Nod Krai’s release had come with high expectations from many travelers of Genshin Impact. It has been released for a few weeks now, and it seems to have met expectations for a lot of people. 

The release of Nod Krai has definitely spurred a lot of travelers to return to the game, myself included. The game had been on the back burner for me for several months. A part of it was trying to not burn myself out of the game, but another part of it was my lack of interest in what was happening in the game. 

I still loved the game, but I didn’t find myself enjoying it as much. The release of Nod Krai changed this.

Now, I had already been pretty excited with the release of trailers for Nod Krai. But, to be fair, I had similar expectations of Natlan and found myself a bit let down. After playing through the main Archon Quest and exploring the region, my expectations have been met. 

I took my time with the region, exploring and doing World Quests as I went through the Archon Quest. By the time I was done with the first act of the Archon Quest, I had 80% exploration done for two of the islands. By the end of the second act, I had at least 70% for all the islands. 

A huge problem I had with Natlan was traversing the nation. Although the dragons definitely helped, it still felt clunky to me at times. I wasn’t that interested in pulling for characters either, so I was left to my usual exploration teams to traverse the nation. But, the nation was meant to be discovered using Natlan characters, so the exploration became more tedious than anything. 

Nod Krai doesn’t have that issue. Even though Lauma has a travelling ability to make it a bit faster, it’s not needed to the same extent Natlan needed its characters. In fact, I rarely, if ever, use Lauma’s deer form to sprint through the nation, finding that it has its own clunkiness that makes it more of a nuisance at times. I simply spent time going back and forth on foot, gliding around to explore the island and had no trouble with that. 

Exploration is one of my favorite things to do in Genshin Impact, so I was very happy with the results. I especially loved all the little puzzles around with a smaller number of challenge domains to complete. Although I do like the challenges, it started to dominate in exploration over the puzzles. I’m a much bigger fan of little puzzles that are naturally integrated in the world. It feels a lot more immersive compared to the challenge domains. 

The Archon Quest itself was amazing. It rarely dawdled. Moments that seemed more trivial in the quest foreshadowed future events. It had a nice mix of focusing on the traveler’s aspiration to find their sister as well as learning about the characters in Nod Krai. The new system of implementing the Character Story Quests into the main Archon Quest was well done in my opinion. It really allowed for characters to shine in certain moments and reveal more about their characters. I heard plenty of people who hadn’t liked Jahoda’s character as much compared to others in the Nod Krai trailer. However, the Archon Quest endeared her to a lot of travelers. 

It feels like a lived-in world again. It’s not simply a game I’m playing for the story where I’m only going to places to finish a quest line or seeing characters in high-tense situations and disasters. Instead, the Archon Quest showed off how these characters live in the world, some of their daily habits, and the effects the events of the quest diverted their lives. 

I barely remember the Liyue that existed while Rex Lapis was alive and leading the people. Most of it is formed by mythology and old stories of what the world was like since Rex Lapis died so early in the story line. But Nod Krai, I lived in the world before the Wild Hunt’s attack took a sudden turn and lived through the effects of this change. 

The traveler no longer feels like an outsider to the world for as much as in the story they very much are considered an outsider to Teyvet. 

Those are just a few things that I love about Nod Krai so far, and I hope that this continues throughout the rest of the region’s story. Nod Krai has been a great experience, one that makes me feel like I’ve returned to the first year of Genshin Impact, finding every nook and cranny exciting to explore. 

How has Nod Krai been for you? Are you enjoying the new region or do you have things you wish the developers improved on? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below or in our Boss Rush Discord!

Featured Image Source: HoYoverse

Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast about Video Games

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