Yes, to the soundtrack! I'm not one who has an ear for these things (soundtracks/OSTs just normally go over my head and I don't notice them at all) but the soundtrack for this game is so good. Just listening to the soundtrack as you run around exploring the world-- it's so pleasant and soothing!
The exploration aspect (with all the elemental puzzles and hidden secrets that you can find) is really top-notch. It's BotW but better. And the thing that really stood out to me were the towns and villages. Liyue harbour is huge! I got so excited when I went up a cliff and saw the silhouette of this Chinese architecture nestled into a huge tree.
I am worried about hitting that wall once the main content is over but I feel like by the time I reach that point-- I've probably spent over a 100 hours traversing about the world. And that's probably more content than some games I've paid full-price for.
I did try out the gacha (I felt like I should be paying /something/ at least for all the enjoyment this game has brought me) but you're right. You definitely can play this game with just the F2P characters. Especially since they're giving away some of these characters (Barbara I thinK?) for free.
I'm playing on the PS4. So no cross-progression for me unfortunately. How's it like on mobile? Is it a huge battery drain?
:D :D Aah, I had no idea that they'll be adding a new area soon! I just got done with Mondstadt and I haven't even started the quest at Liyue Harbour. Gosh, I feel spoiled. Haha
Hah awesome! The whole Liyue questline is much more refined IMO and the atmosphere is also better than Mondstadt. They really nailed the Chinese vibe, so you are in for a treat. And I agree seeing Liyue Harbour for the first time (or even the Wangshu Inn) was special the same way discovering some major spots in BOTW was.
We already got the first big patch 1.1 a few weeks ago. It brought a couple of new quests that finished the Liyue questline. Before that, the story would just end midway through after a quest, but now it's complete for the second region. They also added the reputation system with requests and bounties, this wasn't in at launch. Now with patch 1.2, hitting on 23 December, they are adding the Dragonspine region. You can already see it on the map, there's a huge gap between Mondstadt and Liyue where this region will appear. It's on a snowy mountain, you can already see it from afar. I'm really excited for the new content. We'll get more quests, new treasures, perhaps also new 'culus to find. There will also be some cold-meter kinda similar to BOTW, so gameplay in this region will probably feel a bit different here because you constantly need to look for heat sources to keep you warm. Honestly if we keep getting updates like 1.1 and 1.2 every 6-8 weeks, I'll play this for a veeeery long time.
But I actually got one thing wrong about the Dragonspine region. I said it's the third of seven regions, but it's not. It's not part of
the seven nations, which Mondstadt and Liyue are part of. It seems to belong to Mondstadt. Now can you imagine how big the game will be once all 7 nations are in if they are even adding additional regions on the side? The amount of content new players will be able to play in a couple years time will be incredible.
On the gacha, yeah I can admit that it is a tiny bit predatory with the limited banners ("get them now or they are gone forever" basically, though I am sure we will get reoccuring banner's eventually), also pack weight is horrendous, the amount of free gems is also pretty lousy compared to other gachas. But I don't feel bad about spending some money every now and then. I haven't put as many hours into any other game this year, so they definitely deserve some of my money. And yeah, the 4*s they have given out for free on top of free story chars are great. Barbara twice (once limited in the first few weeks, then again for reaching adventure rank 18), Xiangling for reaching stage 3-3 in Spiral Abyss and Fischl in the latest event that dropped with patch 1.1. Fisch especially is a top tier 4* character and Barb is a great healer that you will eventually need in Abyss. We'll potentially get another free character in 1.2, I've read rumours about Sucrose which would be great but we'll see.
Ah you play on PS4. I'm hoping that one day they will also open up cross progression with the other platforms there, would love to sometimes play on the big screen without connecting my PC to my TV with a long ass cable. It looks very good on mobile, I'm really impressed by it. Performance is a bit iffy. I have a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and feel like 60 FPS should be doable, but I can't get it stable even at lower settings. I have the weaker Exynos CPU variant and in general Android performance isn't the best from what I've heard, so I imagine it plays better on a recent iPhone. But it's still fine on medium settings at 30 FPS on my phone. It does draw a lot of battery, but I only play short bursts to do my daily commissions or farm some ore. I'm not great with touch controls and couldn't imagine beating some of the later Abyss stages on my phone haha. I'm just happy I can claim my daily commissions / Battle Pass stuff on the go if I'm not home for a day or two, very convenient.
