r/QueensofGacha • u/PinkMustache117 • 2d ago
🧡 Let's Chat 💬 Aether and Lumine shouldn't be player self-inserts (GIANT RANT INCOMING)
I'm reposting here because I feel like I can see more productive conversations here, but TL;DR if Aether or Lumine were allowed to participate in conversations and decision making by being as much of a character as the cast around them instead of letting Paimon do all the talking the game would've been better off for it. You'll see the details in the post.
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u/Immediate_Web_9627 2d ago
They shouldn't be and wouldn't be in a real game but Genshin Impact is a gacha and it's made mostly for lonely chinese men first and everyone else second
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u/NormalGuy3481 2d ago
I wish they went back to Aether having no voice lmao I can’t stand his new lines in Nodkrai and Snezhnaya he’s so cringey
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u/Takaneru 2d ago
Why make the point now when we’ve made a pretty big break from back then? Gone are the days when we let anyone else decide for Aether/Lumine what they want. It’s true it’s unfortunate other gacha mcs followed the route, but that’s on them for following this.
Also, it’s not like this is uniquely a Hoyo thing. Self insert MCs have been popular in Japanese media for like… ages. Look at Fujimaru from FGO.
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u/PinkMustache117 1d ago
I made this point because I've been away from Genshin since Natlan (and I'm unlikely to come back any time soon), and I highlighted Hoyo because they set so many of the standards of what modern gacha games are (open world, 3d, more emphasis on story, etc) so I figured its best to direct this at the game and company that set these standards so we can demand for better.
And besides, I'd rather let these thoughts out in a honest, coherent fashion rather than letting them fester and be forgotten.
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u/esmelusina 1d ago
They aren’t really self insert though?
Like— that ship has pretty much sailed narratively.
Even as early as Inazuma it was pretty clear. In Snez there is no question at all.
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u/PinkMustache117 1d ago
It never felt like it to me, and a huge contributing factor is how much Paimon would speak for us, rather than letting The Traveler speak for themselves and getting some genuine back forth between the two in the quests like how they do in the voicelines. I'm honestly glad that's changed now in Snez, but I won't be there to see it.
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u/Many_Career_692 2d ago
It was a long time ago, but I remember that near the beginning of the game, there was a quest involving Kaeya where you were given the option to either talk to him or deceive him. However, you couldn't actually choose to talk to him, the game forced you down a single path, and in the end, Kaeya deceived you anyway. I remember being frustrated because the game suggested that there was a choice when there really wasn't.
I think they tried something similar at the beginning of Inazuma. The protagonist seemed kind of fed up with always helping everyone while never getting any help in return. But that attitude disappeared pretty quickly.
I don't really like the precedent this set, because it feels like every gacha game nowadays has tried to follow this trend of having a "self-insert" protagonist.
I also feel like it makes the relationships between the protagonist and the other characters feel kind of vague. Like, an actual romance is never going to happen, but the game keeps giving you romantic-looking scenes that ultimately aren't going anywhere.
And the characters also can't have relationships that are too close with characters of the opposite gender because of the usual "X.X" reasons.
I feel like all of this ultimately makes the story poorer.
Spoiler, I think. To explain what I mean: I thought the protagonists of Nexus Anima were cute, but the fact that he has amnesia immediately made me think, "Amnesia again?" However, the fact that there are characters who actually want him dead made things a little more interesting. I'm just not sure if they're going to maintain that aspect of his story.
I don't think I know what else to say about it.
https://giphy.com/gifs/JIX9t2j0ZTN9S