YO, anything before I started playing is obviously gonna be ranked weirdly cos I don't have a grasp on how much I'd have enjoyed that patch on release, so I'm mainly counting patches past like 2.2! JOIN US FOR FONTAINE! www.twitch.tv/branonline
I mostly agree on this tier, except my top 3 were 2.4>3.1>2.8 Edit: Partially biased on 2.4 cuz i love Liyue so much and it had the best skins. Also Lantern Rite cutscenes and Keqing character development was pog.
Regarding the Itto drum event, if you like an event, you're not "biased against" it, you're "biased towards" it lol 😂 I agree with the picks for the most part though, I think 2.0 would be top 3 for me, I remember all the videos and hype for Raiden. Truly the golden age of GI for me. It got hyped up even further in 2.1 with Raiden's release and conclusion of the war in Inazuma/Raiden Kazuha fight, and even more with Enkanomiya in 2.4. We were eating real good back then. I wasn't a fan of 2.8, I think because GAA was getting old for me, and I just wanted to move on to Sumeru. GAA itself annoyed me because of the requirement of constantly resetting, checking and re-checking the islands during puzzles (water levels for Xinyan, totems and rain for Mona, rearranging bonsai for Kazuha). I also wouldn't put 1.0 as a D. Sure it's the base game, but we got Mondstadt and Liyue in it. I think just because it's "old" and the "introduction", people forget how much content was truly in it. Anyways, I'm looking forward to your videos in Fontaine, and I like that you watch the "things you missed" series from Catwithbluehat, the analyses are always interesting to me.
So, there is a guy on youtube, who has recorded every event from 1.0 on a playlist if you're interested. I watch his videos from time to time, when I want to be reminded of past events.
As good and deep someone's death can be, Xiao dying in 2.7 would ruin his whole arc as the character though. He wasn't afraid of the death, he actually wanted to die and end his suffering, and saw the only reason to live is to die for somebody. But everyone (Yelan mostly) taught him that there's no need to sacrifice yourself. You don't need to keep distance with people who want to be your friends and that people around him care for him. Zhongli was the last straw for him to realize this. And after that quest Xiao finally began to open to us and Zhongli. Xiao in 3.4 is healing and it's pleasant to see that he improved so much during these 3 years. This quest was a therapy session for him not his last moments. If the story was differently directed then true of course his death would've been good and satisfying ending. But not in the version of events and dialogues we had in 2.7
If someone should have died...I don't really think anyone amongst them will have an impact except Xiao. To which is a bad idea to kill him, as you had already explained. Amongst the other four, we aren't really that emotionally close to them as we are to xiao, because we that he's suffering. I guess killing itto would have been shocking but why should they even kill him? He's like the comic relief there. Yanfei death would be kinda eh, yelan and kuki too, because we just got to know them. Of course, it would have been sad for yelan fans or simps but thats about it. They would only get the signora treatment that barely appeared on screen but still died. Death here won't really make me emotionally sad here. I just know it after I had seen himeko die in honkai. I must say, her death there feels kinda lacking, I needed more time to get to know her. But even so, her death also had driven Kiana through her journey, and her growth. If genshin ever needs to kill a playable character that is very well executed. It does not have to only affect us players but the characters around them, the MC to be precise.
I don't see how death is such a big deal to some. It just simply happens and life continues. No need to brag about it. Especially if it's just in a game... Honestly if Xiao died I would be happier because it would bring some "emotion" to the game.
@@noobdude5933 it’s like this in real life, but not in fiction where writer makes build up and plot. I don’t know how death can cause emotions if it does that fit in the plot and goes against everything you’ve read before. Like why do i spend my time reading 4 hours quest where characters speak how it’s important to live when in the end they are killed. I’d be mad for wasted time lol
For information, Hu Tao wasn't announced because she is linked to death wich is bad luck in China and having a character working with the dead during the Chinese new year's eve would've been... Yeah. So they released Keqing's banner to fill in the gap ( where Hu Tao should've been ) because they still had to show a character for phase 2
@@Prism988 I think now people know what kind of person Hu Tao is but back then if all they would saw in trailer is her profession and outfit which is heavely inspired by things related to death etc, it would just cause unwanted hate and misunderstandings. That's my theory at least
@@Prism988 What changed is that CNY doesn't have a static date (like how the 25th of Dec is always Christmas). CNY just has a general time frame of being within Jan/Feb. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I remember Hu Tao has never had a banner during CNY itself. Hence, no longer taboo. *I should add that as far as simply being a character existing during lantern rite goes, that's not a big deal in of itself. In her debut, she brought with her a story quest heavily focused on those topics that would typically be considered taboo during CNY. Introducing her at that time would've been a potentially sticky situation for Hoyo depending on how people would react.
Then why did they cut Xiao's banner short? They could've kept his banner up another week or two and it would've been better for the F2P players who were still trying to get him. Like me. But I guess F2Ps don't matter since they don't give Hoyo any money. -__-
Someone dying in the Perilous Trail quest would've undercut what the entire story was about. The whole story was about Xiao's survivor's guilt and him being too willing to sacrifice himself. The whole point of the quest is nobody gets left behind. It was about proving to Xiao that his philosophy was wrong, that there are ways for everyone to survive, and that his life is worth something. If someone had died that would have broken the entire story.
I want to say something about this essay other than “true” but TRUE that is exactly what the quest about and 3.4 event quest showed that he has sm growth that would be wasted if he was killed in chasm
@@XdXd-em4el Killing someone isn't the only way to end an arc. Only the laziest way. Death isn't inherently good for all stories. Some stories don't need death. I'm pretty confident that no playable characters will die in Genshin, and the only one that might is Childe in Snezhnaya at the end of the game. Xiao's story ending with him finally realising that his life actually matters and that Zhongli never saw him as just a soldier is far more meaningful than any death could ever be. Not that I'm convinced Xiao's arc is over anyway, mind you.
@@bookswithike3256 that the cringiest 🤡💩explanation why Xiao hasn’t just died. Genshin story just sucks. No twists, consequences just slice of life filler bs
Same, I started by then, all prev story quests didn't make me feel so much hooked into the game as much as 3.0-3.3 did, As someone said, it was truly the golden era for Genshin with all the hype and everything (2.8 included eventhough I joined when it ended 😢)
What I think most interesting about 2.6 is how the irodori festival started the trend of mixing characters from different nations. Almost every event since then always features some characters from another nation and I'm absolutely lovin it
Actually it started in 2.2 (xinyan+childe+sara) and teased more on 2.5 bartender event but yeah 2.6 is way much better bc they fully went for it and there was a massive lore bomb as well
2.7 Chasm quest is just heartbreaking. Sure they pull back but the damage is still there, and the music in that cutscene is so impactful. Definitely the top for me just for that quest alone.
To me 2.8 is S Tier because it’s when they brought Heizou(awesome theme) and also got Kazuha and some others into the Golden Apple Archipelago which was absolutely sick. Also they gave out 2 free skins(I can confirm I started playing from that version)
Yep, I started from late 2.6 but Kazuha is my first limited 5 star, really liked his characteristics and playstyle. And the Golden Apple Archipelago was really fun too, I like how we got to understand those characters more throughout the domains designed for them.
1.6+2.0 was peak Genshin for me. Going to the GAA for the first time with Klee and the Mondstadt gang, meeting Kazuha and the overall Inazuma hype train were amazing. Then, that first impression of Inazuma, the Kazari quest and the Archon quest building up till that first fight with Raiden. Sure the Inazuma main questline kinda fell off after that, but a major part of the dissapointment was because it started so strong.
2.0 is such a strong set up for potential story but they just rushed it and has to insert the Fatui as a mastermind again without proper setup before hand (they indeed got mentioned but not that much).
I understand why people have this belief that someone should've died in the Chasm quest, but personally I think it would've been the worst quest to have someone die in and would completely destroy the whole writing for me. I think it was great that they put Xiao and Yelan together, because they have similar backstory themes (survivors, all friends dead) but they caused them to have completely opposite mindsets. Xiao basically believed that you can't always save everyone, eventually someone is gonna have to die and he would be glad to have that someone be him, since he doesn't value his life as much. He has a very extreme philosophy of self-sacrifice. On the other hand for Yelan it's one for all and all for one, we are all in this together, no one gets left behind. And also she put into perspective that what matters is not only how you feel about your own death but also what happens to the ones that are left to live with the survivors guilt. I think it was a very good character driven conflict. The point was to free Xiao from the self-sacrifice mindset and prove that there IS a way for all of them to survive. If someone died, no matter if it was Xiao or somebody else, it would've instead proven that sacrifice is the answer. This might be a bad example but imagine if after going through the whole Raiden story about how she couldn't accept Makoto's death, couldn't move on, desperately wanted Inazuma to always remain the same not only because she wanted it to be the same nation Makoto left behind but also because she was afraid of change, imagine if after all of that gut-wrenching storytelling it turned out that Makoto never even died and Ei is aware of that. Overall great video tho, I enjoy your approach to Genshin a lot :)
I remember that the 1.3 Lantern rite was actually received poorly by the community, or at least it had mixed reception. It was one of the first festival events in the game and it shows. I think the only playable characters to make an appearance there were Xiao and (weirdly enough) Kaeya. Having Xiao as the only character to appear in a festival event made it feel empty. The event gameplay was also comprised of a bunch of fetch quests for random NPCs which was very boring. I'm so glad that every festival event after that features a wide cast of playable characters to make it feel more lively.
It's incredible to see how the trailers have improved so far (and the game itself ofcourse). I can't wait to see how they'll evolve in the future updates.
@@kawaiilone The voice directing of a specific character doesn't change much about the overall feel of the trailer for me personally. I guess the trailers improved at the cost of many bad things, but I can still appreciate how the music, camera angles, pacing, etc. of the trailers improved over the years.
48:20 Hard disagree. While Playable Character Death is a thing we're due in Genshin, Perilous Trail is written in a way that it's impossible for there to be such despite the high stakes. Not only was the quest about anti-sacrifice and saving people to the best of their ability, but the situations of each of the characters just... makes the death meaningless if any of them die. And it's not like Genshin's story skill is mature enough to properly do Playable Character Death, especially at the time when it's only _starting_ to improve. The only way death would be acceptable there is if the story's intention itself was different, and frankly, the story they want to tell in Perilous Trail is more meaningful than anything written with death included. Genshin shouldn't take the Honkai 3rd route, especially when it clearly puts value into its characters and their developments. They're way off that marker now unless they either reach Snezhnaya or introduce characters for the sake of killing them. The death flags HAVE to be set up before trying to kill, after all (in the context of the story they want to make). TL;DR Writing death in Genshin needs more weight, and Perilous Trail can't offer that with its setup unless a part of it is flunked or its writing style is no longer that of Genshin's. - Sincerely, a writer who had Perilous Trail as their favorite quest up until Sumeru rolled up.
I am extremely bias toward 3.6 because i love Kaveh so much. events where we the traveler are not so much in the focus and all the characters interacting with each other are always my highlights.
I personally liked 3.7 a lot, because we finally got an Event which included all nations! And it was absolutely fun to play that event. I mean, yea we didn't get new area or Archon quest or whatever, but with all the TCG additions, the TCG realm area looking absolutely beautiful, the new cards and mechanics, I just liked it a lot and I am not even playing TCG that much myself. Also Kirara as a new character is really fun to play and I even used her in the Abyss for 3.7 (successfully!) She actually was the first Dendro Character I had real fun with. Also the introduction of Charlotte being the first new (but not yet playable) character from Fontaine. Also don't forget that beside Yoi story quest (which was actually my least favourite thing in the patch), we also got Kaveh Hangout Event as permanent content. Beside all that, we finally got to catch up with a lot of permanent things in that patch like older story quests, Hangouts and exploration in preparation for Fontaine. Of course not an S-Tier patch, but definitely A for me.
I really liked the 3.7 event too, going in all the regions but I'm also satisfied that we learned about the people who created tcg (i cried in that cutscene lmao-), i was scared we wouldn't learn anything about them after Sumeru but luckily, we did and I'm glad.
@@ymrue I guess I just prefered the other things of the patch. Like, her story quest was good, but other things were just better for me, kinda why it was basically the last thing I did at the end of the patch when I had completed all the other things! It was better than I expected, though. Reason being that I am not a fan of energetic/genki type of characters, so Yoi is generally quite irritating and too much to deal with for me with how fast and loud she talks (sorry!) But during the quest she was fine, which is why it was better than expected for me ^_^
@@ymrue I agree and i think it might be my favorite non-archon story quest- the story and the cutscene was everything, so much better than her first story quest
To this day, Enkanomiya's reveal is still most chilling and hype reveal they have made. The music, the voice, the visuals!! It's all so GOOD But sad to see that you're one of the people who wanted Xiao to die in that interlude. You're one of the people who missed the point of his character arc. It WOULDNT have been meaningful for Xiao to die because he has lived with pain and suffering all his life, and if he died, it would have only solidified to him that he was nothing more than a killing machine and didnt deserve to live a happy and mundane life. Literally EVERYONE in that quest wanted him to live, because he is someone that deserves to live.
Thats WHY it would have been impactful, either way I'm happy to have a differing opinion, doesn't mean either person is "wrong" or anything. If someone can't fulfill their purpose or "character arc" before their time is up it wouldn't only be impactful to them, but everyone around them, they'd feed more sadness than ever and of COURSE it has to be done right, I just worry any time anyone ever comes close to death they're gonna miraculously save them yet again somehow
@@BranOnline I think you're probably right. I find it highly unlikely that any playable character in Genshin will die. The only major characters I can see dying are Paimon or the Abyss Twin. But that's fine to me, because that's just not the kind of game Genshin is. Killing off characters isn't the only way to give a story stakes or meaning. And Genshin is so much about the pointlessness of self-sacrifice and how unnecessary war and violence is. It doesn't make sense to me that this game would ever kill a playable character. Also from a purely meta perspective, I hate the idea of killing off a playable character and still being allowed to play as them. That just feels stupid and immersion breaking.
@@bookswithike3256 I get that, but if that's the case it feels weird to put characters in life threatening situations knowing they're just gonna end up fine no matter what you feel me? Also for the last point here, even though we're playing AS the character, none of that is actually happening, so it wouldn't affect immersion for me, not like Raiden is actually going and killing Timmies birds every day xD
@@BranOnlineThe salutation is to make them suffer like hell. Sure you know they're going to live, but you don't know how much suffering is going to happen to them. And because you'll care about them, it will make you feel uneasy the same way lingering death would.
For me the 3.8 Summer event is a bit short, but also reeeeally nice, so it makes high A or S tier patch. Idyia turned out to be really cute and nice. It would be cool to see her later again in the story, and maybe get her back into Fountaine, if she would like to :))
talking about it being short makes me go "and we see how this is your job, vs as someone who this *isnt* my job i am so thankful for the grace this patch gave" Like of my friend group, the 10 or so that play, im still one of 3 thats actually finished the event 😂the rest are going to be rushing soon. But nah this patch was great for me, def high A at least.
@@RenaDeles I am really not sure, cause 1.6 & 2.8 gave us so much content, that even I kinda struggled to do it all, I am not the kind who rush everything, I like to take my time and take some breaks or even start the event late, thats why I tried to start the event very early and play daily & I think I finished the event in less than 2 weeks, even though I didnt played alot, but obviously I can understand you :) I just wished it would be 1/3 larger/bigger.
My personal favourite would probably be 2.6 or 3.0-3.1. The former because Ayato, the latter because it revolutionized exploration and brought back to back phenomenal OST's.
It’s so hard to pick a specific version but man, Sumeru was by far my absolute favorite region to experience. The cast was so involved in the main story, they have a lot of interpersonal connections to each other and interact so often (not just with the Traveler), and it was such a delight to re-encounter so many highly anticipated characters (Cyno, Collei, and Dottore from the web comic, as well as Scaramouche from the 1.1 event). I’m a big fan of most of the Sumeru cast but the game night boys and Wanderer are my favorites, so the Sumeru versions were tons of fun. As a Childe main, I also absolutely loved version 1.1. Back then, Childe’s fight in the story also felt like much more of a challenge (both because he hadn’t been nerfed yet and because it was such an early version that we as players just weren’t as strong because we were all still early in our journey) and I still really enjoy the combat flow (him having a counter for hydro and electro in his different phases is pretty funny too) so, despite being an early-on weekly boss, his fight is still one of my faves. Also to contribute my thoughts on a few of the version events you hadn’t experienced: - 2.2 Labyrinth Warriors: as a player who doesn’t really care about combat events, this was genuinely a fun combat event. The roguelike elements were fun and the event story had some fun moments, a few of which are specifically enjoyable for the time the event took place. The story itself was really short, so I’d recommend looking it up to anyone who missed out. [spoiler for a bit of story and a few character interactions from this event follow] Running into Childe in a combat-centric domain made a lot of sense for his character and it was entertaining to see him interact with Xinyan. When we’d leave the domain (to wrap up each day’s chunk of story), Childe would stay behind because he’s just having a good time with the endless combat and we’d just check back in with him the next day lol while the lil paper guy was fun (and I enjoy having his pet form), the big exciting story element from the event was Childe revealing at the end that Scaramouche had run off with the gnosis and that Childe had been tasked with retrieving him. Outside of this event and until we got Winter Night’s Lazzo, we only knew that he got the gnosis but we didn’t know that he wasn’t bringing it back to the Fatui, so this was a major reveal. Childe was pretty lax about his task but it left a ton of questions in the air, since this was also one of the first major indicators that the Harbingers weren’t really united in their motivations (you could argue that Signora and Childe’s dispute in Liyue was another sign but at the time it was presented like it could be a rare occurrence, esp since Childe seemed surprised and offended that she didn’t collaborate with him on the plan) - 1.6 Midsummer Island Adventure: personally, I think this was by far the best summer event we’ve gotten and I recommend looking it up. While a lot more budget was put into later event visuals, the more succinct story and exploration were so well done here. We got GAA lore, we got Maguu Kenki lore, we had a bunch of fun interactions between characters (Albedo, Kaeya, Diluc, Klee, Razor, Jean, and Barbara were all involved), and they had even managed to make GAA function in a way that could allow both a new regional boss and new regional material to temporarily be collectable before Inazuma was released, so we could build our first Inazuman character (Kazuha) - 1.2 Chalk Prince and the Dragon: the story behind Durin and the events surrounding the Festering Desire sword were specific to this event. As with the other Albedo-centric event, these events are also sources of major lore around Dragonspine and Albedo’s background, so making it limited is really unfortunate. Absolutely recommend looking up the event - 1.1 Unreconciled Stars: This event not being permanent content is genuinely so unfortunate. Although Fischl’s dialogue can get a bit tiresome (even as someone who likes Fischl, it’s just that there was a lot of it), the introduction to Scaramouche and the lore implications were just so well done that I highly recommend it. Scaramouche’s reappearance in 2.1’s archon quest only feels satisfying imo if you had done the event and got that version of the cutscene, I really think the meeting him for the first time variant does his character a major disservice. Pls pls (to anyone who didn’t experience it) lookup and watch the actual event dialogue, Not the short recap video. You miss out on so much of his initial characterization (as well as the full context and actual delivery of the major lore drop) if you just watch a recap instead of experiencing the actual dialogue. [spoilers for his characterization in that event] Seeing him be introduced as an amiable Inazuman wanderer who several irl days later drops the act as a twist reveal, only after Mona realizes who he is, really gave him a much more interesting introduction than appearing openly hostile at first meeting like he does in 2.1. His attitude there only feels appropriate to his character and satisfying for the player if you know that you had previously figured out his true self and that’s why he’s not bothering with a facade
honestly it feels absolutely horrible that so many events with fairly significant story and lore points are just limited one-time things. it really feels like most of these should've been made into story quests or interlude quests or something. not only would it be more content overall for the game (if storage space is an issue perhaps make it so that you download them when you are ready to play them then uninstall the quest afterwards, similar to how you can already uninstall past quest resources). more than any other character I feel like Fischl suffers from this. she has no permanent story presence. besides being playable she is to all extents and purposes an event exclusive character, but events don't seem to take into account that you might not have met her before and therefore might have no idea who she is, they just seem to assume that everyone already knows her as a character because events seem to just assume you've played every event. I kinda hate Fischl, I find her every moment rather grating, I honestly couldn't bring myself to finish 2.8's Golden Apple Archepelago quest because of her (the fact that I hadn't played the original Golden Apple Archepelago event (I started in 2.1) and yet the dialogue seemed to assume that I had really didn't help my attitude, and since I missed the 3rd GAA event I worry that the 4th one will basically be completely unplayable for me at this point), but I honestly feel like if I'd started playing Genshin earlier and actually gotten to experience a proper introduction for her and taken part in all the events that involved her I might've actually liked her as a character. Albedo also definitely suffers his second event would've been a much better story quest for him than the one he actually got (I hear the same is true for his first one, and while I actually completed this event I again got the sense that missing the earlier event had caused my overall experience with it to suffer significantly). I'm not even upset about missing out on Festering Desire, I genuinely don't understand the fuss about that sword (neither why others want it so much nor why the devs won't just add event weapons and their ascension materials to the souvenir shops like some other event items), I just want to play through the story of those events myself (just watching them on youtube really doesn't work for me) and if I happened to get a cool looking sword along the way I wouldn't exactly say no. I don't even care about the event primos. if the free primogems are what the devs are concerned about then just remove the rewards once the event period is over and have the event be left in as pure story and gameplay with no reward at the end.
I started in the middle of 2.5 and remember playing the Itadori Event (in 2.6) all on the last day of the event cuz I just arrived at Inazuma. Also I unlocked the Teapot during this long maintenance that happend at that time. Also the Fact that 2.6 was extended due to the Covid thing in Shanghai was actually pretty good for me, because as someone who had just started I had time to catch up with everyone else. I don’t really have a favourite patch, I think every patch had some pro and cons.
i still miss the 2.8 event until this day, I felt a lot of peace while sailing on the boat and listening to the osts. i wish i started playing genshin in 1.6 or 1.4 (i started in 2.0)
I remember starting in 1.6. I got Kazuha really early and having to fight Maguu Kenki in GAA. It was a blast, especially facing Raiden in both act 2 and 3 of the archon quest with Kazuha as my “main dps”. But probably 3.0 to 3.2 are my favorite patches so far. They really stepped up on their storytelling, and music was top notch (not that they have missed so far in terms of music).
I think that in terms of immersion and fun, 2.7 was top for me because more than impactfulness of a character's death I love character development so much more and you can see the very heavily traumatised Xiao finally deciding to see things from a different perspective. It was also the most immersive quest for me. And 1.6, yeah. The first GAA was so good it way overshadowed the second it was so much fun I actually felt like I was there exploring in person. Third place would likely be 3.1/3.2 when we had one of the best content lore wise from Nahida and Scara since I really love lore 🥹 I actually agree with most of your tierlist though it makes a lot of sense. Also Lantern Rite best time of Genshin in the year stat.
3.8's story was just a chore to get through even if it was short. I don't like any of the characters except for Klee, and the last stageplay cutscene was one of the most awkward things imaginable, felt like the director dude was treating you like a child while telling you what to do when it was so incredibly obvious. The exploration was great and the map was beautiful.
1.0 was pretty much the best. The beautiful open map, the Liyue music hitting you for the first time, Mondstadt city. It was the reason I stuck around.
I freaking loved 2.8 GAA, it was everything I loved about the game coming into one, character story, exploration, a little teasing of Nahida, hard and confusing puzzles... the harder the puzzle is, especially the one that take me forever/I can't solve, the more I love it....The stories was told in such fantastical settings, the music was just bangers too (the only thing i really didn't enjoy was the theaters quest, it was a bit dragged out). I felt like 3.6 was missing out so much as the gadget in the end locate all the chest making "exploring" quite meaningless, it made me feel like a cope out, and the area was pretty empty/not filled with enough puzzles. But a lot people in the part of the fandom I'm in love 3.6 and bashed 2.8 GAA so much. They are both FOMO and have not enough time/patience to go through 2.8 GAA, I kinda don't get why they want everything and don't want to put the efforts in it. I always felt like I was in the wrong and it just me.... It is actually so rare and so relieving to have someone also love 2.8 as I do. Thank you Bran
Personally speaking, 3.8 is in my top 3, purely because I got to take it slow. I was on vacation funnily enough, so I didn't play genshin for almost a month (apart from the 3 days I did electroculi hunt), which was something I needed, so I was able to relax, and it left me with a good few days afterwards to enjoy the event at my own pace, even if I speedran the vouchers for Kaeya skin and speedran mini games for my C6 Layla. But I did enjoy the story, the atmosphere, the overall vibes, solid 9.5/10
My personal favorite patch would be: 2.8 like you said, it's one of the most fun and best patch they gave. Even if the puzzle is difficult, that's what made it special for me. 1.6 First ever major event i participated, and first time exploring GAA on it's purest form left quiet a memory
I got say I really disagree with the rankings of 1.3 and 1.4. 1.3 trailer looks pretty but the event was mostly a bunch of boring fetch quests and I think only Xiao was there for the story part, while 1.4 had appearances from pretty much every Mondstadt character, some very fun coop modes, introduced hangouts and had probably the most impactful quest so far (Dain's).
2.0 version will always be an SSS tier for me because 1 ) Gameplay-wise very character in that region still hasn't been out-classed yet to this day imo. Most Inazuma characters are a must pull for. 2 ) The music is a banger. periodt. 3 ) The lore is there is good (idc what anyone says). It was dark and I found it to be refreshing compared to the previous "rainbow and sunshine" patches Genshin released. I cried for Kazari, Ruu, and even Wanderer when his story originated in Inazuma. Plus if I could pick any character story quest to replay, it would absolutely be Yoimiya's 1st (and 2nd) story quests. It still left a huge impact on me because it was bitter-sweet knowing how depressing her homeland was with all the restricted laws, and she's willing dream of traveling far and wide (her fireworks literally reached from Liyue's Lantern Rite festival all the way to Sumeru rainforest).
nah man, 1.3 was way worse than it looks. the first lanturn rite was fucking awful. it was like 30 mini quests that were all massive walls of text to the point even a lot of lore lovers were complaining about it. xiao and hu tao were good characters but it was also just after ganyu and we were all talking about the powercreep in genshin. the zhong buff was also a big deal because before it, zhongli had a level of balance with noelle, trading off their own on field damage for off field support, but then after the buff it was just pushed massively in zhonglis favour. That being said, the very first theatre mechanicus in that update was absolutely the best version.
Yeah they defenetly peaked with Sumeru soundtracks, especially on trailers as well, we got 4 bangers in a row from 3.0 to 3.3. I already feeling nostalgic for something that happened less than a year ago sheesh.
The first lantern rite was a little controversial at the time! But they really listened to the complaints about it and improved the others that followed it a LOT since then. But in the first one, to some, the rewards felt underwhelming since the community hyped the patch to unrealistic proportions, there were a MILLION unvoiced fetch quests for NPCs to the point where they overshadowed the limited interactions we had with the few playable characters featured on the main quest (seriously, they were SO tiring, if I weren't desperate for primos then because of the shorter banner runs I would've given up on that part of the event), shorter banners due to the random Keqing banner (with Bennett lol, I remember some people wished on it just for his cons and got an unfortunate surprise...) they threw in there for what people suspect were superstitious reasons (releasing Hu Tao, a character whose story deals so much with death, on CN new year's event?), and the infamous first homa+wgs banner leading men astray back in a time before you had any guaranteed pity on the weapon banner lol. But the first Theater Mechanicus was cool! It might not have pleased everyone but it was the highest point of the patch for me... In comparison, the first Windblume after it felt absolutely wonderful because there were a lot more playable characters involved in the story (like how it usually is nowadays) and they were very present everywhere, even in the event minigames (you had to beat their high scores and they had little messages talking about their experience with each game), Peculiar Wonderland was pure FUN on co-op, people would keep playing it daily even after getting all the rewards, and this was the patch where we had our first ever character reruns (Venti and Childe), which were something most were highly anticipating, seeing as Venti especially was still pretty much the most useful character in the game and not a lot of people had him. Overall, having played through both, I'd place the first Windblume WAY higher than the first Lantern Rite, and even higher than the other Windblumes that followed it! lol
I played since 1.0 and 2.3 is my fav one bc that albedo event up to this day cant compare to any events we've had so far. The rhinedottir lore, mini games, and the story as a whole made me love the game more + itto's release hes my main so im biased lols (Honorable mention: the 3.0-3.2 archon quest sequence. those patches had me on the edge of my sit bc of hype)
I think currently v2.5 is my favorite Genshin update so far! -Enkanomiya event (I enjoyed it lol) -Yae's release and Raiden's rerun -Yae's story quest -Raiden's story quest act 2 (Loved this one a lot and very emotional) -New Raiden Boss (Love the design) -Drink making event -Divine Ingenuity event (was fun) v3.1 is up there for me as well. -Cyno's release -first part of the desert -Cyno's story quest -Acts 3 and 4 of Sumeru Archon Quests -New world quests were good (Golden Slumber, etc) (and more)
Labyrinth Warriors is my favourite combat event to date. No timer, just huge waves of enemies and randomised rooms. You could use any character you liked without worrying about whether it's meta enough to clear it in time.
personally, this years lantern rite (or lantern rites in general) are my favorite things ever. it's so pretty, we get stupid jokes and meet ppl from liyue. it, weirdly enough, makes me proud to see how much genshins graphics and quality overall have improved overtime. (also, 3.8 was s tier. i'm not at all biased cuz kaeya was in there. PFFFFT.)
My personal favorite is 1.5. I just really like the music man, and the transition between yanfei's music to eula's is just so smooth. My 2nd favorite is definitely 3.0 trailer. But the most nostalgic to me is windblume 1.4 and golden apple archipelago 1.6. Edit: I forgot this is about update, not trailer lol. My fav patch is windblume 1.4, first golden apple archipelago event, EVERY DAINSLEIF QUESTS, susbedo quest, and irodori fes.
I just cant believe time flies so fast, I was literally there since Genshin existed because of my relative being active about games who are newly created. I have been there for every update now I feel so old knowingly it used to be Venti and Zhongli duo now it is going to be 4 archons
I’ve missed so much, I just joined at late 3.5 😢 and it’s a pity that we cannot experience the patches from the past as a new players. Fontaine will be my first region fully involve from the beginning, I’m very excited!
Watching these are so surreal. I started playing around 3.3 so I got to go through a lot of the story without a long wait and I took my time with them. However, I did miss out on a lot of events. Fontaine is gonna be my first region to play at the same time as everyone else from the start. No idea how that’s gonna change my perspective cause I’m having a lot of fun so far.
I joined Genshin at the end of 3.5. I'd say the most fun patch I experienced was 3.7 and current 3.8. I liked 3.7 because of Yoimiya's story quest (my most favorite character story quest) and because of the hard abyss. Used my friend's account to 36 star it and it was a blast. I like 3.8 solely because I got bored of exploring the map and getting a limited map got me exploring. As for story patches, even if I haven't joined the game yet at the time, my favorite would be the Samsara archon quest and the Fantastic Compass Chasm quest.
38:3553:37 Mmm BASED that you put 2.4 and 2.8 in Top 3 tier, those two are my favourite versions imo because of Keqing and my first GAA (And fischl's banger battle music), technically 3.4 as well too
My 3 favorite patches in order are 4.0 (the aq is so so good and I love Fontaine) 2.2 (I loved the event. It was fun and one of the few stories I remember) 1.1 (it was rhe first major update I experienced and also when I got my first 5 star)
"How do you play a dead character? Ask Honkai", Honkai way is to never have a banner for them again, the one is on standard and farmable but hasn't had a banner since then.
I started playing Genshin in 1.3 (Xiao is my first limited 5 star), and here are some of my opinions about the early releases: 1.3: The Lantern Rite had such good vibes. Liyue was decorated to beautifully and as mundane those event quests were, the cutscences went really well with the atmosphere. It felt like I was experiencing the festival in the game, which was nice since COVID dampened the irl one. I still get emotional when I look back at previous screenshots and recordings - things were so different back then. With regards to theatre mechanicus - I actually really enjoyed it, as a mild fan of tower defense games. Overall the event gave me a great introduction to watch Genshin offers. It also gave good rewards that helped with building my fresh account. Since I also pulled for Hutao, as of the conclusion of 1.3 I had two fragile dpses that made it quite difficult to keep my team alive. That made me learn Genshin combat the hard way. If I were to say it in a positive light, it was good training. 1.4: Windblume was really different from Lantern Rite and mainly focused on minigames. They could be played via co-op too so it was really fun. The vibes were fresh and light-hearted. What was not light hearted was Dainsleif’s quest. The quest gave light to the dark and deep backstory of Teyvat and the MCs. It made me realize maybe the lore is more well-thought-out than I anticipated. Besides, I still remember simping over how cool he is and how mysterious his element was. 1.5: Azdaha! It’s the first boss in Genshin that did damage that actually hurt. This underlined the existence and importance of the technical aspect of Genshin combat. I didn’t do teapot that much, but it gave good consistent rewards and I know that quite some people liked it and did it as a fun side hustle. The energy amplifier event was just fighting. Zhongli was a nice addition to my team tho, helped my self pain inflcting dpses. So far this update had the most aspects that are still relevant till this day. 1.6: First costume, added waveriders. The events were a combination of exploration and minigames, nice for summer gameplay. The abyss looking event was essentially abyss with insane bosses and multipliers. My account still lacked firepower at that time so via co-op I got introduced to the concepts of whales. And Kazuha, couldn’t have been more welcoming with the new addition to my team. 2.0: Obviously huge update with Inazuma. Also released Ayaka, the character everyone talked about since release, and rumored to be hella op. It was nice having a change of environment but since I was already quite burnt out (I tend to speedrun games), and the long archon quests, confusing puzzles didn’t help. 2.1: skipped 2.3: Albedo event. I got him and farmed for his weapon till R5. Don’t remember anything except for fighting cryo hypostatis and him being sus. 2.4: Kind of skipped. Can someone please tell me why everyone likes enkanomiya so much? 2.5: I remember just going everywhere in enkanomiya for this event and spending so much time. Not the most enjoyable. 2.6: I didn’t do any of the events (I looked so cool though wtf I regret it), but I pulled for Ayato (still is one of the main dpses I use the most rn). In my experience, despite the cool backstory for the Chasm it was just so grindy for me. Materials for Ayato, the lumenspar needed to upgrade the torch thing to complete quests. It could be totally just me though! 2.7: skipped, but I in terms of the dying thing in the chasm quest - I heard that the idea is that no one should be left behind despite the past - and especially with characters like xiao, who has issues with self worth. It would destroy the backbone of the story if xiao died. 2.8 skipped. Haven’t played Kazu’s story quest yet but I heard so much about it I basically know the whole story at this point. And the castle. Wtf it looks so cool. The Mona island too. 3.1-3.8: Skipped all. I just got back into Genshin upon the release of Fontaine. The archon quest was so good, one of the few quests that I genuinely enjoyed and doing for the sake of story, disregarding the rewards. It took me at least like 10 hours to finish Act I to Act IV. I haven’t played the Aranara quest yet, no comment. The desert is like so huge and just blank but I agree, when there are structures the architecture is well designed. I actually just logged in and pulled Tighanri thinking he’s limited and Nilou since she’s pretty. I regret missing Cyno and Alhaitham’s banner so so much. Now I gotta wait since Mondstat and Liyue chars would get there reruns first, most likely. 4.1 and onwards: GREAT design underwater and overwater. About to go broke seeing all the char designs. Story is getting darker too, which is pretty cool.
I remembered that 1.3 was poorly received during it's release. It's a really dry patch, some of my friends were actually quitting the game at that time. The lantern rite event overall is actually bad. Iirc, Xiao is the only playable Liyue character that appear in the event and for some reason Kaeya was added as well, i don't hate him but it's just weird that they prioritize a non Liyuean character in a Liyue event. The rest of the event was like a generic NPC errand quest that is forgettable imo. Theater Mechanicus is probably the only good content in that event. I think the only permanent addition for the game on that patch (outside Xiao, Hu Tao, and Staff of Homa) was the intro of Dainsleaf quest where you met him in Diluc's tavern and Primo Geovishap boss. I personally place that event on a low B tier cause at least that patch gave us free 10 pulls and a free selectable Liyue character lol
I remember the release of Dragonspine. Even now the music hits me every time I go there. I think genshin is the game I want to re-experience the most from scratch. I'm still mad I had so many breaks from the game, skipping many versions because I was either burnt out or it was connected to bad memories with people I played the game with. Genshin is and was a blast, even if it's tedious sometimes
absolutely wild to see 1.3 in S and above 1.2. 1st lantern rite wasn't really great. the quest was okay, the events weren't great, no permanent content other than character quests, which were good, but not great. Coming off dragonspine, which was the first new area added with a much more engaging exploration mechanic than mondstadt or liyue, on top of a great event, 1.3 was pretty mediocre. I enjoyed the first theatre mechanicus, but it's nowhere close to S tier.
I hold 2.4 close to my heart cause this was when I returned and fully committed to the game after taking a long hiatus during 1.6 to near the end of 2.3. And to look back at it, it was super fun and memorable. Honarable mention goes to 2.6 Ayato's theme carried it hard, 3.2 for Nahida and general events and story quest hmm...3.8 all the way
My personal Top 3, as someone who started playing in 1.1: 1.6 - The first GAA was the most fun I’ve ever had playing Genshin, and this is coming from someone who had fun even during events that many people don’t like that much 3.1 - two Sumeru archon quests, including both the best gang (Alhaitham, Dehya, Cyno and Alhaitham) and the beginning of the dispute of Nahida against Dottore and Scara; and the Weinlesefest, which might my one of my favorite time-limited events to this day 2.4 - My favorite Lantern Rite and Enkanomyia, basically
Whoa what a trip down to memory lane! I started playing at the end of 1.5 and become a daily player at 1.6, so I did experience the first Golden Apple Archipelago. I think it's a curse for us that have experienced it the first time since the latter iterations do lack a bit of the "oomph" the first one had.. it was just so special. Still enjoy them all tho. And yep, Sumeru's music is still the best so far. It's just so exotic and as an Asian I feel so familiar with the music. Looking forward to Natlan which should be exotic as well.
my personal faves would be 1.3 , 2.7 and 3.1 1.3 because thats when i started to play daily and lantern rite showed me why this game is so good, 2.7 because it has my all time favorite story quest, and 3.1 because the desert is my fave region and thats when i had the most fun exploring!
2.2 was one of my favorite patches... xD I was the only person who seemed excited for a Tartaglia re-run because I started playing at the end of 1.4 (didn't even pull until 1.5) but Tartaglia was my favorite character. I was expecting to wait a much longer time before I could get him. So in terms of personal enjoyment and event story (there was a lot of character stuff to analyze), I was pretty satisfied. Keke. Probably still in the minority, though.
Thank you to whoever edited the video for the old tighnari va warning on another note, I personally would drop 2.6 a couple placements within S tier for being the patch that was extended to 9 weeks last minute. I know it was for unforseen circumstances, but the events were all in the normal patch duration leaving nothing for the extra 3 weeks.
Rewatching all of this has reinforced how my feelings about patches change over time. When it comes to first impression, story matters the most. When it comes to my lasting impression, the exploration/zone stuff is what I remember the most. It leaves me with weird rankings on zones: I liked Sumeru stories, but ultimately enjoyed Inazuma's exploration and the feeling of each island more. So far Fontaine seems to be doing great with both.
Wait. Wtf?????? I was just in the second phase of the 1.1 update?????? I was that close to doing the first ever genshin event where there's Fischl, Mona and Scara?????? I guess I was just too new to the game and didn't use any guide at all 😭😭😭
I'll be honest here, the Inazuma main story quest is so mid that the world quest are far better and more enjoyable to me(for example Kazari quest and Ruu). Even the character quest of Inazuma characters before Itto was a resident sleeper for me personally especially Kokomi, i can't remember how many times i legit fall asleep while doing the quest. If u like it good for u but that's my personal opinion of it.
As someone who played every patch I think 1.1 was kinda overlooked. Yes the Unreconceiled Stars event seems like a collective dream now, but the lore on that hunts us till this day. Big Dong Zhong, Tartag, and Diona are top characters even today (Xiniyan who?). There was also the chapter 1 of the Liyue Archon Quest along with Zhongli first story quest (Havria) and Childe Story quest (Teucer). It was also the patch where Condensed resin was created, reputation system was implemented and other cool gadgets. But overrall, I think you did great with the list. For me personally the chasm quest (WHERE XIAO NEEDED TO DIE) was the peak of Genshin, but that is just my opinion.
2.7, 2.8, and 3.4 are probably my most memorable and the patches I enjoyed the most personally (a recent player, played on the tail end of 2.6, literally a few weeks before release of 2.7) 2.7 cause of the quest alone, great interlude archon quest, very compact, not genuine filler/ random npc questline that bored me cause everything that happened was either crucial to the plot or character interaction (which I enjoy most in the game) 2.8 cause just, it's 2.8 man. I LOVED fischls domain, basically everyones domain was soooo much fun, the storyline was banger (I'm biased cause I really love fischl and mona) the way that each island represented the individual characters made them beautiful! Very fun And 3.4 cause it was my first lantern rite and when I got my favorite character (and first C1 limited banner 5 star) Xiao. Also cause of the character interactions! The venti-zhongli acting was great and the fact we finally got to see what Guizhong looked like was very exciting (to me at least). Also cause Liyue harbor was so pretty that event (I'm biased once again cause I main Chongyun and my favorite archons are Venti and Zhongli)
I started playing right after 2.4 came out and honestly I’ll always be kicking myself for not starting the game sooner, just so I could play 2.3 and experience the susbedo event with everyone else
My favorite patches are 3.0-3.2 and 1.6. 1.6 was just wholesome. It really felt like a fun and relaxed summer event. And with 3.0-3.2 they just nailed it with the Sumeru archon quest. I really hope 4.0 will be as great as 3.0
For me personally 2.4 - 3.1 was some of the most fun I've ever had playing Genshin Impact. 2.8 specifically. The stories added with the challenging puzzles. Gave me everything I've ever wanted out of the game.
1:27:00 I was also very much hoping for a Eula rerun to come soon, cause she should have had her rerun together with Mika's first banner. I already had Eula on one of my accounts but I mainly wanted all the Eula wanters to have the chance to finally get her, I know the feeling from waiting ~1 year for Ganyu's first rerun after just missing her on the first banner...
ok i know this is opinion-based and i 100% respect that... EXCEPT for 1.3 in S-tier haha the first lantern rite was so BAD (literally just a bunch of fetch quests for NPCs + only one playable character involved, xiao, whose rapport with us was super weird bc they wanted the event to be accessible to new players so they wrote it so it didnt matter whether we already knew him from the archon quest or not + the one beautiful cutscene we got out of it had already been on the official genshin youtube for almost a year at that point, so it wasnt new), and it was the most boring patch since the game's release (honestly one of the weaker patches overall still), putting it way up there just because of lantern rite hurts me (light-hearted). the whole thing about hu tao also wasnt a surprise so much as her not being marketed for the patch that literally celebrates lunar new year because promoting themes of death during that time is (as i understand it) frowned upon (also why they inserted a keqing banner in the middle, so the celebrations would be out of the way by the time hu tao's banner happened).
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
YO, anything before I started playing is obviously gonna be ranked weirdly cos I don't have a grasp on how much I'd have enjoyed that patch on release, so I'm mainly counting patches past like 2.2!
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I mostly agree on this tier, except my top 3 were 2.4>3.1>2.8
Edit: Partially biased on 2.4 cuz i love Liyue so much and it had the best skins. Also Lantern Rite cutscenes and Keqing character development was pog.
Regarding the Itto drum event, if you like an event, you're not "biased against" it, you're "biased towards" it lol 😂 I agree with the picks for the most part though, I think 2.0 would be top 3 for me, I remember all the videos and hype for Raiden. Truly the golden age of GI for me. It got hyped up even further in 2.1 with Raiden's release and conclusion of the war in Inazuma/Raiden Kazuha fight, and even more with Enkanomiya in 2.4. We were eating real good back then.
I wasn't a fan of 2.8, I think because GAA was getting old for me, and I just wanted to move on to Sumeru. GAA itself annoyed me because of the requirement of constantly resetting, checking and re-checking the islands during puzzles (water levels for Xinyan, totems and rain for Mona, rearranging bonsai for Kazuha).
I also wouldn't put 1.0 as a D. Sure it's the base game, but we got Mondstadt and Liyue in it. I think just because it's "old" and the "introduction", people forget how much content was truly in it.
Anyways, I'm looking forward to your videos in Fontaine, and I like that you watch the "things you missed" series from Catwithbluehat, the analyses are always interesting to me.
Did you watch Hoyo's Liyue cuisine videos?
@@kentjunellsuspene6906 Who are you asking?
So, there is a guy on youtube, who has recorded every event from 1.0 on a playlist if you're interested. I watch his videos from time to time, when I want to be reminded of past events.
As good and deep someone's death can be, Xiao dying in 2.7 would ruin his whole arc as the character though. He wasn't afraid of the death, he actually wanted to die and end his suffering, and saw the only reason to live is to die for somebody. But everyone (Yelan mostly) taught him that there's no need to sacrifice yourself. You don't need to keep distance with people who want to be your friends and that people around him care for him. Zhongli was the last straw for him to realize this. And after that quest Xiao finally began to open to us and Zhongli. Xiao in 3.4 is healing and it's pleasant to see that he improved so much during these 3 years. This quest was a therapy session for him not his last moments. If the story was differently directed then true of course his death would've been good and satisfying ending. But not in the version of events and dialogues we had in 2.7
If someone should have died...I don't really think anyone amongst them will have an impact except Xiao. To which is a bad idea to kill him, as you had already explained.
Amongst the other four, we aren't really that emotionally close to them as we are to xiao, because we that he's suffering.
I guess killing itto would have been shocking but why should they even kill him? He's like the comic relief there. Yanfei death would be kinda eh, yelan and kuki too, because we just got to know them. Of course, it would have been sad for yelan fans or simps but thats about it. They would only get the signora treatment that barely appeared on screen but still died.
Death here won't really make me emotionally sad here. I just know it after I had seen himeko die in honkai. I must say, her death there feels kinda lacking, I needed more time to get to know her. But even so, her death also had driven Kiana through her journey, and her growth.
If genshin ever needs to kill a playable character that is very well executed. It does not have to only affect us players but the characters around them, the MC to be precise.
Agreeed. I actually like how they twisted it and made Xiao stay alive. And... Well, Bosacious beijg dead was quite impactful imo
I don't see how death is such a big deal to some. It just simply happens and life continues. No need to brag about it. Especially if it's just in a game... Honestly if Xiao died I would be happier because it would bring some "emotion" to the game.
@@noobdude5933 it’s like this in real life, but not in fiction where writer makes build up and plot. I don’t know how death can cause emotions if it does that fit in the plot and goes against everything you’ve read before. Like why do i spend my time reading 4 hours quest where characters speak how it’s important to live when in the end they are killed. I’d be mad for wasted time lol
Me and hundreds thousands other people disagree and that should say a lot on what the true "feeling" should be
For information, Hu Tao wasn't announced because she is linked to death wich is bad luck in China and having a character working with the dead during the Chinese new year's eve would've been... Yeah. So they released Keqing's banner to fill in the gap ( where Hu Tao should've been ) because they still had to show a character for phase 2
And then two years later she's the poster child of the Lantern Rite during the same time of the year. I wonder what changed.
@@Prism988 fr it was hilarious that people thought they wouldn't rerun her on cn new year
@@Prism988 I think now people know what kind of person Hu Tao is but back then if all they would saw in trailer is her profession and outfit which is heavely inspired by things related to death etc, it would just cause unwanted hate and misunderstandings. That's my theory at least
@@Prism988 What changed is that CNY doesn't have a static date (like how the 25th of Dec is always Christmas). CNY just has a general time frame of being within Jan/Feb.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I remember Hu Tao has never had a banner during CNY itself. Hence, no longer taboo.
*I should add that as far as simply being a character existing during lantern rite goes, that's not a big deal in of itself. In her debut, she brought with her a story quest heavily focused on those topics that would typically be considered taboo during CNY. Introducing her at that time would've been a potentially sticky situation for Hoyo depending on how people would react.
Then why did they cut Xiao's banner short? They could've kept his banner up another week or two and it would've been better for the F2P players who were still trying to get him. Like me. But I guess F2Ps don't matter since they don't give Hoyo any money. -__-
Someone dying in the Perilous Trail quest would've undercut what the entire story was about. The whole story was about Xiao's survivor's guilt and him being too willing to sacrifice himself. The whole point of the quest is nobody gets left behind. It was about proving to Xiao that his philosophy was wrong, that there are ways for everyone to survive, and that his life is worth something. If someone had died that would have broken the entire story.
I want to say something about this essay other than “true” but TRUE that is exactly what the quest about and 3.4 event quest showed that he has sm growth that would be wasted if he was killed in chasm
Yes. I agree
cringe, he should’ve died. Him staying alive is awkard. Xiao arc has ended and he has nothing to offer to the story.
@@XdXd-em4el Killing someone isn't the only way to end an arc. Only the laziest way. Death isn't inherently good for all stories. Some stories don't need death. I'm pretty confident that no playable characters will die in Genshin, and the only one that might is Childe in Snezhnaya at the end of the game. Xiao's story ending with him finally realising that his life actually matters and that Zhongli never saw him as just a soldier is far more meaningful than any death could ever be. Not that I'm convinced Xiao's arc is over anyway, mind you.
@@bookswithike3256 that the cringiest 🤡💩explanation why Xiao hasn’t just died. Genshin story just sucks. No twists, consequences just slice of life filler bs
Personal favorite of mine is from 3.0-3.2, it change how I view the game completely
Same, I started by then, all prev story quests didn't make me feel so much hooked into the game as much as 3.0-3.3 did, As someone said, it was truly the golden era for Genshin with all the hype and everything (2.8 included eventhough I joined when it ended 😢)
Agreed, as someone who's been playing the game since launch the Sumeru story is top tier. Can't wait to see what they cooking for Fontaine
Yeah, and Nilou's story quest made me ugly cry
Yeah agreed
Same. I started to play more genshin in 3.2 and also got my first 5 star char Nahida.
What I think most interesting about 2.6 is how the irodori festival started the trend of mixing characters from different nations. Almost every event since then always features some characters from another nation and I'm absolutely lovin it
Actually it started in 2.2 (xinyan+childe+sara) and teased more on 2.5 bartender event but yeah 2.6 is way much better bc they fully went for it and there was a massive lore bomb as well
My favorite is 3.0 because it added dendro and dendro slimes were my favorite slime
I despise dendro slime
B..but dendro slime is always there since 1.0
@@Best-SiLenZ yea that's why i liked 3.0 because i thought dendro slimes were cool so the element dendro would be cool too
That’s hilarious lol
Based.
2.7 Chasm quest is just heartbreaking. Sure they pull back but the damage is still there, and the music in that cutscene is so impactful. Definitely the top for me just for that quest alone.
To me 2.8 is S Tier because it’s when they brought Heizou(awesome theme) and also got Kazuha and some others into the Golden Apple Archipelago which was absolutely sick. Also they gave out 2 free skins(I can confirm I started playing from that version)
2.8 is my favourite patch by far! I loved everything about it :3
Mine too! I love this patch especially when kazuha domain came out, he and tomo were trending in twitter for days
Yep, I started from late 2.6 but Kazuha is my first limited 5 star, really liked his characteristics and playstyle. And the Golden Apple Archipelago was really fun too, I like how we got to understand those characters more throughout the domains designed for them.
Same, 2.8 is my fav. Just bcz fischl past 😥
only free skin was fischl,diluc's one wasnt free
1.6+2.0 was peak Genshin for me.
Going to the GAA for the first time with Klee and the Mondstadt gang, meeting Kazuha and the overall Inazuma hype train were amazing. Then, that first impression of Inazuma, the Kazari quest and the Archon quest building up till that first fight with Raiden. Sure the Inazuma main questline kinda fell off after that, but a major part of the dissapointment was because it started so strong.
2.0 is such a strong set up for potential story but they just rushed it and has to insert the Fatui as a mastermind again without proper setup before hand (they indeed got mentioned but not that much).
@@yuiheron2880 it's really not fleshed out properly even tho we know that the fatui is behind the crisis on inazum.a
Nope, 3.0 is unbeatable
thisssss
1.6 time is my most cherished memory from Genshin
For me it’s 1.1 💀
3.0 is my Top 1. That patch has the strongest impression for me and I have played since Day 1. The deja vu archon quest was god tier literally.
I understand why people have this belief that someone should've died in the Chasm quest, but personally I think it would've been the worst quest to have someone die in and would completely destroy the whole writing for me.
I think it was great that they put Xiao and Yelan together, because they have similar backstory themes (survivors, all friends dead) but they caused them to have completely opposite mindsets. Xiao basically believed that you can't always save everyone, eventually someone is gonna have to die and he would be glad to have that someone be him, since he doesn't value his life as much. He has a very extreme philosophy of self-sacrifice.
On the other hand for Yelan it's one for all and all for one, we are all in this together, no one gets left behind. And also she put into perspective that what matters is not only how you feel about your own death but also what happens to the ones that are left to live with the survivors guilt.
I think it was a very good character driven conflict. The point was to free Xiao from the self-sacrifice mindset and prove that there IS a way for all of them to survive. If someone died, no matter if it was Xiao or somebody else, it would've instead proven that sacrifice is the answer.
This might be a bad example but imagine if after going through the whole Raiden story about how she couldn't accept Makoto's death, couldn't move on, desperately wanted Inazuma to always remain the same not only because she wanted it to be the same nation Makoto left behind but also because she was afraid of change, imagine if after all of that gut-wrenching storytelling it turned out that Makoto never even died and Ei is aware of that.
Overall great video tho, I enjoy your approach to Genshin a lot :)
I remember that the 1.3 Lantern rite was actually received poorly by the community, or at least it had mixed reception. It was one of the first festival events in the game and it shows. I think the only playable characters to make an appearance there were Xiao and (weirdly enough) Kaeya. Having Xiao as the only character to appear in a festival event made it feel empty. The event gameplay was also comprised of a bunch of fetch quests for random NPCs which was very boring. I'm so glad that every festival event after that features a wide cast of playable characters to make it feel more lively.
Exactly. For me, that's the worst update.
I agree with you on the criticism of the lack of characters, but the story scenes with Xiao felt so much better then some actually story quests.
I wasn't there for the first lantern rite....and up until now i thought i missed out. Im glad to hear that i didn't miss anything good😂
Yes, especially cause I am not a huge fan of Xiao, I probably rate it the worst event, but probably still A/B Tier (yes I love the game)
Agree the first good event was actually the 1.4 windblume
It's incredible to see how the trailers have improved so far (and the game itself ofcourse). I can't wait to see how they'll evolve in the future updates.
trailers imprived at the cost of paimon getting unbearable(??)
@@kawaiilone The voice directing of a specific character doesn't change much about the overall feel of the trailer for me personally.
I guess the trailers improved at the cost of many bad things, but I can still appreciate how the music, camera angles, pacing, etc. of the trailers improved over the years.
48:20 Hard disagree. While Playable Character Death is a thing we're due in Genshin, Perilous Trail is written in a way that it's impossible for there to be such despite the high stakes. Not only was the quest about anti-sacrifice and saving people to the best of their ability, but the situations of each of the characters just... makes the death meaningless if any of them die. And it's not like Genshin's story skill is mature enough to properly do Playable Character Death, especially at the time when it's only _starting_ to improve. The only way death would be acceptable there is if the story's intention itself was different, and frankly, the story they want to tell in Perilous Trail is more meaningful than anything written with death included.
Genshin shouldn't take the Honkai 3rd route, especially when it clearly puts value into its characters and their developments. They're way off that marker now unless they either reach Snezhnaya or introduce characters for the sake of killing them. The death flags HAVE to be set up before trying to kill, after all (in the context of the story they want to make).
TL;DR Writing death in Genshin needs more weight, and Perilous Trail can't offer that with its setup unless a part of it is flunked or its writing style is no longer that of Genshin's.
- Sincerely, a writer who had Perilous Trail as their favorite quest up until Sumeru rolled up.
I am extremely bias toward 3.6 because i love Kaveh so much. events where we the traveler are not so much in the focus and all the characters interacting with each other are always my highlights.
Same it's my favourite because Kaveh and the whole sumeru gang was the main interest, I mean who wouldn't like more food of their fav characters 🤭
That was like a kaveh story quest without playing as him told about his past
I personally liked 3.7 a lot, because we finally got an Event which included all nations! And it was absolutely fun to play that event. I mean, yea we didn't get new area or Archon quest or whatever, but with all the TCG additions, the TCG realm area looking absolutely beautiful, the new cards and mechanics, I just liked it a lot and I am not even playing TCG that much myself. Also Kirara as a new character is really fun to play and I even used her in the Abyss for 3.7 (successfully!) She actually was the first Dendro Character I had real fun with. Also the introduction of Charlotte being the first new (but not yet playable) character from Fontaine. Also don't forget that beside Yoi story quest (which was actually my least favourite thing in the patch), we also got Kaveh Hangout Event as permanent content. Beside all that, we finally got to catch up with a lot of permanent things in that patch like older story quests, Hangouts and exploration in preparation for Fontaine. Of course not an S-Tier patch, but definitely A for me.
Mario maker 😢
I really liked the 3.7 event too, going in all the regions but I'm also satisfied that we learned about the people who created tcg (i cried in that cutscene lmao-), i was scared we wouldn't learn anything about them after Sumeru but luckily, we did and I'm glad.
Damn, I liked 3.7 for Yoi's quest. Would like to know why it's your least favourite of the patch..
@@ymrue I guess I just prefered the other things of the patch. Like, her story quest was good, but other things were just better for me, kinda why it was basically the last thing I did at the end of the patch when I had completed all the other things! It was better than I expected, though. Reason being that I am not a fan of energetic/genki type of characters, so Yoi is generally quite irritating and too much to deal with for me with how fast and loud she talks (sorry!) But during the quest she was fine, which is why it was better than expected for me ^_^
@@ymrue I agree and i think it might be my favorite non-archon story quest- the story and the cutscene was everything, so much better than her first story quest
To this day, Enkanomiya's reveal is still most chilling and hype reveal they have made. The music, the voice, the visuals!! It's all so GOOD
But sad to see that you're one of the people who wanted Xiao to die in that interlude. You're one of the people who missed the point of his character arc. It WOULDNT have been meaningful for Xiao to die because he has lived with pain and suffering all his life, and if he died, it would have only solidified to him that he was nothing more than a killing machine and didnt deserve to live a happy and mundane life. Literally EVERYONE in that quest wanted him to live, because he is someone that deserves to live.
Thats WHY it would have been impactful, either way I'm happy to have a differing opinion, doesn't mean either person is "wrong" or anything. If someone can't fulfill their purpose or "character arc" before their time is up it wouldn't only be impactful to them, but everyone around them, they'd feed more sadness than ever and of COURSE it has to be done right, I just worry any time anyone ever comes close to death they're gonna miraculously save them yet again somehow
@@BranOnline I think you're probably right. I find it highly unlikely that any playable character in Genshin will die. The only major characters I can see dying are Paimon or the Abyss Twin. But that's fine to me, because that's just not the kind of game Genshin is. Killing off characters isn't the only way to give a story stakes or meaning. And Genshin is so much about the pointlessness of self-sacrifice and how unnecessary war and violence is. It doesn't make sense to me that this game would ever kill a playable character.
Also from a purely meta perspective, I hate the idea of killing off a playable character and still being allowed to play as them. That just feels stupid and immersion breaking.
@@bookswithike3256 I get that, but if that's the case it feels weird to put characters in life threatening situations knowing they're just gonna end up fine no matter what you feel me? Also for the last point here, even though we're playing AS the character, none of that is actually happening, so it wouldn't affect immersion for me, not like Raiden is actually going and killing Timmies birds every day xD
@@BranOnlineThe salutation is to make them suffer like hell. Sure you know they're going to live, but you don't know how much suffering is going to happen to them. And because you'll care about them, it will make you feel uneasy the same way lingering death would.
I get the character arc, you dont understand how writing works it seems
I love the Sumeru update, Sumeru region is by far my favourite and the most complex. I love also summer event updates
For me the 3.8 Summer event is a bit short, but also reeeeally nice, so it makes high A or S tier patch. Idyia turned out to be really cute and nice. It would be cool to see her later again in the story, and maybe get her back into Fountaine, if she would like to :))
talking about it being short makes me go "and we see how this is your job, vs as someone who this *isnt* my job i am so thankful for the grace this patch gave"
Like of my friend group, the 10 or so that play, im still one of 3 thats actually finished the event 😂the rest are going to be rushing soon. But nah this patch was great for me, def high A at least.
@@RenaDeles I am really not sure, cause 1.6 & 2.8 gave us so much content, that even I kinda struggled to do it all, I am not the kind who rush everything, I like to take my time and take some breaks or even start the event late, thats why I tried to start the event very early and play daily & I think I finished the event in less than 2 weeks, even though I didnt played alot, but obviously I can understand you :) I just wished it would be 1/3 larger/bigger.
My personal favourite would probably be 2.6 or 3.0-3.1. The former because Ayato, the latter because it revolutionized exploration and brought back to back phenomenal OST's.
It’s so hard to pick a specific version but man, Sumeru was by far my absolute favorite region to experience. The cast was so involved in the main story, they have a lot of interpersonal connections to each other and interact so often (not just with the Traveler), and it was such a delight to re-encounter so many highly anticipated characters (Cyno, Collei, and Dottore from the web comic, as well as Scaramouche from the 1.1 event). I’m a big fan of most of the Sumeru cast but the game night boys and Wanderer are my favorites, so the Sumeru versions were tons of fun.
As a Childe main, I also absolutely loved version 1.1. Back then, Childe’s fight in the story also felt like much more of a challenge (both because he hadn’t been nerfed yet and because it was such an early version that we as players just weren’t as strong because we were all still early in our journey) and I still really enjoy the combat flow (him having a counter for hydro and electro in his different phases is pretty funny too) so, despite being an early-on weekly boss, his fight is still one of my faves.
Also to contribute my thoughts on a few of the version events you hadn’t experienced:
- 2.2 Labyrinth Warriors: as a player who doesn’t really care about combat events, this was genuinely a fun combat event. The roguelike elements were fun and the event story had some fun moments, a few of which are specifically enjoyable for the time the event took place. The story itself was really short, so I’d recommend looking it up to anyone who missed out. [spoiler for a bit of story and a few character interactions from this event follow] Running into Childe in a combat-centric domain made a lot of sense for his character and it was entertaining to see him interact with Xinyan. When we’d leave the domain (to wrap up each day’s chunk of story), Childe would stay behind because he’s just having a good time with the endless combat and we’d just check back in with him the next day lol while the lil paper guy was fun (and I enjoy having his pet form), the big exciting story element from the event was Childe revealing at the end that Scaramouche had run off with the gnosis and that Childe had been tasked with retrieving him. Outside of this event and until we got Winter Night’s Lazzo, we only knew that he got the gnosis but we didn’t know that he wasn’t bringing it back to the Fatui, so this was a major reveal. Childe was pretty lax about his task but it left a ton of questions in the air, since this was also one of the first major indicators that the Harbingers weren’t really united in their motivations (you could argue that Signora and Childe’s dispute in Liyue was another sign but at the time it was presented like it could be a rare occurrence, esp since Childe seemed surprised and offended that she didn’t collaborate with him on the plan)
- 1.6 Midsummer Island Adventure: personally, I think this was by far the best summer event we’ve gotten and I recommend looking it up. While a lot more budget was put into later event visuals, the more succinct story and exploration were so well done here. We got GAA lore, we got Maguu Kenki lore, we had a bunch of fun interactions between characters (Albedo, Kaeya, Diluc, Klee, Razor, Jean, and Barbara were all involved), and they had even managed to make GAA function in a way that could allow both a new regional boss and new regional material to temporarily be collectable before Inazuma was released, so we could build our first Inazuman character (Kazuha)
- 1.2 Chalk Prince and the Dragon: the story behind Durin and the events surrounding the Festering Desire sword were specific to this event. As with the other Albedo-centric event, these events are also sources of major lore around Dragonspine and Albedo’s background, so making it limited is really unfortunate. Absolutely recommend looking up the event
- 1.1 Unreconciled Stars: This event not being permanent content is genuinely so unfortunate. Although Fischl’s dialogue can get a bit tiresome (even as someone who likes Fischl, it’s just that there was a lot of it), the introduction to Scaramouche and the lore implications were just so well done that I highly recommend it. Scaramouche’s reappearance in 2.1’s archon quest only feels satisfying imo if you had done the event and got that version of the cutscene, I really think the meeting him for the first time variant does his character a major disservice. Pls pls (to anyone who didn’t experience it) lookup and watch the actual event dialogue, Not the short recap video. You miss out on so much of his initial characterization (as well as the full context and actual delivery of the major lore drop) if you just watch a recap instead of experiencing the actual dialogue. [spoilers for his characterization in that event] Seeing him be introduced as an amiable Inazuman wanderer who several irl days later drops the act as a twist reveal, only after Mona realizes who he is, really gave him a much more interesting introduction than appearing openly hostile at first meeting like he does in 2.1. His attitude there only feels appropriate to his character and satisfying for the player if you know that you had previously figured out his true self and that’s why he’s not bothering with a facade
honestly it feels absolutely horrible that so many events with fairly significant story and lore points are just limited one-time things. it really feels like most of these should've been made into story quests or interlude quests or something. not only would it be more content overall for the game (if storage space is an issue perhaps make it so that you download them when you are ready to play them then uninstall the quest afterwards, similar to how you can already uninstall past quest resources).
more than any other character I feel like Fischl suffers from this. she has no permanent story presence. besides being playable she is to all extents and purposes an event exclusive character, but events don't seem to take into account that you might not have met her before and therefore might have no idea who she is, they just seem to assume that everyone already knows her as a character because events seem to just assume you've played every event. I kinda hate Fischl, I find her every moment rather grating, I honestly couldn't bring myself to finish 2.8's Golden Apple Archepelago quest because of her (the fact that I hadn't played the original Golden Apple Archepelago event (I started in 2.1) and yet the dialogue seemed to assume that I had really didn't help my attitude, and since I missed the 3rd GAA event I worry that the 4th one will basically be completely unplayable for me at this point), but I honestly feel like if I'd started playing Genshin earlier and actually gotten to experience a proper introduction for her and taken part in all the events that involved her I might've actually liked her as a character.
Albedo also definitely suffers his second event would've been a much better story quest for him than the one he actually got (I hear the same is true for his first one, and while I actually completed this event I again got the sense that missing the earlier event had caused my overall experience with it to suffer significantly). I'm not even upset about missing out on Festering Desire, I genuinely don't understand the fuss about that sword (neither why others want it so much nor why the devs won't just add event weapons and their ascension materials to the souvenir shops like some other event items), I just want to play through the story of those events myself (just watching them on youtube really doesn't work for me) and if I happened to get a cool looking sword along the way I wouldn't exactly say no. I don't even care about the event primos. if the free primogems are what the devs are concerned about then just remove the rewards once the event period is over and have the event be left in as pure story and gameplay with no reward at the end.
I started in the middle of 2.5 and remember playing the Itadori Event (in 2.6) all on the last day of the event cuz I just arrived at Inazuma. Also I unlocked the Teapot during this long maintenance that happend at that time. Also the Fact that 2.6 was extended due to the Covid thing in Shanghai was actually pretty good for me, because as someone who had just started I had time to catch up with everyone else.
I don’t really have a favourite patch, I think every patch had some pro and cons.
i still miss the 2.8 event until this day, I felt a lot of peace while sailing on the boat and listening to the osts. i wish i started playing genshin in 1.6 or 1.4 (i started in 2.0)
Finally someone actually made a version update trailer tierlist, I swear they are so damn good
I remember starting in 1.6. I got Kazuha really early and having to fight Maguu Kenki in GAA. It was a blast, especially facing Raiden in both act 2 and 3 of the archon quest with Kazuha as my “main dps”. But probably 3.0 to 3.2 are my favorite patches so far. They really stepped up on their storytelling, and music was top notch (not that they have missed so far in terms of music).
I think that in terms of immersion and fun, 2.7 was top for me because more than impactfulness of a character's death I love character development so much more and you can see the very heavily traumatised Xiao finally deciding to see things from a different perspective. It was also the most immersive quest for me. And 1.6, yeah. The first GAA was so good it way overshadowed the second it was so much fun I actually felt like I was there exploring in person. Third place would likely be 3.1/3.2 when we had one of the best content lore wise from Nahida and Scara since I really love lore 🥹 I actually agree with most of your tierlist though it makes a lot of sense. Also Lantern Rite best time of Genshin in the year stat.
3.8's story was just a chore to get through even if it was short. I don't like any of the characters except for Klee, and the last stageplay cutscene was one of the most awkward things imaginable, felt like the director dude was treating you like a child while telling you what to do when it was so incredibly obvious. The exploration was great and the map was beautiful.
1.0 was pretty much the best. The beautiful open map, the Liyue music hitting you for the first time, Mondstadt city. It was the reason I stuck around.
I freaking loved 2.8 GAA, it was everything I loved about the game coming into one, character story, exploration, a little teasing of Nahida, hard and confusing puzzles... the harder the puzzle is, especially the one that take me forever/I can't solve, the more I love it....The stories was told in such fantastical settings, the music was just bangers too (the only thing i really didn't enjoy was the theaters quest, it was a bit dragged out). I felt like 3.6 was missing out so much as the gadget in the end locate all the chest making "exploring" quite meaningless, it made me feel like a cope out, and the area was pretty empty/not filled with enough puzzles. But a lot people in the part of the fandom I'm in love 3.6 and bashed 2.8 GAA so much. They are both FOMO and have not enough time/patience to go through 2.8 GAA, I kinda don't get why they want everything and don't want to put the efforts in it. I always felt like I was in the wrong and it just me.... It is actually so rare and so relieving to have someone also love 2.8 as I do. Thank you Bran
Personally speaking, 3.8 is in my top 3, purely because I got to take it slow. I was on vacation funnily enough, so I didn't play genshin for almost a month (apart from the 3 days I did electroculi hunt), which was something I needed, so I was able to relax, and it left me with a good few days afterwards to enjoy the event at my own pace, even if I speedran the vouchers for Kaeya skin and speedran mini games for my C6 Layla.
But I did enjoy the story, the atmosphere, the overall vibes, solid 9.5/10
Dude, this made me realise i only started in 3.0 but im already AR57-
I truly have no life
1.4 will always be S tier for me, mainly because I joined during that patch, and venti content is always a plus for me
Same
My personal favorite patch would be:
2.8 like you said, it's one of the most fun and best patch they gave. Even if the puzzle is difficult, that's what made it special for me.
1.6 First ever major event i participated, and first time exploring GAA on it's purest form left quiet a memory
I got say I really disagree with the rankings of 1.3 and 1.4. 1.3 trailer looks pretty but the event was mostly a bunch of boring fetch quests and I think only Xiao was there for the story part, while 1.4 had appearances from pretty much every Mondstadt character, some very fun coop modes, introduced hangouts and had probably the most impactful quest so far (Dain's).
It looked kinda great from outside... I'm from 2.6 2nd half so I really don't know how was it before...
2.0 version will always be an SSS tier for me because
1 ) Gameplay-wise very character in that region still hasn't been out-classed yet to this day imo. Most Inazuma characters are a must pull for.
2 ) The music is a banger. periodt.
3 ) The lore is there is good (idc what anyone says). It was dark and I found it to be refreshing compared to the previous "rainbow and sunshine" patches Genshin released. I cried for Kazari, Ruu, and even Wanderer when his story originated in Inazuma. Plus if I could pick any character story quest to replay, it would absolutely be Yoimiya's 1st (and 2nd) story quests. It still left a huge impact on me because it was bitter-sweet knowing how depressing her homeland was with all the restricted laws, and she's willing dream of traveling far and wide (her fireworks literally reached from Liyue's Lantern Rite festival all the way to Sumeru rainforest).
nah man, 1.3 was way worse than it looks. the first lanturn rite was fucking awful. it was like 30 mini quests that were all massive walls of text to the point even a lot of lore lovers were complaining about it. xiao and hu tao were good characters but it was also just after ganyu and we were all talking about the powercreep in genshin. the zhong buff was also a big deal because before it, zhongli had a level of balance with noelle, trading off their own on field damage for off field support, but then after the buff it was just pushed massively in zhonglis favour.
That being said, the very first theatre mechanicus in that update was absolutely the best version.
1.4 and 1.6 will alwaysss be my fav updates the vibes were perfect during those patches
Yeah they defenetly peaked with Sumeru soundtracks, especially on trailers as well, we got 4 bangers in a row from 3.0 to 3.3. I already feeling nostalgic for something that happened less than a year ago sheesh.
Personally 3.0 hits the most for me (The entire patch), played since day 1.
Same and I started in 1.6
3.6 was my absolute favourite :/ it's cherished deep in my heart for ever
The first lantern rite was a little controversial at the time! But they really listened to the complaints about it and improved the others that followed it a LOT since then.
But in the first one, to some, the rewards felt underwhelming since the community hyped the patch to unrealistic proportions, there were a MILLION unvoiced fetch quests for NPCs to the point where they overshadowed the limited interactions we had with the few playable characters featured on the main quest (seriously, they were SO tiring, if I weren't desperate for primos then because of the shorter banner runs I would've given up on that part of the event), shorter banners due to the random Keqing banner (with Bennett lol, I remember some people wished on it just for his cons and got an unfortunate surprise...) they threw in there for what people suspect were superstitious reasons (releasing Hu Tao, a character whose story deals so much with death, on CN new year's event?), and the infamous first homa+wgs banner leading men astray back in a time before you had any guaranteed pity on the weapon banner lol. But the first Theater Mechanicus was cool! It might not have pleased everyone but it was the highest point of the patch for me...
In comparison, the first Windblume after it felt absolutely wonderful because there were a lot more playable characters involved in the story (like how it usually is nowadays) and they were very present everywhere, even in the event minigames (you had to beat their high scores and they had little messages talking about their experience with each game), Peculiar Wonderland was pure FUN on co-op, people would keep playing it daily even after getting all the rewards, and this was the patch where we had our first ever character reruns (Venti and Childe), which were something most were highly anticipating, seeing as Venti especially was still pretty much the most useful character in the game and not a lot of people had him. Overall, having played through both, I'd place the first Windblume WAY higher than the first Lantern Rite, and even higher than the other Windblumes that followed it! lol
After watching this and going back to all those patches, I suddenly want to play those characters I benched again!
58:01 WHY DID I WHEEZE AT THAT BRAN QUOTE
48:22 *thousands of simps including myself just grabbed their shotguns* LMAO
I miss en old Paimon voice and Barbara voice, though I don't use en it's still sad 😢
My favourite version has to be 3.0-3.3. The trailer for Scara’s quest was such a banger
I played since 1.0 and 2.3 is my fav one bc that albedo event up to this day cant compare to any events we've had so far. The rhinedottir lore, mini games, and the story as a whole made me love the game more + itto's release hes my main so im biased lols (Honorable mention: the 3.0-3.2 archon quest sequence. those patches had me on the edge of my sit bc of hype)
I think currently v2.5 is my favorite Genshin update so far!
-Enkanomiya event (I enjoyed it lol)
-Yae's release and Raiden's rerun
-Yae's story quest
-Raiden's story quest act 2 (Loved this one a lot and very emotional)
-New Raiden Boss (Love the design)
-Drink making event
-Divine Ingenuity event (was fun)
v3.1 is up there for me as well.
-Cyno's release
-first part of the desert
-Cyno's story quest
-Acts 3 and 4 of Sumeru Archon Quests
-New world quests were good (Golden Slumber, etc)
(and more)
i just noticed that 1.1 introduced 3 new shielders all at once , interresting ...
Labyrinth Warriors is my favourite combat event to date. No timer, just huge waves of enemies and randomised rooms. You could use any character you liked without worrying about whether it's meta enough to clear it in time.
personally, this years lantern rite (or lantern rites in general) are my favorite things ever. it's so pretty, we get stupid jokes and meet ppl from liyue.
it, weirdly enough, makes me proud to see how much genshins graphics and quality overall have improved overtime.
(also, 3.8 was s tier. i'm not at all biased cuz kaeya was in there. PFFFFT.)
My personal favorite is 1.5. I just really like the music man, and the transition between yanfei's music to eula's is just so smooth. My 2nd favorite is definitely 3.0 trailer.
But the most nostalgic to me is windblume 1.4 and golden apple archipelago 1.6.
Edit: I forgot this is about update, not trailer lol. My fav patch is windblume 1.4, first golden apple archipelago event, EVERY DAINSLEIF QUESTS, susbedo quest, and irodori fes.
My favourite versions are all the versions that have Khaenri'ah lore, just that 0w0
I just cant believe time flies so fast, I was literally there since Genshin existed because of my relative being active about games who are newly created. I have been there for every update now I feel so old knowingly it used to be Venti and Zhongli duo now it is going to be 4 archons
I’ve missed so much, I just joined at late 3.5 😢 and it’s a pity that we cannot experience the patches from the past as a new players. Fontaine will be my first region fully involve from the beginning, I’m very excited!
Watching these are so surreal. I started playing around 3.3 so I got to go through a lot of the story without a long wait and I took my time with them. However, I did miss out on a lot of events. Fontaine is gonna be my first region to play at the same time as everyone else from the start. No idea how that’s gonna change my perspective cause I’m having a lot of fun so far.
I joined Genshin at the end of 3.5. I'd say the most fun patch I experienced was 3.7 and current 3.8. I liked 3.7 because of Yoimiya's story quest (my most favorite character story quest) and because of the hard abyss. Used my friend's account to 36 star it and it was a blast. I like 3.8 solely because I got bored of exploring the map and getting a limited map got me exploring.
As for story patches, even if I haven't joined the game yet at the time, my favorite would be the Samsara archon quest and the Fantastic Compass Chasm quest.
38:35 53:37 Mmm BASED that you put 2.4 and 2.8 in Top 3 tier, those two are my favourite versions imo because of Keqing and my first GAA (And fischl's banger battle music), technically 3.4 as well too
My 3 favorite patches in order are
4.0 (the aq is so so good and I love Fontaine)
2.2 (I loved the event. It was fun and one of the few stories I remember)
1.1 (it was rhe first major update I experienced and also when I got my first 5 star)
"How do you play a dead character? Ask Honkai", Honkai way is to never have a banner for them again, the one is on standard and farmable but hasn't had a banner since then.
3.0-3.3 is the best patches
Dendro, story progress, the abyss, wide area to explore
Not going to rank but thanks for the reminder of how far we've come on this journey.
Truly Incredible.
Thankz Bran
I started playing Genshin in 1.3 (Xiao is my first limited 5 star), and here are some of my opinions about the early releases:
1.3: The Lantern Rite had such good vibes. Liyue was decorated to beautifully and as mundane those event quests were, the cutscences went really well with the atmosphere. It felt like I was experiencing the festival in the game, which was nice since COVID dampened the irl one. I still get emotional when I look back at previous screenshots and recordings - things were so different back then. With regards to theatre mechanicus - I actually really enjoyed it, as a mild fan of tower defense games. Overall the event gave me a great introduction to watch Genshin offers. It also gave good rewards that helped with building my fresh account. Since I also pulled for Hutao, as of the conclusion of 1.3 I had two fragile dpses that made it quite difficult to keep my team alive. That made me learn Genshin combat the hard way. If I were to say it in a positive light, it was good training.
1.4: Windblume was really different from Lantern Rite and mainly focused on minigames. They could be played via co-op too so it was really fun. The vibes were fresh and light-hearted. What was not light hearted was Dainsleif’s quest. The quest gave light to the dark and deep backstory of Teyvat and the MCs. It made me realize maybe the lore is more well-thought-out than I anticipated. Besides, I still remember simping over how cool he is and how mysterious his element was.
1.5: Azdaha! It’s the first boss in Genshin that did damage that actually hurt. This underlined the existence and importance of the technical aspect of Genshin combat. I didn’t do teapot that much, but it gave good consistent rewards and I know that quite some people liked it and did it as a fun side hustle. The energy amplifier event was just fighting. Zhongli was a nice addition to my team tho, helped my self pain inflcting dpses. So far this update had the most aspects that are still relevant till this day.
1.6: First costume, added waveriders. The events were a combination of exploration and minigames, nice for summer gameplay. The abyss looking event was essentially abyss with insane bosses and multipliers. My account still lacked firepower at that time so via co-op I got introduced to the concepts of whales. And Kazuha, couldn’t have been more welcoming with the new addition to my team.
2.0: Obviously huge update with Inazuma. Also released Ayaka, the character everyone talked about since release, and rumored to be hella op. It was nice having a change of environment but since I was already quite burnt out (I tend to speedrun games), and the long archon quests, confusing puzzles didn’t help.
2.1: skipped
2.3: Albedo event. I got him and farmed for his weapon till R5. Don’t remember anything except for fighting cryo hypostatis and him being sus.
2.4: Kind of skipped. Can someone please tell me why everyone likes enkanomiya so much?
2.5: I remember just going everywhere in enkanomiya for this event and spending so much time. Not the most enjoyable.
2.6: I didn’t do any of the events (I looked so cool though wtf I regret it), but I pulled for Ayato (still is one of the main dpses I use the most rn). In my experience, despite the cool backstory for the Chasm it was just so grindy for me. Materials for Ayato, the lumenspar needed to upgrade the torch thing to complete quests. It could be totally just me though!
2.7: skipped, but I in terms of the dying thing in the chasm quest - I heard that the idea is that no one should be left behind despite the past - and especially with characters like xiao, who has issues with self worth. It would destroy the backbone of the story if xiao died.
2.8 skipped. Haven’t played Kazu’s story quest yet but I heard so much about it I basically know the whole story at this point. And the castle. Wtf it looks so cool. The Mona island too.
3.1-3.8: Skipped all. I just got back into Genshin upon the release of Fontaine. The archon quest was so good, one of the few quests that I genuinely enjoyed and doing for the sake of story, disregarding the rewards. It took me at least like 10 hours to finish Act I to Act IV. I haven’t played the Aranara quest yet, no comment. The desert is like so huge and just blank but I agree, when there are structures the architecture is well designed. I actually just logged in and pulled Tighanri thinking he’s limited and Nilou since she’s pretty. I regret missing Cyno and Alhaitham’s banner so so much. Now I gotta wait since Mondstat and Liyue chars would get there reruns first, most likely.
4.1 and onwards: GREAT design underwater and overwater. About to go broke seeing all the char designs. Story is getting darker too, which is pretty cool.
I remembered that 1.3 was poorly received during it's release. It's a really dry patch, some of my friends were actually quitting the game at that time. The lantern rite event overall is actually bad. Iirc, Xiao is the only playable Liyue character that appear in the event and for some reason Kaeya was added as well, i don't hate him but it's just weird that they prioritize a non Liyuean character in a Liyue event.
The rest of the event was like a generic NPC errand quest that is forgettable imo. Theater Mechanicus is probably the only good content in that event. I think the only permanent addition for the game on that patch (outside Xiao, Hu Tao, and Staff of Homa) was the intro of Dainsleaf quest where you met him in Diluc's tavern and Primo Geovishap boss.
I personally place that event on a low B tier cause at least that patch gave us free 10 pulls and a free selectable Liyue character lol
As a person who played since 1.0 this was a journey. Thanks for the video.
I remember the release of Dragonspine. Even now the music hits me every time I go there. I think genshin is the game I want to re-experience the most from scratch. I'm still mad I had so many breaks from the game, skipping many versions because I was either burnt out or it was connected to bad memories with people I played the game with. Genshin is and was a blast, even if it's tedious sometimes
absolutely wild to see 1.3 in S and above 1.2. 1st lantern rite wasn't really great. the quest was okay, the events weren't great, no permanent content other than character quests, which were good, but not great. Coming off dragonspine, which was the first new area added with a much more engaging exploration mechanic than mondstadt or liyue, on top of a great event, 1.3 was pretty mediocre. I enjoyed the first theatre mechanicus, but it's nowhere close to S tier.
i personally love 3.7, just seeing our first fontaine character and having hu tao being unhinged as awlways was just great
I found out that I started playing Genshin one month after you, so I know the pain of all the events you missed.
Same I started in 2.3
I started playing in february 2021, I remember getting bored with Liyue and Mondstadt, but when Inazuma was announced I was soooo hyped
I hold 2.4 close to my heart cause this was when I returned and fully committed to the game after taking a long hiatus during 1.6 to near the end of 2.3. And to look back at it, it was super fun and memorable. Honarable mention goes to 2.6 Ayato's theme carried it hard, 3.2 for Nahida and general events and story quest hmm...3.8 all the way
Surely Im not the only one that would love to se Brands tier list of character story quests
He did one a year ago actually, but I guess it's a little outdated now huh? 😅
@@Bobnado Yeah, especially with all the great sumeru ones
34:38 I remember seeing that during the trailer and saying out loud, "I can't wait for this archon quest" bruh
3.4 is to this day my favorite patch
i'm a big sucker for cross overs, and seeing everyone in liyue, perfection
I’m from future guys, we are going to get Columbina and Dottore is not going to get killed and Aether got Lumine back and he has all the powers now.
My personal Top 3, as someone who started playing in 1.1:
1.6 - The first GAA was the most fun I’ve ever had playing Genshin, and this is coming from someone who had fun even during events that many people don’t like that much
3.1 - two Sumeru archon quests, including both the best gang (Alhaitham, Dehya, Cyno and Alhaitham) and the beginning of the dispute of Nahida against Dottore and Scara; and the Weinlesefest, which might my one of my favorite time-limited events to this day
2.4 - My favorite Lantern Rite and Enkanomyia, basically
Whoa what a trip down to memory lane! I started playing at the end of 1.5 and become a daily player at 1.6, so I did experience the first Golden Apple Archipelago. I think it's a curse for us that have experienced it the first time since the latter iterations do lack a bit of the "oomph" the first one had.. it was just so special. Still enjoy them all tho.
And yep, Sumeru's music is still the best so far. It's just so exotic and as an Asian I feel so familiar with the music. Looking forward to Natlan which should be exotic as well.
my personal faves would be 1.3 , 2.7 and 3.1
1.3 because thats when i started to play daily and lantern rite showed me why this game is so good, 2.7 because it has my all time favorite story quest, and 3.1 because the desert is my fave region and thats when i had the most fun exploring!
2.2 was one of my favorite patches... xD I was the only person who seemed excited for a Tartaglia re-run because I started playing at the end of 1.4 (didn't even pull until 1.5) but Tartaglia was my favorite character. I was expecting to wait a much longer time before I could get him. So in terms of personal enjoyment and event story (there was a lot of character stuff to analyze), I was pretty satisfied. Keke. Probably still in the minority, though.
Thank you to whoever edited the video for the old tighnari va warning
on another note, I personally would drop 2.6 a couple placements within S tier for being the patch that was extended to 9 weeks last minute. I know it was for unforseen circumstances, but the events were all in the normal patch duration leaving nothing for the extra 3 weeks.
Rewatching all of this has reinforced how my feelings about patches change over time. When it comes to first impression, story matters the most. When it comes to my lasting impression, the exploration/zone stuff is what I remember the most. It leaves me with weird rankings on zones: I liked Sumeru stories, but ultimately enjoyed Inazuma's exploration and the feeling of each island more. So far Fontaine seems to be doing great with both.
Wait. Wtf?????? I was just in the second phase of the 1.1 update?????? I was that close to doing the first ever genshin event where there's Fischl, Mona and Scara?????? I guess I was just too new to the game and didn't use any guide at all 😭😭😭
I'll be honest here, the Inazuma main story quest is so mid that the world quest are far better and more enjoyable to me(for example Kazari quest and Ruu). Even the character quest of Inazuma characters before Itto was a resident sleeper for me personally especially Kokomi, i can't remember how many times i legit fall asleep while doing the quest. If u like it good for u but that's my personal opinion of it.
As someone who played every patch I think 1.1 was kinda overlooked. Yes the Unreconceiled Stars event seems like a collective dream now, but the lore on that hunts us till this day. Big Dong Zhong, Tartag, and Diona are top characters even today (Xiniyan who?). There was also the chapter 1 of the Liyue Archon Quest along with Zhongli first story quest (Havria) and Childe Story quest (Teucer).
It was also the patch where Condensed resin was created, reputation system was implemented and other cool gadgets.
But overrall, I think you did great with the list. For me personally the chasm quest (WHERE XIAO NEEDED TO DIE) was the peak of Genshin, but that is just my opinion.
2.7, 2.8, and 3.4 are probably my most memorable and the patches I enjoyed the most personally (a recent player, played on the tail end of 2.6, literally a few weeks before release of 2.7)
2.7 cause of the quest alone, great interlude archon quest, very compact, not genuine filler/ random npc questline that bored me cause everything that happened was either crucial to the plot or character interaction (which I enjoy most in the game)
2.8 cause just, it's 2.8 man. I LOVED fischls domain, basically everyones domain was soooo much fun, the storyline was banger (I'm biased cause I really love fischl and mona) the way that each island represented the individual characters made them beautiful!
Very fun
And 3.4 cause it was my first lantern rite and when I got my favorite character (and first C1 limited banner 5 star) Xiao. Also cause of the character interactions! The venti-zhongli acting was great and the fact we finally got to see what Guizhong looked like was very exciting (to me at least). Also cause Liyue harbor was so pretty that event (I'm biased once again cause I main Chongyun and my favorite archons are Venti and Zhongli)
My top 3 are probably 3.1, 2.8, and then 2.7
3.3 is close after that bc I was stoned while doing the wanderer quest and nearly ascended to celestia
I still have festering desire(r5) from the 1.2 Dragonspine event, I love looking at it and remembering the good times of the game.
This was so much fun to be a part of in chat. 2.4 will always be my favourite patch.
Also, thank you Bob and Bran for the warning of Tighnari's voice
This proves how many banger updates genshin put out back to back
2.8 was definitely one of the best top 3, summer events are always the best
This is such a fun video, the next year of Genshin is gonna be wild
"The Eula rerun was a meme as shown by the banner sales." You must have a cryo vision because that was cold.
My favorite patch is 3.6 because it was a really good event and my first one too since I joined in late 3.5.
I started playing right after 2.4 came out and honestly I’ll always be kicking myself for not starting the game sooner, just so I could play 2.3 and experience the susbedo event with everyone else
My favorite patches are 3.0-3.2 and 1.6. 1.6 was just wholesome. It really felt like a fun and relaxed summer event.
And with 3.0-3.2 they just nailed it with the Sumeru archon quest. I really hope 4.0 will be as great as 3.0
For me personally 2.4 - 3.1 was some of the most fun I've ever had playing Genshin Impact. 2.8 specifically. The stories added with the challenging puzzles. Gave me everything I've ever wanted out of the game.
From 2.6 to 3.3 these are my favourite patches. The sus albedo patch and shenhe enkanomiya patch were pretty good too.
1:27:00 I was also very much hoping for a Eula rerun to come soon, cause she should have had her rerun together with Mika's first banner. I already had Eula on one of my accounts but I mainly wanted all the Eula wanters to have the chance to finally get her, I know the feeling from waiting ~1 year for Ganyu's first rerun after just missing her on the first banner...
ok i know this is opinion-based and i 100% respect that... EXCEPT for 1.3 in S-tier haha the first lantern rite was so BAD (literally just a bunch of fetch quests for NPCs + only one playable character involved, xiao, whose rapport with us was super weird bc they wanted the event to be accessible to new players so they wrote it so it didnt matter whether we already knew him from the archon quest or not + the one beautiful cutscene we got out of it had already been on the official genshin youtube for almost a year at that point, so it wasnt new), and it was the most boring patch since the game's release (honestly one of the weaker patches overall still), putting it way up there just because of lantern rite hurts me (light-hearted). the whole thing about hu tao also wasnt a surprise so much as her not being marketed for the patch that literally celebrates lunar new year because promoting themes of death during that time is (as i understand it) frowned upon (also why they inserted a keqing banner in the middle, so the celebrations would be out of the way by the time hu tao's banner happened).
1.3 didn't end in S tier
So you’re the dude who keeps popping up on my ads “okay the overworld walking around feels REALLY good!”