get by clearing the map. And Natlan feels SO empty its not even funny. The exploration revolves about saurians, but there are almost no puzzles including them. The most we got were with the Iktomisaurs and we got like one with the Tepetlisaurs and Yumkasaurs. Nothing for qucusaurs and Koholasaurs that i can remember. What we got in exchange to puzzles were statchecking local legends with achievements that are undobable in world level 9 unless you cheese them (hello Cocijo). No thx.

Characters, Bosses and Gimmics:

Following the (in my oppinion) terrible exploration experience, lets talk about Natlans characters which are directly linked to that. Lemme get this straight: every Natlan Character is a power spike for your exploration capabilities. They are incredibly mobile and versatile and correspondingly fun to play. Now about the combat capabilities. Natlans characters hit like a truck and they have to otherwise they wont sell with units like Neuvillette and Arlecchino existing. But you know how you can make them sell even more? Make bosses that are borderline cancerous or impossible to fight without Natlan characters. Enter the Tenebrous Papilla. You have to options to fight it in the Abyss. Stand at border of the area and wait until its shield expire or buy 2 Natlan characters to pop its shield in time with NIGHTSOUL-aligned damage. Oh right, hello weekly boss. Bring THREE characters from Natlan to pop its 3 pillars in time or suffer a oneshot (which you can avoid with a long enough burst to be fair) followed by half a minute of being unattackable by melee units. Oh did i mention that we have 8 Natlan characters and only 2 of them are 4 stars? And it wont get better. Iansan will probably be a 5 star aswell. The nightsoul damage mechanic is by far the most frustrating combat mechanic hoyo ever released. Fontaines Pneuma/Ousia was an optional stun for enemies, and Inazumas corrosion can be pretty much ignored if you know how to play around it. Sumeru had no gimmics. Ngl im scared about what they will introduce to shnezhnaya.

Events and QoL:

Natlans combat events were and are so borderline bullshitty that they broke me. Hoyoverse when your Dev brags on your version livestream about how hard the incoming boss event will be, then my reaction wont be "oh yeah?" my reaction will be "ok, screw you". Its not fun to players that arent whales, and i dont want to know how terrible the experience is for player with much weaker characters than mine.

Other than that, the events were okay, most of them were event reruns, but its not necessarily bad to bring back good events. Sadge, that the beetle event had no plotline, because Ittos beetle brawl story was pretty funny and entertaining. Im writing this a couple days before lantern rite drops, so lets hope lantern rite delivers (as always).

Regarding the QoL Changes: Mad respect for Hoyo to make your gatcha cheaper slightly better 50 50s and making weapon pity 80 pulls cheaper wasnt on my bingo list last year. I know genshins greediness is a highly controversial topic but looking at games like LoL were the devs get greedier and greedier, this was a refreshing step in the opposite direction. Also world level 9 is a great reward for endgame players, next up plz lvl 5 artifact and material domains. The leveling changes are not that interesting to me cuz i know how to level and build characters but i guess they are pretty neat for newbies. Still no possibility to save character builds, but im sure we well get that when celestia releases i believe in you hoyo, you can do it!!!!

Conclusion:

Overall 5.x is for me a major downstep when it comes to what we got in fontaine. Dont get me wrong fontaine was by far the best release we ever had in genshin and it might not be easy to top, but i cant really say that i have fun in the current version. The QoLs we got in Natlan were by far one of the best we ever got. So where does that lead me? Looking forward to the future, we still have a lot of interesting content in front of us. Volcano, hopefully the mare jivari, Skirk and finally Shnezhnaja.

Alright thats it. I tried to stay mostly fair, but i had to point out some stuff that really bothers me. Of course its totally normal to have different opinions. In the end I still love the game and the content we got in the past four years. That being said, Happy Lantern Rite everyone!