This review contains spoilers
I can't believe I'm about to write a positive review out of Genshin but here we are
There's probably a pretty big part of that positive impression that stems from the inevitable comparison with the previous chapters and how it clears them but this is still just good in its own rights
The biggest success is definitely the characters, they all have common interventions and play a role through the entire thing instead of having a dedicated arc and disappearing for the rest of the plot. Most of them get moments of vulnerability which does a lot to make you care: Lyney has that moment where he panics when Lynette and Freminet get caught, Freminet has the moment where you control him and he gets drugged diving (they made me care about Freminet wtf), Neuvi has his whole thing with rain, Navia has her whole story with her dad and what happens later with her 2 goons dying, and i dont even know where to begin with Furina. Seeing the Fatui not be assholes for once is great too, Childe having the worst week of his life over there bro did NOT catch a break this chapter
The trial gimmick is a ton of fun and just made me smile as someone who's played all the Ace Attorneys, they even nailed the awkward moments where you're randomly throwing the evidence cause you're not sure what they want you to do this really is the AA experience
There's much more work than usual in the way the no budget regular dialogue is depicted, especially in those trial segments, and they finally started to use CGs to show things happening without having to do one of their massive budget cutscenes, they started doing it in earlier events in Sumeru and it's cool that it naturally transitioned to main story stuff
And of course the biggest highlight is Furina holy shit she is so good this game doesn't deserve her. Or maybe it does if it continues being this good and this wasn't a fluke
The only problem is really that Act 3 was super poorly paced it drags for much longer than it should
With all that said, I still don't think I'd recommend someone to pick the game back up if they have to trudge through a ton of slop to get there LMAO. Like if they dropped the game in the Chasm or in Sumeru then yeah I'd say it's worth (Sumeru story is actually genuinely pretty cool, though carried pretty hard by Nahida, this is a very far cry from Fontaine where everyone is good), if they dropped in Inazuma it's a massive maybe, and if it's earlier hell no, or at least it'd be heavily dependant on if they'd enjoy other aspects of the game
But all of this has sparked my interest back into this game hard, it makes me sad how next to this I've started to care a lot less about Star Rail which did the opposite and had a pretty good second arc in Belobog (ok it's carried pretty hard by the final fight but still) and then dove right back into slop with the Luofu that place is so boring, at least we'll be gone from there the next patch so the next place could be better (EDIT: ok Penacony is cooking in the first update)
There's probably a pretty big part of that positive impression that stems from the inevitable comparison with the previous chapters and how it clears them but this is still just good in its own rights
The biggest success is definitely the characters, they all have common interventions and play a role through the entire thing instead of having a dedicated arc and disappearing for the rest of the plot. Most of them get moments of vulnerability which does a lot to make you care: Lyney has that moment where he panics when Lynette and Freminet get caught, Freminet has the moment where you control him and he gets drugged diving (they made me care about Freminet wtf), Neuvi has his whole thing with rain, Navia has her whole story with her dad and what happens later with her 2 goons dying, and i dont even know where to begin with Furina. Seeing the Fatui not be assholes for once is great too, Childe having the worst week of his life over there bro did NOT catch a break this chapter
The trial gimmick is a ton of fun and just made me smile as someone who's played all the Ace Attorneys, they even nailed the awkward moments where you're randomly throwing the evidence cause you're not sure what they want you to do this really is the AA experience
There's much more work than usual in the way the no budget regular dialogue is depicted, especially in those trial segments, and they finally started to use CGs to show things happening without having to do one of their massive budget cutscenes, they started doing it in earlier events in Sumeru and it's cool that it naturally transitioned to main story stuff
And of course the biggest highlight is Furina holy shit she is so good this game doesn't deserve her. Or maybe it does if it continues being this good and this wasn't a fluke
The only problem is really that Act 3 was super poorly paced it drags for much longer than it should
With all that said, I still don't think I'd recommend someone to pick the game back up if they have to trudge through a ton of slop to get there LMAO. Like if they dropped the game in the Chasm or in Sumeru then yeah I'd say it's worth (Sumeru story is actually genuinely pretty cool, though carried pretty hard by Nahida, this is a very far cry from Fontaine where everyone is good), if they dropped in Inazuma it's a massive maybe, and if it's earlier hell no, or at least it'd be heavily dependant on if they'd enjoy other aspects of the game
But all of this has sparked my interest back into this game hard, it makes me sad how next to this I've started to care a lot less about Star Rail which did the opposite and had a pretty good second arc in Belobog (ok it's carried pretty hard by the final fight but still) and then dove right back into slop with the Luofu that place is so boring, at least we'll be gone from there the next patch so the next place could be better (EDIT: ok Penacony is cooking in the first update)