Genshin AQ vs HSR Amphoreus story
Jan. 20th, 2026 01:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoThis past long weekend, I did the Natlan archon quest and got started on the Nod-Krai arc, which I plan to hopefully finish next weekend. This will bring me completely up to date, at least with regards to the main storyline patches.
It's a little bit faster than I originally planned to go, actually. Since Sumeru, I have stopped doing world quests, and post-Fontaine, I also haven't done the 5 star character story quests. This does mean I will lose some of the first hand background lore context, but I feel like it's made up by the fact that I do frequent the lore reddit and CN forums, and already familiar with the most important lore aspects.
Anyway, back to the intent of this post. Before playing the Natlan arc, I didn't have much high hopes for the story, because the general sentiment I got online regarding Natlan was...derogatory. But actually playing through, I found that I personally rather enjoyed this story (a very typical 爽文 plot line, but with just enough darkgrim bits to balance). Then during the climaxes of Act IV and Act V, the thought suddenly came to me: Is this what Amphoreus should have been?
The contrast is startling. Natlan Act IV made a special mechanic to *show* the player what war against the Abyss felt like. The increasing amount of dead bodies and valiant (and senseless) sacrifices were everywhere you looked. The steadily increasing death count on the map display, the dwindling number of teleport-capable outposts, coupled with the very well done music score, created a very intense feeling of suspense and urgency. Then in Act V, when the player and the Pyro Archon showdown with the end boss, we got everyone from previous acts showing up in spirit (often literally), offering their hotblooded slogans of encouragement, and steadily driving up the anticipation of the final fight. It gives the feeling, from a player perspective, that we honestly won because of the unity of everyone: past and present, living and dead, human and saurian, Natlan and foreign.
Now compare to HSR's Amphoreus arc: We got some out-of-game trailers and a few in-game dialogue showing factions from across the cosmos showing up to the Irontomb boss fight...and that's it. They may as well not show up for all the impact they had on the fight. The feeling I got was that they were only there to showcase the destruction Irontomb could unleash at the point of its completion. Or for that matter, we spent 6-7 patches introducing a dozen 5 star banner characters for Amphoreus, and it was inspiring when they united to support the Player...the first time. But no, then we go back to the drawing board, they unite to support the Player...the second time. But no, then we go back to the drawing board again... at the point of the *final* final fight, these characters showing up to chant their slogan and offer encouragement felt half like satire. And *even then*, did their encouragement actually do anything? It doesn't feel like it when the story tells you Irontomb actually succeeds in destroying the Cosmos, and then it's Cyrene who uses the power of Remembrance to just...bring everything back from savefile.
(-_-)
At that point, my thoughts wandered. Amphoreus doesn't feel anything at all like Natlan. But rather, I think people hoped that the Amphoreus story would be like Natlan, but because it wasn't, hopes were dashed, expectations weren't met, etc. etc. So if it's not *actually* like Natlan, could its corresponding Genshin storyline be more like... Fontaine's?
There is also some similarity there, when I started looking for it. Fontaine's story is the culmination of a calamitous prophecy that many parties are scrambling to try and resolve. But no matter what desperate methods were used, none of it worked, and often instead pushed the events of the prophecy on. In the end, it is the silent and unrecognized self-sacrifice of the Hydro Archon which saves this nation and its people. In this arc, the player doesn't actually contribute all that much to the overall world saving plot, serving only as a witness (and even then only partial witness, since we were not privy to Focalor's revelations to Neuvillete concerning her full plans).
In that respect, there's an obvious correlation with Cyrene. No matter how the other characters of Amphoreus struggle, they ultimately can't do much from inside the Simulation that is their world, or the mechanic of looping time. The player is hailed as a savior, but when looking back, honestly didn't do much but get pushed along rails by the efforts of others. In the end, its again the silent and unrecognized self-sacrifice of Cyrene which saves not just Amphoreus, but the whole cosmos. And to that as well, the player is not even a first hand observer, not being at the scene of her climatic decision.
But if that's the comparison to make, why is the reception different? Fontaine is hailed by a lot of the Genshin fandom as the pinnacle of story writing (though personally I think it's good but not *that* good). Whereas, Amphoreus's reception after the ending is...mixed? Some of the reason could be placed on length and pacing of course. I've seen a lot of sentiments where if Amphoreus ended on the 3.4 patch it would've been great, but continuing on ruined the victory of each "minor" climax until the real ending barely elicited much suspense anymore.
What about the "female lead" of the arc? Furina is the undisputed fan favorite character of Genshin, both CN and global. Cyrene...is often derogatorily called the result of devs fanboying of Impact3rd. Is it because the saving of Fontaine doesn't feel like other people contributed all that much (because a lot of other efforts were hidden in quests and object texts), whereas Amphoreus gave focus to all of the other Amphoreus heroes all of whose efforts at saving the world feel like was invalidated by the ending? Is it because Furina still had her main human-like self remaining, thus allowing players to continue interacting with her and woobifying her, whereas Cyrene isn't around anymore in any form and thus feels like she's got no future in the game?
Or perhaps, we can also turn eyes over to Natlan again, and the audience reception of Mauvika, who I see often disliked as being a "mary sue" character, and...is also visually an expy of Impact3rd popular character. So then, is being an expy in and of itself the problem then? (But that doesn't explain the automatic popularity of Raiden Ei...)
Eh. I don't actually hold with a lot of these fandom sentiments myself (especially on the Genshin side), so I can't really offer any conclusion. But the parallels of these story arcs just stood out to me at the moment, and I felt like I needed to jot things down. For future retrospectives, if nothing else.
Once I am done with the Nod-Krai arc, I might write up a revised ranking of nation-arcs at that point, since it's changed a bit since last I thought about it. Though I might also complete the character story quests first before doing so, in order to be more fair to the later arcs, which I admit to having rushed just a teeny bit.
...Not planning to finish all the world quest chains before writing my next analysis though. That would take way too much time. But it should be fine. Though I did some of Inazuma & Sumerus's world quest chains, I didn't finish either. Because they were just so gosh darn many/long. =P
It's a little bit faster than I originally planned to go, actually. Since Sumeru, I have stopped doing world quests, and post-Fontaine, I also haven't done the 5 star character story quests. This does mean I will lose some of the first hand background lore context, but I feel like it's made up by the fact that I do frequent the lore reddit and CN forums, and already familiar with the most important lore aspects.
Anyway, back to the intent of this post. Before playing the Natlan arc, I didn't have much high hopes for the story, because the general sentiment I got online regarding Natlan was...derogatory. But actually playing through, I found that I personally rather enjoyed this story (a very typical 爽文 plot line, but with just enough darkgrim bits to balance). Then during the climaxes of Act IV and Act V, the thought suddenly came to me: Is this what Amphoreus should have been?
The contrast is startling. Natlan Act IV made a special mechanic to *show* the player what war against the Abyss felt like. The increasing amount of dead bodies and valiant (and senseless) sacrifices were everywhere you looked. The steadily increasing death count on the map display, the dwindling number of teleport-capable outposts, coupled with the very well done music score, created a very intense feeling of suspense and urgency. Then in Act V, when the player and the Pyro Archon showdown with the end boss, we got everyone from previous acts showing up in spirit (often literally), offering their hotblooded slogans of encouragement, and steadily driving up the anticipation of the final fight. It gives the feeling, from a player perspective, that we honestly won because of the unity of everyone: past and present, living and dead, human and saurian, Natlan and foreign.
Now compare to HSR's Amphoreus arc: We got some out-of-game trailers and a few in-game dialogue showing factions from across the cosmos showing up to the Irontomb boss fight...and that's it. They may as well not show up for all the impact they had on the fight. The feeling I got was that they were only there to showcase the destruction Irontomb could unleash at the point of its completion. Or for that matter, we spent 6-7 patches introducing a dozen 5 star banner characters for Amphoreus, and it was inspiring when they united to support the Player...the first time. But no, then we go back to the drawing board, they unite to support the Player...the second time. But no, then we go back to the drawing board again... at the point of the *final* final fight, these characters showing up to chant their slogan and offer encouragement felt half like satire. And *even then*, did their encouragement actually do anything? It doesn't feel like it when the story tells you Irontomb actually succeeds in destroying the Cosmos, and then it's Cyrene who uses the power of Remembrance to just...bring everything back from savefile.
(-_-)
At that point, my thoughts wandered. Amphoreus doesn't feel anything at all like Natlan. But rather, I think people hoped that the Amphoreus story would be like Natlan, but because it wasn't, hopes were dashed, expectations weren't met, etc. etc. So if it's not *actually* like Natlan, could its corresponding Genshin storyline be more like... Fontaine's?
There is also some similarity there, when I started looking for it. Fontaine's story is the culmination of a calamitous prophecy that many parties are scrambling to try and resolve. But no matter what desperate methods were used, none of it worked, and often instead pushed the events of the prophecy on. In the end, it is the silent and unrecognized self-sacrifice of the Hydro Archon which saves this nation and its people. In this arc, the player doesn't actually contribute all that much to the overall world saving plot, serving only as a witness (and even then only partial witness, since we were not privy to Focalor's revelations to Neuvillete concerning her full plans).
In that respect, there's an obvious correlation with Cyrene. No matter how the other characters of Amphoreus struggle, they ultimately can't do much from inside the Simulation that is their world, or the mechanic of looping time. The player is hailed as a savior, but when looking back, honestly didn't do much but get pushed along rails by the efforts of others. In the end, its again the silent and unrecognized self-sacrifice of Cyrene which saves not just Amphoreus, but the whole cosmos. And to that as well, the player is not even a first hand observer, not being at the scene of her climatic decision.
But if that's the comparison to make, why is the reception different? Fontaine is hailed by a lot of the Genshin fandom as the pinnacle of story writing (though personally I think it's good but not *that* good). Whereas, Amphoreus's reception after the ending is...mixed? Some of the reason could be placed on length and pacing of course. I've seen a lot of sentiments where if Amphoreus ended on the 3.4 patch it would've been great, but continuing on ruined the victory of each "minor" climax until the real ending barely elicited much suspense anymore.
What about the "female lead" of the arc? Furina is the undisputed fan favorite character of Genshin, both CN and global. Cyrene...is often derogatorily called the result of devs fanboying of Impact3rd. Is it because the saving of Fontaine doesn't feel like other people contributed all that much (because a lot of other efforts were hidden in quests and object texts), whereas Amphoreus gave focus to all of the other Amphoreus heroes all of whose efforts at saving the world feel like was invalidated by the ending? Is it because Furina still had her main human-like self remaining, thus allowing players to continue interacting with her and woobifying her, whereas Cyrene isn't around anymore in any form and thus feels like she's got no future in the game?
Or perhaps, we can also turn eyes over to Natlan again, and the audience reception of Mauvika, who I see often disliked as being a "mary sue" character, and...is also visually an expy of Impact3rd popular character. So then, is being an expy in and of itself the problem then? (But that doesn't explain the automatic popularity of Raiden Ei...)
Eh. I don't actually hold with a lot of these fandom sentiments myself (especially on the Genshin side), so I can't really offer any conclusion. But the parallels of these story arcs just stood out to me at the moment, and I felt like I needed to jot things down. For future retrospectives, if nothing else.
Once I am done with the Nod-Krai arc, I might write up a revised ranking of nation-arcs at that point, since it's changed a bit since last I thought about it. Though I might also complete the character story quests first before doing so, in order to be more fair to the later arcs, which I admit to having rushed just a teeny bit.
...Not planning to finish all the world quest chains before writing my next analysis though. That would take way too much time. But it should be fine. Though I did some of Inazuma & Sumerus's world quest chains, I didn't finish either. Because they were just so gosh darn many/long. =P
