idk if anyone has said it yet, but while Dornman port is beautiful and actually looks like it belongs to Mondstadt (sorry Chenyu Vale, you do NOT look like you belong to Liyue) I am highly disappointed and saddened by it.
I hereby warn you that I talk a lot about what makes me disappointed in the Mondstadt expansion after the read more line. As in a lot a lot. If you like the expansion and don’t want to see negativity on it, don’t interact. If you just don’t wanna see any long takes and any negativity on topic Genshin, don’t interact. If you don’t want to be spoiled for the new update (minus temple of space i didn’t really talk about it much with spoilers), don’t interact. I also talked about other nations and threw some random stuff thats spoilery for them in there, if you don’t want those, don’t interact
You’ve been warned.
I am at 92% explored, the one boss island area literally has NOTHING on it besides the waypoint and the boss. I still haven’t even gotten the 40% explored of new areas thing, with I repeat 92% Windrest Peak explored.
The Temple of Space is cool and all but, I don’t like the fact that Mondstadt for that has taken the hit. I was hyped for Mondstadt content. I love Mondstadt, not some random huge new area that a friend just now told me doesn’t even have an area dedicated to Mondstadt???
Genuinely, what even is this. I had looked extra forward to this because while starting to finally complete old worldquests to get primos for Lohen prepared, I took notice of just how many quests Liyue has compared To Mondstadt. I thought that we would surely get more worldquests with the new expansion to Mondstadt! Even if it wouldn’t be as much as other nations! It could finally become more! Some long form quests and stuff maybe! But no. Nothing. All we got was this temple of Space that really should have been an Interlude or something instead of a Worldquest in my opinion.
I’m genuinely just. So extremely saddened by this. I want to be excited about it, I really do, but it just feels so lackluster. I shouldn’t have managed this close to 100% exploration in the new expansion within the comparatively short amount of time I’ve played.
I’ve recently been doing a lot of world quests and exploration (as I said before, I want to get primos for Lohen) and literally everything is so much more stimulating than this new area, I’ll hereby go through everything I’ve come across in my journey to getting better exploration % all around teyvat.
Inazuma: Long quests, intricate, multi day quests and stuff… Tho i hate the multi day stuff and the puzzles are a bit too much, there’s still so much to do despite the islands not being that big (especially compared to sumeru). Mechanics you onpy get through certain quests and stuff, honestly you can find everything here in Inazuma. It’s a bit too overstimulating though, it almost feels like the opposite to the new Mond area…
Sumeru: The true opposite to the Mondstadt expansion. Many many long quests, so many fun mechanics in open world and puzzles (that even make sense!!) And it’s large!!! There’s so much to explore! So so many quests too! The desert is, well, a desert, and large, but the fact you can find puzzles in there and quite the amount of quests is still a thing. I haven’t explored the desert that much yet, but it’s obvious that there went a lot of thought into puzzles and all with that area.
Fontaine: So many water based puzzles, and all the new little powers from the sea creatures! Genuinely so fun (though I personally get a headache from being underwater for too long but thats a me problem) I haven’t gotten around to the Fontaine quests yet, but with the amount of worldquests I’ve accidentally started or had to run around to not start, it’s obvious there’s quite a lot of that there too. The painter girl came to my mind just now so I feel the need to mention her and the way we fix the puzzles for her, it’s very fun. I like it a lot. It’s very positively stimulating. I’m sure people that don’t get headaches from being underwater must find it very fun too (I am jealous of you if you belong to that kind of people), I think it was a great step up from how exhausting the desert felt.
Nostoi Region: I’ve come to the point in the quests where I’m short before entering the Sea of Bygone Eras (I hope I remembered that name correctly) and almost got a 100% on this small region now. It’s insane to me how lore filled and fun such a small area was in comparison to Windrest Peak. It has puzzles! It had story! It made me care! It didn’t just stand around and be pretty with some fights, no it had something that you actually had to use your brain even a bit for. where you had to focus. It’s a wonderful mini area, not too overwhelming with puzzles but also not completely empty.
Liyue: There are literally so many puzzles in Liyue. Despite them both being starter regions, Liyue really has so much more to do in a way than Mondstadt even on it’s base. Be it worldquests or random puzzles. The fact that Liyue with Chenyu Vale got a whole good sized expansion with interesting quests (though I admittedly havent explored or done the quests much yet so this is a bit more of from what i’ve heard from others that have done it) and new ways to explore and puzzle types to make you think makes it feel like so much more care has been put into it that with Mondstadt…
Natlan: I admittedly haven’t done that much exploring or literally anything over here… I didn’t really enjoy Natlan much but that’s another thing. But even with my dislike for Natlan, I still have to admit that it was at least made interesting to explore (at least in theory, as I’ve said, haven’t explored much). There are different ways to use the Saurians for puzzles, many different quests. Some world quests that I’ve done and still find to be some of my favourites yet… it’s got a good amount of stuff!
Nodkrai: My first nation to ever get any 100% explored in. I only haven’t gotten one 100% yet and that’s because I’ve been doing other stuff and keeping it for me to explore later on for my own fun. The areas are smaller than in the past, we all know that. Windrest Peak in theory fits perfectly into the size formula they’ve done with Nodkrai… just that there’s one difference. Nodkrai has puzzles. They have so so many puzzles. I could barely go from one spot to another without stumbling upon a puzzle. AND THATS A GOOD THING! They didn’t take that much brain power compared to Inazuma once you somewhat got it. They had so much fun worldquests! There’s the one in the nothing passage (I hope that was the correct name I don’t wanna look it up right now) which was such a. thing. to just stumble across one noght before going to bed. The whole thing on Hiisi where you work with that one Frostmoon Scion Lady to fix the big place. It was so cool! Or the big Worldquests with Illuga! And the quest/puzzle where you find out more about Koitar! I loved that puzzle I’m ngl it was so simple yet fun. And so so much more. Nodkrai had such a perfect amount of puzzles and quests… mixed with a moderate chests that you got just from finding them and fighting stuff. It was a good mix all in all.
And now… we return to the disaster.
Windrest Peak… It has… a beautiful area that perfectly fits into the previous Mondstadt we’ve known, as I’ve said at the start. But that’s really all there is to it.
I hereby present you with an advancement i got early on into exploring the new expansion
This, my dear fellow genshin fans, is an advancement you get for fighting Hilichurl , freeing some Seelies, following the Seelies with the new bird transport method (you get quick transported, don’t actually need to do anything to follow them) then going down a place that just opened up, fighting some Ruin Guards and… yeah. that’s it. Old-School Essentials. After all the exploring I’ve done, this is pretty much the only puzzle in the whole area.
We literally went from the peak of puzzles in Nodkrai, to next to nothing.
I don’t get it. Yes that advancement is a fun idea. But. Why not bring in any new puzzle method? Literally nothing? I can’t help but worry that if someone didn’t think of this puzzle they wouldn’t have added any true puzzles at all.
We have a few time trials. We have some beat up people/monsters chests. We have in comparison quite a few just random chests to find… and that’s it.
Idk if you can count it but the only other thing that you can do, besides actual quests, is from the top of my head
bring a dog to upset girl
bring one singular balloon to upset boy
deliver a letter for Lohen
Find all the bomb markings
Take off the notice in Millhaven
and that’s… all I can think of right now. Maybe I’m missing something, I’m not sure rn. But. there’s so little.
And the quests. I haven’t done many quests yet, I want to somewhat take my time at least with that but….?????????? Where are the quests???? In literally any previous nation and expansion, you used to be unable of walking anywhere without being ambushed by a random npc and their quest… and now it’s… pretty much nothing? There are a few, sure… but that’s really just the bare minimum.
I honestly am surprised we didn’t get the Dandelion Sea with this. It would’ve made so much sense. They could’ve even done a longform quest with the little boy and his family for this! But maybe… just maybe I can hold on to the hope of them doing another (better) expansion with this…?
And honestly worst comes last because, why the hell does the one island with the boss in it literally have NOTHING. I repeat. NOTHING. in it???I ran around there for so long using my treasure compass till I eventually gave up. Such a large area just to do nothing with it but “hide” a boss on it? I don’t believe that an area that close to a nation like Mondstadt would be completely empty. it makes no sense. It feels like they just forced it there to make the expansion look bigger than it is. Even around the Sanatorium there’s so little to do…
I genuinely don’t know what they were thinking with this expansion. It’s a huge disappointment.
It feels like the long LONG awaited expansion with Dornman Port was just used as a place to connect the Temole of Space to. It’s a lore filled area and from the little I’ve seen it at least seems to have a good amount of puzzles but… that doesn’t make up for it. I would’ve genuinely preferred them doing an actually good Mondstadt expansion and putting the Temple of Space thing for a later update if they couldn’t manage to do it all at once.
If I wasn’t as much in need for the primogems I genuinely would at this point prefer to not do the Temple of Space stuff myself at all, I’m sad.
I honestly don’t know how they could fix it at this point. Make an update suddenly adding puzzles to an already in game area? Yeah no they won’t do that, we all know that. Maybe they could at least at some quests? Idk. The more I wrote this the emptier I became.
I knew from leaks that the Mondstadt expansion would be a small area, but… with how great Nodkrai has been and how much fun I’ve had exploring that despite those areas being comparatively small as well… I genuinely didn’t mind. But now? Knowing how bad it is? I just… Honestly I would’ve preferred to go without a Mondstadt expansion until Snezhnaya if this is what we get. The disappointment is immense, having thought back on what we had previously makes me extra sad. Idk. If I didn’t have Lohen, who was practically made for me because he perfectly fits my tastes, that I’m saving for, this could’ve honestly caused me to take a break…
Idk what the rest of the fandom thinks, I was talking to a friend earlier and afterwards had to put my thoughts into words and out into the world. It saddens me. Mondstadt and Nodkrai are my favorite nations. Maybe I feel extra close to Mondstadt because of me being German but. I don’t like it. I really dont. I just. Idk. I was so excited for the expansion and now? It’s just. idk
