without breaking

i love genshin. i actively discourage my friends from getting into it. the world is beautiful and expansive and extremely fun to explore. seeing the whole map is overwhelming. the story is engaging and the lore is rich and deep and scattered throughout the world and built up through quests. the lore is also incomprehensible to the casual audience. some of my favorite characters and the most compelling backstories ive seen exist in this game. theyre locked behind thousands of lines of text or limited events or, most egregiously, pages of notes hidden around a region with no in-game guide to finding them all. the combat system is fun to learn and work with and around and you can build so many creative teams and play whoever you want. the meta has nosedived into gimmicky mechanics and outright shills for new characters. new characters are fun and exciting and learning their kits and building them is an enjoyable part of the game. the gacha mechanic is predatory and aspects of it are unforgiving-- god forbid you ever pull for a four star. there's a built in card game and home design simulator and rhythm game and ucg. these things cannot be removed if you have no interest in them. the writing covers themes of war and guilt and power struggles and justice and fate and family and passing the torch to the next generation; who deserves the right to knowledge; what does it mean to be a human or a god. the plot is unfocused and bloated with filler and so far removed from the original objective of finding your family after losing them. this game has something good for everyone. this game will drive everyone crazy in its own way. the game is free to play. the mental barrier to entry is so high. i love playing but i hate feeling like i'm being held hostage. it's so good and bad. i play it every day and i think no one should get into it.

i think we as a society need to start accepting that fictional love stories need to be a bit toxic for us to go insane over them… like, sometimes you kinda need the two parties to be obsessed with each other and fucked up and willing to bring each other back from the dead instead of moving on and go to therapy i’m sorry😔

You deserve love now. Not once you lose weight. Not once you accomplish that thing. Not once you move. Not once you get on medication. Not once you start therapy. Not once you get that job. Not once you're more like them. Now. You don't have to earn the right to be loved. You deserve it right now, and always have.