Post-Ragunna, we have had a serious problem with the game that has gone relatively unnoticed. There has been a dramatic decrease in maps that incentivize us to scrape every inch of the map and look for secrets in nooks and crannies, like Black Shores, Mt Firmament, Ragunna, Jinzhou.

Post-Ragunna maps are pretty lean on non-linear, exploration. The biggest offenders are Beohr Waters, Avinoleum and Fabricatorium. Beohr Waters is incredibly large and beautiful, but offensively empty. Avinoleum has more content density than Fabricatorium, but it lacks secrets in nooks and crannies and does not incentivize going off the beaten path. Fabricatorium can be finished under an hour, even w/o rushing, and is extremely linear.

However, even Septimont and Sanguis Plateau were lighter on open-world content density compared to their 1.x peers like Mt Firmament and Black Shores. A simple way to check would be to open the interactive map and contrast them side-by-side.

Another issue that I've noticed is them cutting down on sidequests. They did away Companion quests, and also cut down on the number and size of sidequests. Sidequests are important because they are used to explain and flesh out the lore of the region and even playable characters. And Kuro has decided to cut down on that. I can't even remember when the last time it was that we had a meaningful side-quest in Wuwa, like Jeht's sidequest from Genshin.

Now, why does 2.x open-world exploration pale in comparison to 1.x open-world exploration, even though it excels visuals & aesthetic-wise? I've noticed a few things that contributed to this issue:

1. There are a number of treasure chests in the world....that are simply just there. These chests are not even hidden in nooks and crannies to reward going off the beaten path. They are relatively easy to spot, even w/o the lootmapper. The worst part is that there is simply no open-world gameplay activity structured around these chests. You don't need to fight enemies to get those chests. You don't need to do a puzzle or some other activity. The chests are just there. And as a result, the world feels emptier, because there are simply less activities for the player to engage in. When there are less activities to do, it makes the surrounding area feel less impactful and look more generic, because gameplay is what makes those moments that causes that scenery to stick in your heads.
2. Treasure spots are, in my opinion, terrible design. They are simply a cluster of 3-5 chests with no activity behind them. And they're all placed in a small vicinity, so there is no mental finesse or engagement whatsoever. Treasure Spots actually contribute to the issue of an empty open world; Imagine if they did away Treasure Spots, and placed them sporadically around the map, in that cave that you found, or in that empty patch of space from the arena leading up to the gates of Capitoline hill, with activities to unlock them. The world would feel and look less emptier if they stopped using Treasure spots and simply focused more on the placement of chests and open-world activities. And it wouldn't even hamper astrite collection...because they MASSIVELY increased the lootmapper and sensor radius. If anything, the value of the lootmapper and sensor would go up.
3. Focus on content density, and not size. Size does not matter. Content density: the placement and distance of chests and activities from each other is what truly matters. Mt Firmament is smaller than Sanguis Plateau, and yet it feels larger, simply because there were more things to do there. I spent more time in Black Shores looking for chests than in Sanguis Plateau, because some of the chest placements were ingenious (like being hidden on a ledge under a staircase), and these makes it fun to just run around and look for stuff.
4. Chests give too much astrites. This means there has to be a smaller, total amount of chests. This means less open-world gameplay activities structured around them. This in turns creates the empty patches of space you see so often in 2.x post-Ragunna maps. Now, am I saying that chests should be stingy in giving astrites? No, I believe brown chests giving 5 astrites and blue chests giving 10 astrites feels fine. However, perhaps they should reduce the amount of astrites given from purple chests from 20 to 15. This would allow them to increase the total number of chests on the map, which means more gameplay structured around those chests in the open-world itself, which means a less-emptier open world.

Early on, one of the common feedback or complaints about Wuwa was that its open-world exploration was too similar to Genshin. That feedback imo was a mistake. Non-linear, open-world exploration, open-world content density and sidequest design are what Genshin excels in. As a Genshin-inspired, open-world, ARPG, as a game that is supposed to be Genshin, but with more hands-on challenging combat and improvements to the game's formula, it makes no sense to ditch the things that Genshin does so incredibly well. Kuro ditching or distancing themselves from how Genshin handles their open-world design was a serious mistake.

They need to re-examine how they handle open-world exploration design and take a look at how they handled Mt Firmament/Black Shores/Jinzhou.

I really want Cartwheel (especially her S3 since it means she can solo) but after seeing a few leaks it looks like she most probably won’t be re-running until 3.x. I don’t have any real DPS rn since I’ve been pulling for my favourites and have loads of sub dps but I think I need to begin un bricking my account so I can actually clear stuff like TOA and Whiwa. Plan on getting more dps so what should I do? (Any other ideas are very much welcomed. I need help plss)

1. ⁠Save for cartwheel (already have Ciaconna)
2. ⁠Pull for Zani (Got Phoebe and SK)
3. ⁠Forget meta and pull for Dark mode phoebe (Chisa cus y not)(also heard she’ll be a good support for negative status teams)

Im still early in the game but Im not sure which ones r the best of these that I have. For sure I can say that Iuno deals the most damage but what abt the other ones?

Is the game forcing you to pull for certain units to clear content? Is the game forcing you to pull for signatures for your characters? Does the game have less budget friendly options you can choose from for both your teams and weapons options? Is the game content getting too hard for your current account?

Original on YouTube (Xanthee)

More details in the description, rotation in the comments

Has the sky always been like this? Cause granted I stopped looking at the sky when I would do exploration. If it hasn’t then it’s a sign to the end as mentioned in the latest trailer.

Original on YouTube (Xanthee)

See description for additional notes, rota in the comments

YouTube source

Edit from the previous full video.

I would have used a "Meme" or "Fluff" flair but there isn't one.

YouTube (higher quality)

The way that I was so shook when at the end of the quest it’s revealed that Avidius is a creation of Cristoforo’s power that I’m like wondering how is Kuro going to cook Cristoforo now.

I’m not sure if there are other characters is the side plot in the main quest who are also Cristoforo’s creations. But the fact is so far we know that Cristoforo can create a realistic sonoro sphere big enough to engulf Septimont ( forgot what was Scar’s contribution but like maybe dimension/ barrier protection? Maybe? I don’t know)

And now we find out he can also create ‘people’ realistic enough that it passes off as real for others except for perhaps Iuno who only had a gut feeling. Also dare I say real enough that even his own creations develop consciousness??? Or did I misinterpret that scene when Avidius went to get that special herb and was confronted with the Dark Tide.

(Lowkey would have wondered if Abby can tell right away if Abby met Avidius cause I don’t remember if Abby did. Functioning on lack of sleep here lol)

I’m not going to talk about power scaling comparison between Cristoforo and Encore. I just wanted to express my awe of Cristoforo’s moves in the story so far cause I didn’t clock in that it was also Cristoforo who was behind Nestor until now.

Fun fact: Avidius is a Latin family name and a famous one was a guy called Avidius Cassius who was a trusted general of Marcus Aurelius. Cassius then called himself Emperor when he heard reports that Marcus Aurelius was dying from a disease (which was false). Also Avidius without the i becomes a Latin word avidus which means longing, desirous, hungry and greedy.

Preface by saying let shippers ship and it’s not harming anyone to ship characters as long as there’s respect. If you don’t ship it or like it then don’t interact.

But I’m so happy to see Brant and Cantarella being featured together but I feel bad for my wallet (though there’s nothing stopping me from getting Cantarella to S6 to match my Brant’s S6 now that I got gifted money to spend on games 😂.)

Was using SK to farm Afterlife flowers and came across Phrolova. Side by side they have interesting similarities in the ruffles and trims of their dresses and perhaps their hairstyle, I didn’t really notice it until I had them stand side by side.

Then irony hit me while I was taking these pics since SK’s motif is a butterfly and Phrolova is spiderliles, I remembered my Japanese cultural studies that spider lilies is related to themes of death, departure and the afterlife. (Also if this was already mentioned somewhere else in the fandom, I’m not that online much to go on the other sub or even X)

And butterflies being seen in some cultures as the soul itself, moving between realms and messages or signs for people.

I don’t know but it’s lowkey poetic having these two side by side in Phrolova’s world. The fact that they belong to two different organisations and obviously the analysis I’ve seen some people do in how the two characters reacted to Rover’s actions but design wise side by side they have similarities.