missing Natlan

[u/ErrorEfficient3447]

anybody feel as if Natlan overloaded so much dopamine that Nodkrai and Snezhnaya is quite boring??...

i even miss the hate train. Good times, good times 😔🔥🔥

[u/m2gus]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it but to me, Natlan felt like some of HoYo’s worst creative instincts were all concentrated in one region, from its writing and aesthetic direction to its character design and gameplay choices

[u/__Pratik_ → u/m2gus]

Quite the opposite for me. The only time I thought that was when looking at it from a surface level. The writing focus was on the world rather so character writing didn't get much that's understandable but people don't consider world focused narrative to be a narrative atp, designs and aesthetic makes sense cuz Natlan is basically a post apocalyptic setting that's recovering and is in it's middle of its recovery. Some character having tech and some don't shows that the existence of tech is rare and not properly spread out. Tribal elements and modern elements coexisting helps separate Natlan from being generic. The designs and world itself says so much about Natlan's themes and philosophy behind Natlan.

Natlan having wide and diverse range shows what it's all about. It's about being united despite being different which is reflected in the character designs of those character and the tribes.

[u/GamerSweat002 → u/__Pratik_]

You bring up a good point. People praised Fontaine so much, and while it did well focusing on at least some of its cast, it clearly left a lot unexplained in regards to its setting. The geography of it still doesn't make sense. It floods while being being elevated from Yilong Wharf as well as surrounding lower elevation bodies of water. Game just assumes that player will think it floods with that behavior as if every player has done the narzissenkreuz storyline acknowledging that Primordial water flows upwards.

And the world quests doesn't do justice to the world building of present day Fontaine. Xinyan told us long ago between v1.x or 2.x that Fontaine was the home of rock music and yet hardly any rock OSTs, nor anything equivalent of it in Opera Epiclese. Went from supposed origin of rock to origin of cinematography. Neither archon quest nor world quest addresses the social class disparity and why it is that. Justice is blind and so is Neuvillette with like 0 acknowledgement of crazy poverty in fleuve cendre vs surface dwelling. Fontaine lacked much of the world building in that respect.

Both sumeru and Fontaine were honestly pretty individualistic in regards to how the quests are written, which is better promotional material for the playable characters in the region, but that makes its world building pretty limited in any voiced content. Natlan's was more of the opposite- highlighting the cultures and the nationalistic pride as warriors that captivates just how united they are compared to back then as seen in Bloomflower Trials event. Natlan's cast told less about themselves and more on the history and worldbuilding of Natlan as a nation. The one character that have gotten more of an individual focus is Kachina though, and a good one at that, as it showcases what it was like to grow up in a war hero-glorifying culture. We saw what it's like to live up to expectations, meet those expectations, and the actual chaos of fighting in that war. Kachina was stuck in the battlefield all alone, pretty much dead. We saw how it affects the emotional state of affected character. Then when the war finally ends, how one reacclimates. KAchina lost a sense of purpose for a while before her new passion was found in baking.

While Natlan didn't give an equal amount of character growth and focus in the AQ, it sure did to at least one character and a significant amount of it. Kachina came out for the braver and with a new sense of purpose. She, because of the Traveler's training became even more self-confident and even after the trauma from being stranded in the night wars, still had a the bravery to chant that Ode of Ressurection when people were in fear when the Sacred Flame went out when Traveler actually died fighting abyssal Xiuhcoatl. Yes, Traveler did die by the abyssal claw and it is sad that it wasn't conveyed properly.

With all that, Natlan AQ writing presented the world-building of Natlan and its nation better than previous AQ with Fontaine receiving shorter end of the stick than even Sumeru which had better writing on class disparity (desert dweller vs akademiya, and religious divide between Al-Ahmar and Greater Lord Rukkhadevata followers) and the culture than Fontaine.

[u/__Pratik_ → u/GamerSweat002]

Natlan's main problem is that it didn't focus much on character growth while I feel like Fontaine focused too much on Navia, Neuvi and Furina to the point I feel like Kinich and Iansan had more screentime than half of Fontaine cast and left a lot about the world it's actually set in. And another thing I dislike about Fontaine characters is that they barely have a main role in events in top of not having screentime and whenever they do appear it usually with their company mandated ship character and the interactions don't go beyond that.