WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED THEORIZING TO TALK ABOUT A GAME THAT I STILL REALLY LOVE BUT HAVE GENUINE CONCERNS FOR!

Yes, I will be playing the latest genshin aq this week. Just have been smacked silly busy with other stuff, but a theory or analysis will surely pop up :)

It's quite Ironic how the turns have tabled, and we're now in a position where Genshin is becoming the role model once more

Genshin went from 'Genshin could never' to 'Genshin should never' is crazy, at least to me

I'm always up for saying how much more flexible and open to casuals Genshin is compared to HSR or ZZZ (albeit ZZZ is kinda half there), simply because there's so many options besides a character's signature weapon that are available, plus regular 4* that are ACTUALLY still usable, given buffs, etc.

Genshin also has a MASSIVE advantage in how with Elemental Reactions, older characters have been generously included to be able to perform in these new reaction teams: Lunar, Stellar, etc.

Also, Genshin not making SPs (yet) is huge too.

fully agreed. To compare, in 4.1 iirc, I managed to 4-cycle the second half of MoC12 with an E0S0 OG Blade (Wind/Destruction) I had just gotten from losing a 50/50*. Fast forward 2-4 patches later, and I cannot even clear one side of Pure Fiction with my 6 GOLD MONO-REM TEAM. HOW.
Then compare to Genshin, where I managed to clear one side of Abyss with a botched Ganyu Melt team (Ganyu, Fischl, Durin and Nicole) because putting Fischl in there compared to Nahida meant I could deal with the Superconduct mechanic shill. And I could STILL clear. With a Version 1 DPS!

Also, What you said about Natlan and Nightsoul going into Nod-Krai and Witch Homework is true to some extent, but they also went WAY worse with the Lunar reactions. Which... they have learned from, and have made Stellar reaction teams INCREDIBLY free-to-play friendly. Qiqi and MIZUKI, arguably 2 of the worst characters in the entire game, are now top-meta. Traveler is a GREAT DPS with their Cryo kit. And we get 4 free constellations every year on quite a decent list of older characters. Meaning that if you got Mizuki from a 50/50 loss earlier these past 2 years, you can now get her C2. For FREE. I had Clorinde at C0 since release, but I can now get her C1 from the limited character anniversary selector, and then her C2 from the free constellation event! That's INCREDIBLE!

*: The issue with HSR ESPECIALLY is that for a game that demands so much investment in premium units and weapons, there is NO way to break 50/50 loss streaks. But GENSHIN of all games, DOES. You physically cannot lose more than 3 50/50s in a row. and the system that prevents that, Capturing Radiance, CAN in fact trigger when you've only lost 1 or 2 50/50s back-to-back. Why does HSR not have this?!

Once HSR became you need E2 for everything, I was done with that game.

As someone been playing both games day 1 and being a dolphin spender (welkins and sometimes the BP, only ever bought on topups a handful of times), I have the type of account where I don't pull a lot of characters but instead vertically invest into my favorites and pick around them. My Hu Tao team consisting of Hu Tao, Yelan, Furina, and Citlali are all decently dated characters but can clear stygian and other game modes. My other highly invested team is Chiori, Xilonen, Columbina, and Linnea, an older character intended to be an off fielder with an insane C6 for her time aging like fine wine with supports that can help her clear more modern content or deal with lunar mechanics. Star Rail has something similar with characters like Hysilens, Dhalia, Ashveil, and Mblade helping specific niches, but vertically investing in those older characters feels nowhere near as effective or aged much more poorly. My Cipher is the only E6 character I own and I still feel she got done so dirty, running her with Ashveil, DHPT, and SRobin. She's clearing excellently, along with my Elation team, but my 3rd team feels like I have to try extra hard because I decided to skip Monorem and build up Mydei instead lol.

TLDR: Star Rail's endgame feels so much more hostile and limited with what you can run, especially when factoring older characters or ones that the devs either play favorites with or not.

7:52 this.
There was a reason I never bought into Cassie mono Remembrance team. I love Amphoreus and its cast but man. From combat stand point it was SOOOO annoying. I just knew it could get worse but holy heck. I did not think Elation would be way way worse.
I miss when Abundance characters actually do healing. Destruction characters actually hypercarry. Etc etc. I don't like this trend of mono Path that is basically everything at once and nothing stands out in particular. Like genuinely, what is Elation even?
The way HSR dev shakes meta is so boring it feels like they generated it using chatgpt or something.

But oh well.
Thank God I already uninstalled HSR after Cyrene and Phainon rerun banner ended. Just looking at the discourse on twitter is enough reminder, why would I play this game ever again? The dev clearly doesn't care if I invest/put my time grinding relics. Bcs any good characters I have will be useless in three months or so anyways.

Meanwhile in Genshin, I actually dusting up my years old Mizuki who just got C2 FOR FREE btw to do Stygian Onslaught. A standard character clearing endgame content and the free cons is on par with the current limited character on featured banner.
HSR could never.

A few things Genshin can get from HSR
-skip button for those who need it (and hopefully story quality and presentation will not drop, genshin presentation is becoming better, while HSR's is kinda same same)
-Flagship events remain after the timer
-Long term events (not just 12 days jeez)
-QoL (trailblaze power reserve, sweep farming etc)

a few things HSR can take from Genshin
-4 stars
-Creativity in teambuilding (sidegrades are important even if you lose dmg because that gives you at least access)
-Content is centered around the experience not power.
-Actual events with story not just glorified minigames for currency.
-Anecdotes (finding on Worlds, not just on the train)

funnily enough when Genshin took HSR's strict archetypal building on the Luna patches, the backlash was swift and then people learned they can just pick a core and then build more teams with it.
Personally my issue with HSR is that they dont respect your pull choices at all.... so many units age so badly, meanwhile I can do genshin with my bricked Tartaglia and clear at least IT with him.

I just wish HSR buffed the characters already collected, not new ones to pull. Confused me as a new player trying to figure out why I have two Dan Hengs instead of just a social ability to dragon mode or something with the one. Himeko, same thing

Most honest and comprehensive critique of HSR out there. I actually tried returning to hsr two months ago for sp Blade (whom I thankfully got!) and resumed some older events that I left unfinished and man, I couldn't do it. I uninstalled soon after I got Blade because I couldn't handle how dull the events were... And I tried a bunch of them, too! I couldn't feel happy or excited or amused doing anything in the game despite meeting and interacting with some of my favourite characters. Sigh, nothing hurts quite like loving characters from a game you fell out of love with. (Also, thanks for picking that DASHING picture of Illuga! Many ppl will give a Genshin a try thanks to that dapper fellow. Trust!!).

The lack of player's input is the biggest problem in HSR. Lightcone system which, clearly they got inspiration from FGO, but they copy the wrong thing. The lightcone system has so much potential but they rather made lightcone as tailor-made specificly for their own path and character. In the other word, lightcone system is now just an easiest cash-grab system. Just one splash art that make number goes up but cost as much as the character itself.

25:10 Yes, ZZZ did it first, but the difference is that three teams in ZZZ is 9 characters, meanwhile three teams in HSR is 12 characters. Not to mention, to this day you can still get full stars without any signatures or Mindscapes. Clearing Starward in HSR with full E0S0 teams is like a self-imposed challenge.

Currency wars single handedly saves star rail I think, if it weren't for CW there revenue would prob be half by now. Whenever I check my friend's list to see what my friends are doing, 90% of the time I see then playing CW.

Genshin did a fantastic job balancing for casuals and whales. Dire is getting harder, which doesn't matter because it has no rewards. But the bragging rights and personal satisfaction is enough for those who want to challenge themselves

Everytime I see a genshin player ask for harder content it's like watching a dog begging for boiling water on the stove because as a gacha game it'd just be hp inflation

I got burnt out incredibly bad during the latter half of Amphoreus because I was just so sick and tired of needing to pull for X character (and potentially even their lightcones) in order for Y character teams to work properly. Especially so if it was a character that I didn't particularly care for (be it character wise or kit wise).
There's very little or no alternatives at all because there's NO 4 DAMN STARS ANYMORE and paths just don't matter anymore either.

There was even a point during 4.X where I even considered returning because one of my favorite characters (Silver Wolf) ended up getting her SP form; but when I saw the exact same pattern happening with Elation, I pretty much said "screw that, I'm done" lol.

Always bet on kuki Shinobu electro sovereign

Honestly i agree with everything except natlan nightsoul is worse than luna. Natlan have four star that can use nightsoul and access to all of it mechanic while luna four star get half the benefit.  While luna reaction is definitely more flashy and exciting than glowing character. It only accessible with 5 star.

The enemy during both era are far apart from eachother. Natlan nightsoul boss can use burning hyperbloom and fast attack char to deal with beside nightsoul while wildhunt you actually need two nodkrai in a team with luna reaction while fast attack char might be able to brute it but natlan nightsoul is easier to to deal with by a lot.

I've always felt that star rail was more Genshin testing grounds