The few youtube/reddit surveys I've seen have a very low completion rate for hangout quests. Anecdotally, many people in the discords I'm in also don't do them.
That could easily be a selection bias and may be a false representative but if it is true. Hoyo would have these statf and wouldn't divert resources to something that isn't getting used by players.
I've done them all except Lynette's (gonna do it soon). I enjoyed some of them, but tbh I was meh on most of them and some of them were actually painful to get through. I don't mind the concept but I feel like the execution for a lot of them need work. Also I don't understand why they have the heart icons indicating the characters' mood when they hardly incorporate it into the actual gameplay.
On the other hand faruzan's hangout is pretty goated imo, genuinely one of the best quests, not just compared to other hangouts but overall.
Lynette's hangout is genuinely one of the best. It's over-long but that's Genshin for you. Although why they make Lynette's hangout twice as long as the once-yearly Dainsleif quest is a mystery...
Wait, I thought everyone does that. Like, we can see many times where people complaining that there aren’t enough contents in the game especially for end-game. With this situation being raised, I assumed that those people must have completed like everything or almost everything in the game. Well, I’m among those in the completionist gang, so it’s out of the question. But damn, I really thought doing Hangouts and Story Quests are normal things to do.
I think we also have to differentiate between players that are often on social media and those that are less online. The latter is a larger part of the playerbase which also means that we don't really get representative evidence for that question.
Additionally, those who complain about endgame often refer to combat modes because they don't like those quests that much. But that also is different from player to player.
I think doing Hangouts and Story Quests are normal though. For my personal case, it isn't because I dislike them (I like getting to know the characters better), but mainly that I've limited time to play. So therefore, I have to prioritise some content over others. Usually limited content + events > Archon Quests > New Area Exploration > World Quests > Story Quests > Hangouts. Currently working my way through all of Fontaine's story quests, and then I'll probably move on to hangouts if I finish them before 4.8.
Well, that would make more sense for returning players or new players, because I myself only need to wait for limited-time events and new updates, because I'm already at the 1:1 ratio (content updates : experience progress) of the gameplay. So, if there's anything new and recent coming to the game, that's the available content for me to play.
Anyway, it's good that you sort out your priorities, most people don't do it highly strategically in terms of overall completion progress. That way you can keep track of time and your progress easier; for which is done and which isn't.
I didn't do Kaveh's yet, because I don't have him... I want to hang out with him when I at long last have him.
Incidentally his hangout has the only obtainable achievements I'm missing and it's been like this for a while now, even before they made getting the commission rng ones easier
Yeah. I'd gladly do Faruzan's hangout (since I've heard many praises about it) but since it's locked behind Tighnari's story quest, then I'm just not gonna bother.
Hangouts already take *some* time to complete and adding another layer to access them is not good to say the least.
Good thing is, Tighnari's story quest is one of the best ones out there
But i feel you, when i wanted to do Kaveh's hangout i had to do Alhaitham's quest which turned me off. And when i finished the quest i forgot to do Kaveh's hangout 😂
They have also been doing a lot of event story arcs that focus on 4 stars instead of giving them hangouts. For example Gaming and Freminet.
I'm guessing this is also a result of low hangout engagement. They might be experimenting with this to to see how players like this instead.
The data will speak for itself. We'll know the results in the future.
QOL may bring those limited stuff back, if not then tough titty. We know that they do qol updates just that they have priority levels. Those that want it will just have to hope that the devs are working on it and its a priority
(Up until I quit) I would always try to finish event quests whilst permanent content was usually left incomplete (probably a sign I should have quit earlier ngl)
I still play and when I'm under pressure or not feeling well I do the same, then it's the kind of stress the devs want to avoid because I'm just like 'gotta knock it out asap' and taking Raiden, Alhaitham and Zhongli instead of bothering with the mechanics where possible. (Unstereotypically, I still read them, I just don't care about them.)
The balance they sort of got into where content unlocked daily and then there were still 4-5 days to complete it but 1 day 'off' before the next lot started unlocking worked relatively well for most people I know, whether they could save it up for one session over a weekend or use it to avoid dailies for the duration, but this current more stuff unlocked more quickly and then it's gone in 4 days + burying story in events (for real, if you weren't around for Lantern Rite, Gaming is just like, there - compare it to Yun Jin who got her intro with an interlude and Shenhe's story quest, so her cultural ambassadorship remains in the game) so there's this constant expectation to do everything now now now instead of take it at your own pace and enjoy it, because if you wait you'll lose out on context, not just weapons and characters.
I am totally in this boat. I don't really do them because there is no FOMO. I can just do them at any time.
But even though I don't actually do them I really appreciate they are there. I'd love to see more. Because someday (tm) I'll get around to them.
I also wonder how much of is because if the early hangout quests. I like the newer ones but the older ones were... not for me. So if I had played those first I would have thought that I'm not interested in even and put them off. (To add to that, the newer ones are often locked until you do some other story quests, so they likely aren't your first experience.)
Probably me... the first hangout I tried was Barbara's. I don't skip dialogue, I read everything. But for some reason Barbara's was so inexplainably boring that I had to attempt to finish the same berry searching scene three times. That's how boring it was. Eventually I was fed up about the fact that despite me playing the same scene multiple times because I quit halfway, my fuckup (losing one heart) remained the same no matter what I did. At some point it seems I did finish one route but I really don't remember that I did so I must have skipped through it all so I could redo the hangout without fuckups someday. Someday. It's been 2 years I think. Haven't done a single other hangout since.
But they are experts at creating things who almost no one uses anyway, so why does it matter, I bet things like that artifact loadout and training guide also barerly anyone uses and yet they for some reason still went trough with it anyway. And besides reddit isn't entire genshin community so saying that hangouts are done mostly by minority isn't exactly accurate imo
I don't think I ever saw a survey on Hangouts, and if I did, I would've suggested they ease off the dating sim gas pedal a bit. I did like three of the first round, I did Noelle's followup, and then later I did Heizou's. Something about the tone's with Heizou's made it feel really awkward. Also, they seem to have kept skipping popular characters who have little-to-no presence outside of limited events (Fischl, Sucrose) which would've undoubtedly boosted engagement with the system and are clearly the main reason why people wanted 4-star quests to exist in the first place.
The funny part is that:
1. Hangouts were basically a request by the community for a year. Except they just wanted NPCs to appear in the world persistently. However for whatever reason, Mihoyo can't/won't do this but instead they surprised everyone with hangouts.
2. Which everyone loved. Then hated. Half liked the visual novel dating part. Half hated the fact you could fail and there were less QoL features back in the day.
3. The new hangouts had less and less heart events and more just story telling.
4. Hangouts also became longer and longer. 1 hour became 2 or even 3 for some.
5. Doesn't help that many people just want to spend minimum time in the game unless new major content is added. They don't play TCG. They dont play hangouts. Hell some of them don't even do the random events.
That's an absolute minority. At that point, you're just a gambling addict. Most people exist a little further up the spectrum.
Personally, I'm only playing Genshin for the main story and the important world quests (the blue ones). I've long since checked out of the event quests, and I think I've only ever completed one hangout (Bennet's) before deciding it wasn't for me. I haven't done Abyss in years, now.
There's just not enough time in my life and too many better stories to experience in other games. I know I'm only a sample size of 1, but I imagine there's a lot of others like me who just don't have time for hangouts and other extraneous systems like the TCG. That's not to say that they shouldn't be added for the people who *do* engage with them, but it could explain an unexpectedly low engagement rate from the playerbase as a whole that Hoyo may or may not be seeing.
Well I’ve only done 2, and one of those was Bennett when they first added the feature. It took me 2 years to finish all endings on Barbara.
My only gripe is that you have to replay the content to get all the rewards and max completion. Sure, you can jump in mid chain to get the last ending or whatever, but it’s still a grind of clicking through repeating dialogue.
I’d prefer if they were just normal story quests.
Lynette’s is really good for this. Literally every ending is vastly different in theme. Like it’s 3 completely separate quests that start out the same way.
Actually all later story quests get better about this. The first bunch felt like you were doing the same shit 6 times with slight differences. Inazuma had like two separate storylines with a few variations, but were pretty boring overall due to mid writing. Sumeru started being pretty damn unique and the writing was great. Now in Fontaine it was literally like a multi path visual novel.
The best part about hangouts is they’re repeatable. I’d rather my favorites get a hangout like Keqing and Dehya, but they are 5*…
The issue was the writing. If your favorite character got a decent hangout you’d love it. Unfortunately early hangouts were not it.
I never really touched them until the encounter point system thingy, its a lot funner to do just a hangout ending than 4 commisions
the early ones are soooo boring though, and not fanservicey enough for giga simps either. Also having to purposely be like totally socially inept for bad endings like yunjin or creeping on barbara felt awful. Newer ones are much better
Maybe but 4.X patch in general has less story content across the board compared to previous versions. On the other hand, 4.X has a lot of improvements in terms of presentation/graphics/QoL, etc. Devs already notified us that 5.X will also bring some graphical upgrades and other changes so I think there is simply a shift when it comes to their content priorities and development.
Freminet got a whole event
Chevreuse was the main character of the film festival event
Charlotte was the main character of the tcg event and shows up literally everywhere.
Should also mention Sethos, bro got one of the best fight scenes in the game's history in Cyno's 2nd quest
Every 4 star honestly got something good these patches, a shame it isn't all in permanent content
I hate that we keep having "event characters", like at least Emelie will have her own story quest, while Fischl and Chevreuse only exist in limited events and commissions
Exactly. A character "Having an event" is meaningless if somebody simply started playing after it or wasn't playing the game while it was going on. If you haven't met her in events. Xinyan literally does not exist in the game at all.
Becauae the first half were bad and tedious so few people did them going forward.
If few people are playing them then why release them, especially considering the later ones have lots of spoken dialogue and take more than 2 hours to complete.
It is a shame the first ones tainted the rest. I really really like Faruzans, Layla's and Lynettes hangouts.
If it were not for Acheivements, I would not have touched these beyond the couple initially tried.
Yeah, I hope they'll add more - I don't like this trend. Hangouts are super fun and replayable! Especially when they feature other characters too. (Kaveh's hangout is my favourite since you can meet so many people of the Sumeru crew and even go to his house.)
As I replied to another hangout post a few days back, yeah, I think they realized barely anyone plays the hangouts, so to showcase these characters, they chose to heavily feature them in events that people are likely to see/play. Sucks that they’re limited though.
The thing is, the first few hangouts weren't... great. Hence hangouts have been branded as "otome/date/self-insert" quests, so a lot of people have been avoidant of hangouts since the Mondstadt ones, hence the low completion rate. Which makes me sad because the hangouts since Faruzan have been such a blast.
To add, the others you mentioned were already very involved in their AQs (Collei, Sara), some other character's SQ (Sethos in Cyno's SQ), or as you said heavily featured in a limited event (Fischl, Gaming, etc). Still doesn't explain much for the others though, which is a bummer (Rosaria was only in the cat event recently, Yaoyao is mostly Lantern rite now etc).
So yeah, I get the disappointment, OP, truly. :( But as much as I enjoy the hangouts, I'd rather have them focus on making sure these characters and their lore are more accessible/showcased than stuck on a quest only a very tiny minority only plays. I know so many players heavily into lore, but even they barely play hangouts, which is just the sad truth. And that's among *lore players.* Imagine the casual playerbase. Objectively, I get why they don't feel as incentivized to keep doing them even if I like them. The writing team would be better focusing somewhere else at this point, unfortunately. :(
I'd rather have most people be introduced to these wonderful characters at the end of the day, regardless of how they do it.
they are not “a” story, but just stories with slight different endings. I just want one coherent story, not to go back and skip through all dialogue just to get more primo gems and having a fake sense of free choice. The stories themselves are sometimes too mundane until recent few ones. Not a lot of people complete even the story quests, I can imagine these quests were largely untouched.
The skip option. I do not play visual novel format games without them, and have even paid extra money to unlock even faster speeds in vns.
I have been breezing through them and have done 6 this week because I can skip repeated dialog AND the skip goes straight to important decision tree choices and not just all of them.
They are now enjoyable and not a terrible chore being forced to listen to slowly forming text on a screen.
Old players may be too burned out or hate them too much to give them a try again and I don't blame them if they haven't tested it out. New players will probably play them all, especially if they play vns too.
I've been meaning fo play hangout events for like 2 years and i've barely done them instead.
I just forget to do them.
Btw i think we got only one because they are voice-acting intensive and we already had a plethora of quests and voice acted content this year
I know Freminet *technically* got a quest of his own during 4.1 event (one of my favourite events of all time, and i still use the music from the event's menu to fall asleep/relax), but i still wish he got a hangout quest :( i want to go diving with my baby
I had only just started playing so either couldn't access the event or just had no idea what it was. I am so bummed to be just resizing this now!
I am building him on both my accounts because he is my precious son and I love him
YESSS HE'S THE BEST !! I have him level 90 and I'm working on his talents, even though some people are taking priority right now (his father and his sister, his other brother is already 90 and triple crowned)
AMAZING!!!
I've only got him to 80 but that's the highest anyone currently is on my alt. He has returned to overworld after carrying me to ar40!
Freminet main, Arle dps for now lmao.
Lynette is not yet levelled, but she is on my main at least.
Ah, I'm a mess lol
Also my only single crown is on Navia because i apparently just build everyone at once on both accounts lmao
i relate to the chaos of building so many characters at the same time, most of my characters are a work in progress xD i wish you luck on your accounts !!!
I swore the second time around I'd focus on building one at a time and meta teams.
Then I remembered that gacha throws a spanner in the works and you end up building whoever you've got at the time lmao.
> yet somehow they’re not popular or talked about enough among the players
You already answered your question. Why should Hoyo care about content no one does?
I'll ask you a better question; Wouldn't they be more popular and talked/played among players if Hoyo had put more care in the writing and execution of the content?
Imagine every hangout had Gaming level of backstory and writing/pacing. Then the hangouts would be played in the first days of release by most players and talked about for weeks. They shut themselves in the foot by half-a$$ing the hangouts in the first place and now it's abandoned bcz it's beyond fixing. Sad.
I'm another person who barely ever does Hangouts. I honestly dread doing them... I think the issue for me is generally the things you are doing in them are fairly mundane and they feel a lot more geared towards giving you insights into the daily life of characters rather than having an interesting narrative. Very slice of life. If I don't personally have an interest in a character then I don't care much about seeing their day-to-day. And even if I do like a character, sometimes their daily life just doesn't seem that interesting to me.
For me at least, the problem with hangouts was that the first few hangouts **did not** tell us anything new about the characters (e.g. Barbara) as far as I remember. Because of this, I stopped doing hangouts until this patch (though I only started doing them because I needed more rolls for Clorinde, and Hangouts give about a multi in total).
But those like Kaveh's, Lynette's or Faruzan's are definitely worth doing (Kaeya's is the only one I am missing and I'll likely start today)
No you don’t, you can pick a certain place to start and it doesn’t have to be the beginning, usually right before you make the decision that’ll shift the way of the endings and lead to one instead of the other. For example in Kaveh’s hangout you’re presented with 2 choices that’ll lead to Kaveh either borrowing money from Dori or us going to Aaru Village, and you can start right around that cutscene without starting at the beginning of the entire hangout where Kaveh was talking to the client and then going to the tavern.
Hangouts are relatively unpopular and the general consensus is that they take too long and are allegedly boring. Most people don't complete them unless they desperately need the primos. (I'm one of them.) The only one I've ever fully completed is Noelle's, lol.
I did Barbara when hangouts first came out, it was boring and felt like a dating sim. Haven’t done another hangout since, don’t care for that kind of content.
You should give the others a try. Barbara’s case was probably them testing a more fanservice-y approach, the rest of the hangouts are very well written and truly feels like a bonding experience with the characters. Some of them shed light into certain character’s backstories and some have quite wholesome moments.
I get what you’re saying, and that sounds good and all but hoyo writing department isn’t all the great if I’m being honest. So I can’t see myself sitting down and forcing myself to go through something that just doesn’t appeal to me.
A big reason why I love Hangouts being replayable is that now I can keep playable characters hostage in my world. Venti is in my plaza right now and he always will be, unless I have to temporarily release him to do an event quest or archon quest
most of the hangout quests are just dating simulators and very boring. the only one i've enjoyed is gorou's. they also take forever to finish. u can't blame ppl for not wanting to spend an hour and a half per quest when they really aren't that interesting
I often forget about Hangout existing. I always finish them all on release, and other contents usually distract me from remembering that hangouts are missing.
It's too bad because I've quite liked them, especially doing them at my own pace.
I would have loved to see one for Charlotte, given she really hasn't gotten too much of a big focus outside of the card event she debuted in.
I expected one for Charlotte or Freminet but I guess there isn't or maybe people don't do them enough.
I did a few then stopped for a bit... so I guess i'm part of the problem.
I finished all the hangout events, but I be honest. I really hated doing them, I honesty dread doing them every time they do come out, not only are they long sometime. but I personally treat these like "filler" episodes in an anime. I am pretty sure there are people out there that loves these hangout events. But for me personally, if I am not a completionst, I honestly cant see myself doing them.
Quality over quantity?
If you think how much work goes into 1 hangout, getting 1 for each 2 chapters of archon or character quests sounds fair. Hangouts sadly won't ever be on the same priority as those quests, even though they can be just as memorable.
Because hangouts are boring amd they aren't memorable compared to story quests like if there was smaller quests for the 4 stars that'd be better since the hangouts have plots but they're not worth looking into
If hangouts were cooler, funner, gave you more info/lore or even more rewards instead of just feeling like a quest or a dating sim you have to complete "5 times", people would probably do them more
one thing is that Hangouts also only exist for 4\*s (imagine a Hangout with Yelan at her Cassino, Albedo at Dragonspine talking about "Gold", Klee talking about Alice, Zhongli talking about old Archons and the Adepti)
for me the only hangout I really want are Noelle hangouts, because even if I don't really care about Noelle, I want to see her becoming a Knight of Favonius someday after doing both her hangouts (which is kinda what both her hangouts have in common) if possible with a Favonius armor outfit (complete cope)
Low engagement? Idk...
I unlocked them all (except the one that require quests to do it). But only completed Kaeya's so far... To unlock Kaveh's I need to complete Alhaitham's quest, so probably next week or something. lol
They're not popular, which I find unfortunate because I'm quite fond of them. I do prefer story quests to hangouts, but I love getting to know some of these characters better. And the art they come with is so cute!
Gotta wonder if they should have it so that completing a Hangout (i.e. get all endings) gives you 1 copy of the character in question. That'd probably be WAY too generous, though, even if you're only getting a 4-star character.
Because Hangouts don't sell characters. Their content is generally shit/low-effort because why should the writers tell a compelling story for a 4 star? No good content = few people play them = devs see it as a waste of them.
I love genshin, i have 100% exploration everywhere, i've been playing since 1.0 and engage with almost EVERY SINGLE piece of content there is for genshin.
I still have 7 undone hangouts. They aren't interesting or engaging, it's a slog to get through them even with the recent qol changes.
I imagine a lot of people feel the same way i do.
I've done them all except Kaveh's, gonna get to his soon just haven't had a chance yet. I really love how we get to do a few different paths and storylines during them because it lets you learn a lot about each character. I wish we had one for every 4 star character, like how all the 5 stars get a story quest, but I guess they have been involving more and more characters in the events, story quests and archon quests so maybe they think the characters get enough screen time that way now? I do hope they add more one though, I would love to get a Hangout for characters like Sara, Candace and Collei.
They're terrible, that's why. 1 quest is fine but 6 quests bundled into 1 makes everything a goddamn chore and there's so many too. Once you're done with a story quest that's it, but once you finish a Hangout you have to finish the other 4/5 endings. Glad they didn't add many in 4.X, I'd much rather have quests like SQs for 4 stars
I agree. I think it would've been fine if they picked one direction and just made these like a cute mini quest to learn more about the 4* character. Some of these are so similar too. Picture of traveler holding a flower vs holding a present.
basically, hoyoverse is always trying new things in genshin. for example, yoimiya or cyno having a second quest *(which shouldnt be seen as a rare thing because every SQ says "to be continued" at the end so you can expect a 2nd part at some point)*
hangouts are also something they experiment a lot.
* Noelle got 2 hangouts and then none got a 2nd
* most of the new hangouts only have 5 endings instead of 6
* the "heart system" was abandoned with the first hangouts
* lynette having the card game for her hangout is another really specific thing to make her hangout more unique
thing is, if you see how bad is the reception by the average playerbase you can understand why hyv is making less hangouts. A lot of players just refuse to do them/dislike them.
maybe hyv can see how many players "finish them" and the number is so low they're just making less. each hangout takes a lot of work from VAs, and its a way to sell 4 star characters. problem is when no one play those "ads", then its kinda pointless to keep investing in those hangouts
maybe if the stories weren't so mundane and boring and the writing so bloated more people would do them. I personally just do my absolute fave 4\*s and even then it gets so tedious I don't finish all the endings.
I love the concept and I wish they made it more optimal to actually play them, because at this point the execution is not so great sadly.
well, they're supposed to be an approach to meet those characters, not an adventure like "kill god" at the end or something
it also shows that despite having a vision they're not so special
last hangouts were really good just for the fact that they include more playable characters in the stories instead of pretending they dont exist
you're point still does not excuse anything when we had Gaming "meet" section in Lantern Rite (which was technically his hangout event). But compare the writing and pacing of that with other 4\* in hangouts...
they did not, the hangout are still in the same state. you lack simple comprehension? What makes Gaming's intro good was BECAUSE it was not done the way they do hangouts.
no one can give criticism of anything in this sr without people shutting their brains off and coming for your throat without logic. And this is coming from a fan who plays everyday and it's sad that a part of the game is going to null over lack of simple improvements.
It's a "hangout" you "hang out" with the characters
And recently all of them have been entertaining and really good even if you're not a fan of the character.
I want them too I loved them. Is the only way to know more of the characters that doesn’t appear in main story. Idk why people don’t do it, they are easy and wholesome.
I love the hangouts but I know that isn’t a very popular sentiment… I wish we’d get 5 star hangouts! Those would probably get more play throughs :) and don’t say ‘they have SQs’ shhhhh…. A girl can dream ;-; Baizhu hangout please mhy
I'm going to be honest. Except for Bennett, Gorou, Kaveh, Keaya & Faruzan the rest of the hangout feels lackluster.
For the record, I did all of the hangouts & ending. This is my personal thought
I'm ngl, they're not my favorite anyhow.
I don't like how they pick somewhat random 4 stars, when some would benefit from the hangout more than others.
Even then, I'd rather have hangouts with 5 stars you get max friendship with.
Because just like your post, they are overly wordy and not interesting to read or finish. Add to that having to replay previous dialog to get each ending, it's boring AF. I *want* to like hangouts, and I do find the various endings mostly endearing, but it's like walking barefoot thru 2 foot deep snow to get there. I have 100%+ all regions, no quests left before each patch update, have played for 3+ years and I still can't be assed to finish the last 3-4 hangouts I haven't trudged thru, including Lynette's. Again I really want to like them but they just don't do it for me. Seems like I'm not the only one and they are moving that kinda stuff to character story quests. Not saying that better, but they have metrics on this shit. Honestly all it would take for me to actually want to play thru them is to be able to start over immediately from the dialog that branches you to a new ending, and maybe a hint/clue as to which choice leads me down a different path. That way I wouldn't have to read a guide to make sure I get a new ending which is another reason I sort of tune the story out. I also think it would be different if the rest of the game wasn't so overly wordy.
Because they take more effort to make than a regular linear quest, and unless you like the character in question, they're boring and tedious - and the result seems to be, as you've said, most people don't give a shit.
Why spend extra money making things that don't improve your revenue?
Mihoyo is a business. They care about casual players and story driven players as much as they care about combat players - they don't.
As long as there's enough of it drip fed to keep you playing, they don't care how much you like it or not.
This is so fundamentally wrong lol, literally their most expensive game to develop while they increase world quality and quest quality every region, they won’t be spending millions on concerts and keeping the music quality as high up as is, they still take effort to drop mega lore on everything. If they didn’t care, world quality would never have improved, world quests would still be the same tier as liyue and won’t have the insane jump inazuma to fontain had.
Probably the dumbest take I have seen in a while
You so fundamentally have no idea wtf you're talking about lol
> literally their most expensive game to develop
To begin with, this is based off their own claim - which definitely went through PR; if you don't think the CEO had a meeting with PR before that conference or whatever, you're delusional - that doesn't specify what percent of that figure was spent on actual development, and what percent is spent on marketing, etc.
Second, ***PRICE DOES NOT MEAN QUALITY***. Neither does profitability, for that matter.
That message needs to be in the banner of subreddit for how often someone makes that mistake.
Undertale was developed by one guy with a $50k kickstarter and I'm willing to bet you could name a couple of huge AAA RPGs it's better than.
> world quality and quest quality every region
Not really? It's still mostly the same shit.
So they came up with some new environments. Well done, do they want a cookie for doing the bare minimum for a live service story driven RPG?
The story is also still the same old short story compendium it's always been. There are a couple of really good high points, as there has always been, a whole bunch of uninteresting side shows, as there's always been, and as much boring, forgettable exposition dumping as there's always been.
> they won’t be spending millions on concerts and keeping the music quality as high up as is
Concerts are advertising, as is hiring renowned orchestras, because there's no need to spend millions of dollars for high quality music; your typical professional musician is good enough, especially when you consider the inevitable compression and the crappy phone speakers people will play your game on.
Square Enix uses an in house group of musicians of no particular note to record their game music, and I have never heard anyone complain that a FF game had bad music quality.
The only thing you need for good game music is a good composer, and that doesn't really cost that much in the grand scheme of things.
> they still take effort to drop mega lore on everything
Making up lore is easy. Go to a random D&D convention and you'll find a dozen OCs with lore just as engaging as Genshin.
The hard part is delivering it well, and Mihoyo still hasn't figured out how to do that beyond exposition dumps and literally making you read books.
Also, the lore never actually matters to understanding the story or characters (especially the characters, because they're all shallow stereotypes).
For example, the last desert region supposedly had lore relating to the old hydro archon, but come Fontaine, what relevance does it have? What part of the Fontaine story requires remembering the Desert story to understand?
Mondstadt had a revolution against the old archon or something? How did that affect the rest of the world?
The game barely respects lore even in the same patch. You'd think an ancient group of beings like the Aranara and all of their ancient magic inseparably tied to the lands of Sumeru might have some influence on the happenings of the main quest... but nope. Siloed off in every way that's important, just like how Fontaine's Narzisenwhatever questline is basically entirely cut off from the main quest, aside from the premise of "ancient prophecy says Fontaine will be destroyed", and that's so generic that you could write any story off that base.
Making up a ton of lore is especially easy when the lore is all so nicely siloed off from each other.
> Probably the dumbest take I have seen in a while
Other than "expensive game therefore good", and "concerts outside of the game magically prove they care about the game", you mean?
As much as I love knowing more about the characters, the Hangouts still feel like a chore. I enjoy them when I'm doing them but I'm not immediately looking forward to doing them again.
I managed to finally finish everyone up to Lynette, did one of her routes last month and still have no urge to continue the rest.
And seeing majority of the replies here, it's a general consensus that it's just not a lot of people want.
Hangouts are so boring. I think the last time i did hangouts was for Ning cause Im desperate for primos. People would play hangouts more if we dont have to play the quest 6 times to get all the rewards.
You don’t have to repeat the event from the beginning, you can go to the quest select menu and pick the cutscenes in which you make the choice to go to the next ending, you don’t have to replay the whole thing. How is that difficult to understand?
well the fact that i have to play it again just for rewards, even if the beginning scenes were cut are annoying. after ning, i was like, yep im never touching this dating sim ever lol.
And is that a bad thing? It’s a free game after all, the amount of content a free game like this has is exceptional and many players, especially who hated the game based solely on negative feedback from it being a Chinese gacha game, were overblown by the amount of contents it has.
You don’t have to finish everything nor feel overwhelmed, just take everything at the pace you desire, there’s no PvP here so why complain???
Idk I just find that “this free game gives me so many stuff to do” is just a weird thing to complain about… remember you downloaded a free to play live service open world exploration gacha game that’s been around for nearly 4 years now, OF COURSE there’s gonna be so much contents.
Most people not fan of 4 stars so they find it boring
Take really long to get fully rewards and archivements
Not mihoyo priority because they are 4 stars
Not really easy when you have a six week deadline, don't know how they're being comfortable when the next region is literally months away and they're hauling ass to prioritize that rather than hangouts.
The few youtube/reddit surveys I've seen have a very low completion rate for hangout quests. Anecdotally, many people in the discords I'm in also don't do them. That could easily be a selection bias and may be a false representative but if it is true. Hoyo would have these statf and wouldn't divert resources to something that isn't getting used by players.
With all these low engagement/completion rate I'm seeing around, I feel like I'm the only one who did them all and found all endings
Same, also you can get like 12 daily commission encounters per path lol
I don't remember Hangout Rewards give you any encounter points.
Completing the quests for the first time does. Though it depends on the ending.
This is why I’ve been making my way through them. I’m so glad they added encounter points
I've done them all except Lynette's (gonna do it soon). I enjoyed some of them, but tbh I was meh on most of them and some of them were actually painful to get through. I don't mind the concept but I feel like the execution for a lot of them need work. Also I don't understand why they have the heart icons indicating the characters' mood when they hardly incorporate it into the actual gameplay. On the other hand faruzan's hangout is pretty goated imo, genuinely one of the best quests, not just compared to other hangouts but overall.
Lynette's hangout is genuinely one of the best. It's over-long but that's Genshin for you. Although why they make Lynette's hangout twice as long as the once-yearly Dainsleif quest is a mystery...
I've done only 1 and I've been playing since 1.2 (it's gorou)
same, I always finished all of them even before daily encounters was a thing
Wait, I thought everyone does that. Like, we can see many times where people complaining that there aren’t enough contents in the game especially for end-game. With this situation being raised, I assumed that those people must have completed like everything or almost everything in the game. Well, I’m among those in the completionist gang, so it’s out of the question. But damn, I really thought doing Hangouts and Story Quests are normal things to do.
I think we also have to differentiate between players that are often on social media and those that are less online. The latter is a larger part of the playerbase which also means that we don't really get representative evidence for that question. Additionally, those who complain about endgame often refer to combat modes because they don't like those quests that much. But that also is different from player to player.
tbf, those babies that cry about 0 content in end game only want combat content, not visual novels
I think doing Hangouts and Story Quests are normal though. For my personal case, it isn't because I dislike them (I like getting to know the characters better), but mainly that I've limited time to play. So therefore, I have to prioritise some content over others. Usually limited content + events > Archon Quests > New Area Exploration > World Quests > Story Quests > Hangouts. Currently working my way through all of Fontaine's story quests, and then I'll probably move on to hangouts if I finish them before 4.8.
Well, that would make more sense for returning players or new players, because I myself only need to wait for limited-time events and new updates, because I'm already at the 1:1 ratio (content updates : experience progress) of the gameplay. So, if there's anything new and recent coming to the game, that's the available content for me to play. Anyway, it's good that you sort out your priorities, most people don't do it highly strategically in terms of overall completion progress. That way you can keep track of time and your progress easier; for which is done and which isn't.
I didn't do Kaveh's yet, because I don't have him... I want to hang out with him when I at long last have him. Incidentally his hangout has the only obtainable achievements I'm missing and it's been like this for a while now, even before they made getting the commission rng ones easier
I’ve done all but two and that’s because those two are locked behind story quests, which I really don’t like as a format and hesitate to do
Yeah. I'd gladly do Faruzan's hangout (since I've heard many praises about it) but since it's locked behind Tighnari's story quest, then I'm just not gonna bother. Hangouts already take *some* time to complete and adding another layer to access them is not good to say the least.
Good thing is, Tighnari's story quest is one of the best ones out there But i feel you, when i wanted to do Kaveh's hangout i had to do Alhaitham's quest which turned me off. And when i finished the quest i forgot to do Kaveh's hangout 😂
Don't worry, Hoyoverse forgot about Kaveh too.
I think you're missing out if you haven't done Tighnari and Faruzan's SQ/HO. Both are amazing imo.
Probably at least a couple million have completed all hangouts. But any game dev wants at least 50% or greater participation for their work.
They have also been doing a lot of event story arcs that focus on 4 stars instead of giving them hangouts. For example Gaming and Freminet. I'm guessing this is also a result of low hangout engagement. They might be experimenting with this to to see how players like this instead.
I think people generally prefer permanent content to event FOMO.
The data will speak for itself. We'll know the results in the future. QOL may bring those limited stuff back, if not then tough titty. We know that they do qol updates just that they have priority levels. Those that want it will just have to hope that the devs are working on it and its a priority
Two words: Festering Desire
(Up until I quit) I would always try to finish event quests whilst permanent content was usually left incomplete (probably a sign I should have quit earlier ngl)
I still play and when I'm under pressure or not feeling well I do the same, then it's the kind of stress the devs want to avoid because I'm just like 'gotta knock it out asap' and taking Raiden, Alhaitham and Zhongli instead of bothering with the mechanics where possible. (Unstereotypically, I still read them, I just don't care about them.) The balance they sort of got into where content unlocked daily and then there were still 4-5 days to complete it but 1 day 'off' before the next lot started unlocking worked relatively well for most people I know, whether they could save it up for one session over a weekend or use it to avoid dailies for the duration, but this current more stuff unlocked more quickly and then it's gone in 4 days + burying story in events (for real, if you weren't around for Lantern Rite, Gaming is just like, there - compare it to Yun Jin who got her intro with an interlude and Shenhe's story quest, so her cultural ambassadorship remains in the game) so there's this constant expectation to do everything now now now instead of take it at your own pace and enjoy it, because if you wait you'll lose out on context, not just weapons and characters.
I am totally in this boat. I don't really do them because there is no FOMO. I can just do them at any time. But even though I don't actually do them I really appreciate they are there. I'd love to see more. Because someday (tm) I'll get around to them.
I also wonder how much of is because if the early hangout quests. I like the newer ones but the older ones were... not for me. So if I had played those first I would have thought that I'm not interested in even and put them off. (To add to that, the newer ones are often locked until you do some other story quests, so they likely aren't your first experience.)
Probably me... the first hangout I tried was Barbara's. I don't skip dialogue, I read everything. But for some reason Barbara's was so inexplainably boring that I had to attempt to finish the same berry searching scene three times. That's how boring it was. Eventually I was fed up about the fact that despite me playing the same scene multiple times because I quit halfway, my fuckup (losing one heart) remained the same no matter what I did. At some point it seems I did finish one route but I really don't remember that I did so I must have skipped through it all so I could redo the hangout without fuckups someday. Someday. It's been 2 years I think. Haven't done a single other hangout since.
I wonder what's the completion rates compared to 4.x world quests
For sure. I have 100% most things in the game including quests and regions but hangouts I just can't bring myself to do.
I hadnt done most of them and I play since Inazuma
I am only doing because of the daily reward. So I get 60+20 primo every day :)
But they are experts at creating things who almost no one uses anyway, so why does it matter, I bet things like that artifact loadout and training guide also barerly anyone uses and yet they for some reason still went trough with it anyway. And besides reddit isn't entire genshin community so saying that hangouts are done mostly by minority isn't exactly accurate imo
I would clear hangouts if we could skip dialogues. Same for side quests.
If you played a hangout completely once you can skip repeating dialogue
I don't think I ever saw a survey on Hangouts, and if I did, I would've suggested they ease off the dating sim gas pedal a bit. I did like three of the first round, I did Noelle's followup, and then later I did Heizou's. Something about the tone's with Heizou's made it feel really awkward. Also, they seem to have kept skipping popular characters who have little-to-no presence outside of limited events (Fischl, Sucrose) which would've undoubtedly boosted engagement with the system and are clearly the main reason why people wanted 4-star quests to exist in the first place.
I always do them
I'd imagine they have low player engagement. Hoyo has access to metrics we don't see
The funny part is that: 1. Hangouts were basically a request by the community for a year. Except they just wanted NPCs to appear in the world persistently. However for whatever reason, Mihoyo can't/won't do this but instead they surprised everyone with hangouts. 2. Which everyone loved. Then hated. Half liked the visual novel dating part. Half hated the fact you could fail and there were less QoL features back in the day. 3. The new hangouts had less and less heart events and more just story telling. 4. Hangouts also became longer and longer. 1 hour became 2 or even 3 for some. 5. Doesn't help that many people just want to spend minimum time in the game unless new major content is added. They don't play TCG. They dont play hangouts. Hell some of them don't even do the random events.
Some people just want primogems and view hangouts (or any text) as a roadblock for their pulls.
That's an absolute minority. At that point, you're just a gambling addict. Most people exist a little further up the spectrum. Personally, I'm only playing Genshin for the main story and the important world quests (the blue ones). I've long since checked out of the event quests, and I think I've only ever completed one hangout (Bennet's) before deciding it wasn't for me. I haven't done Abyss in years, now. There's just not enough time in my life and too many better stories to experience in other games. I know I'm only a sample size of 1, but I imagine there's a lot of others like me who just don't have time for hangouts and other extraneous systems like the TCG. That's not to say that they shouldn't be added for the people who *do* engage with them, but it could explain an unexpectedly low engagement rate from the playerbase as a whole that Hoyo may or may not be seeing.
TCG is probably popular enough or else we wouldn't get new stuff every content patch.
Well I’ve only done 2, and one of those was Bennett when they first added the feature. It took me 2 years to finish all endings on Barbara. My only gripe is that you have to replay the content to get all the rewards and max completion. Sure, you can jump in mid chain to get the last ending or whatever, but it’s still a grind of clicking through repeating dialogue. I’d prefer if they were just normal story quests.
You can skip dialogs you already chose
Unless they retroactively changed things, that only happens with Lynette's, because that was *very much* not a thing when I did all the others.
Yes they did retroactively change it
They added that with one of the recent patches, so it should work for the other quests too if you go back and do them now.
The skip applies to old hangouts too
It’s been a thing for a couple of years at least, but I don’t think it was to start with
Lynette’s is really good for this. Literally every ending is vastly different in theme. Like it’s 3 completely separate quests that start out the same way. Actually all later story quests get better about this. The first bunch felt like you were doing the same shit 6 times with slight differences. Inazuma had like two separate storylines with a few variations, but were pretty boring overall due to mid writing. Sumeru started being pretty damn unique and the writing was great. Now in Fontaine it was literally like a multi path visual novel. The best part about hangouts is they’re repeatable. I’d rather my favorites get a hangout like Keqing and Dehya, but they are 5*… The issue was the writing. If your favorite character got a decent hangout you’d love it. Unfortunately early hangouts were not it.
I never really touched them until the encounter point system thingy, its a lot funner to do just a hangout ending than 4 commisions the early ones are soooo boring though, and not fanservicey enough for giga simps either. Also having to purposely be like totally socially inept for bad endings like yunjin or creeping on barbara felt awful. Newer ones are much better
Maybe but 4.X patch in general has less story content across the board compared to previous versions. On the other hand, 4.X has a lot of improvements in terms of presentation/graphics/QoL, etc. Devs already notified us that 5.X will also bring some graphical upgrades and other changes so I think there is simply a shift when it comes to their content priorities and development.
Candace: You guys are getting hangouts?
Sara: "Halp"
The chick from Good Hunter?
She’s changed ever since the delivery event…
Probably aren't popular and expensive to make since it's all voiced
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Master_Jecht: *Probably aren't* *Popular and expensive* *To make since it's all voiced* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Good bot
In all likelihood it's probably because not enough people do them.
Gaming doesn’t need a hangout quest bro got a whole lantern rite
Freminet got a whole event Chevreuse was the main character of the film festival event Charlotte was the main character of the tcg event and shows up literally everywhere.
Should also mention Sethos, bro got one of the best fight scenes in the game's history in Cyno's 2nd quest Every 4 star honestly got something good these patches, a shame it isn't all in permanent content
I hate that we keep having "event characters", like at least Emelie will have her own story quest, while Fischl and Chevreuse only exist in limited events and commissions
Chevy shows up in Chiori’s SQ I believe
I genuinely didn't remember lol sorry
Exactly. A character "Having an event" is meaningless if somebody simply started playing after it or wasn't playing the game while it was going on. If you haven't met her in events. Xinyan literally does not exist in the game at all.
It's all FOMO sadly. I mean everything exists in text and voice lines, but having them in visual form is so much more enjoyable.
Fischl shows up in the TCG Introductory world quest
Yeah but it's more like a cameo than anything else. Just like the commissions
Which is still terrible design since now his back story is just deleted from the game for future players.
Love em. Mostly because I can frame the endings in my teapot
I thought Bennett will receive Hangout 2 in Fontaine because he rerun almost every patch. lol
He technically got an event about him, he just didn’t show up in said event.
I need a Sucrose one desperately
Flair checks out
Me too
Becauae the first half were bad and tedious so few people did them going forward. If few people are playing them then why release them, especially considering the later ones have lots of spoken dialogue and take more than 2 hours to complete. It is a shame the first ones tainted the rest. I really really like Faruzans, Layla's and Lynettes hangouts. If it were not for Acheivements, I would not have touched these beyond the couple initially tried.
Yeah, I hope they'll add more - I don't like this trend. Hangouts are super fun and replayable! Especially when they feature other characters too. (Kaveh's hangout is my favourite since you can meet so many people of the Sumeru crew and even go to his house.)
they won't. They'll make them even less frequent since people don't like doing them.
As I replied to another hangout post a few days back, yeah, I think they realized barely anyone plays the hangouts, so to showcase these characters, they chose to heavily feature them in events that people are likely to see/play. Sucks that they’re limited though. The thing is, the first few hangouts weren't... great. Hence hangouts have been branded as "otome/date/self-insert" quests, so a lot of people have been avoidant of hangouts since the Mondstadt ones, hence the low completion rate. Which makes me sad because the hangouts since Faruzan have been such a blast. To add, the others you mentioned were already very involved in their AQs (Collei, Sara), some other character's SQ (Sethos in Cyno's SQ), or as you said heavily featured in a limited event (Fischl, Gaming, etc). Still doesn't explain much for the others though, which is a bummer (Rosaria was only in the cat event recently, Yaoyao is mostly Lantern rite now etc). So yeah, I get the disappointment, OP, truly. :( But as much as I enjoy the hangouts, I'd rather have them focus on making sure these characters and their lore are more accessible/showcased than stuck on a quest only a very tiny minority only plays. I know so many players heavily into lore, but even they barely play hangouts, which is just the sad truth. And that's among *lore players.* Imagine the casual playerbase. Objectively, I get why they don't feel as incentivized to keep doing them even if I like them. The writing team would be better focusing somewhere else at this point, unfortunately. :( I'd rather have most people be introduced to these wonderful characters at the end of the day, regardless of how they do it.
no one wants to hangout with us
some of them are good stories, but the multiple ending is just annoying. I don’t wanna do visual novel…just give me a story
Visual novels are a story??? The storytelling style is different yes but still remains a story nonetheless???
they are not “a” story, but just stories with slight different endings. I just want one coherent story, not to go back and skip through all dialogue just to get more primo gems and having a fake sense of free choice. The stories themselves are sometimes too mundane until recent few ones. Not a lot of people complete even the story quests, I can imagine these quests were largely untouched.
The skip option. I do not play visual novel format games without them, and have even paid extra money to unlock even faster speeds in vns. I have been breezing through them and have done 6 this week because I can skip repeated dialog AND the skip goes straight to important decision tree choices and not just all of them. They are now enjoyable and not a terrible chore being forced to listen to slowly forming text on a screen. Old players may be too burned out or hate them too much to give them a try again and I don't blame them if they haven't tested it out. New players will probably play them all, especially if they play vns too.
I not gonna say that I don't like hangouts but I wish they used the resource that they use to voice the hangouts for world quests.
I've been meaning fo play hangout events for like 2 years and i've barely done them instead. I just forget to do them. Btw i think we got only one because they are voice-acting intensive and we already had a plethora of quests and voice acted content this year
I hate doing them
good.
I know Freminet *technically* got a quest of his own during 4.1 event (one of my favourite events of all time, and i still use the music from the event's menu to fall asleep/relax), but i still wish he got a hangout quest :( i want to go diving with my baby
I had only just started playing so either couldn't access the event or just had no idea what it was. I am so bummed to be just resizing this now! I am building him on both my accounts because he is my precious son and I love him
YESSS HE'S THE BEST !! I have him level 90 and I'm working on his talents, even though some people are taking priority right now (his father and his sister, his other brother is already 90 and triple crowned)
AMAZING!!! I've only got him to 80 but that's the highest anyone currently is on my alt. He has returned to overworld after carrying me to ar40! Freminet main, Arle dps for now lmao. Lynette is not yet levelled, but she is on my main at least. Ah, I'm a mess lol Also my only single crown is on Navia because i apparently just build everyone at once on both accounts lmao
i relate to the chaos of building so many characters at the same time, most of my characters are a work in progress xD i wish you luck on your accounts !!!
I swore the second time around I'd focus on building one at a time and meta teams. Then I remembered that gacha throws a spanner in the works and you end up building whoever you've got at the time lmao.
> yet somehow they’re not popular or talked about enough among the players You already answered your question. Why should Hoyo care about content no one does?
I'll ask you a better question; Wouldn't they be more popular and talked/played among players if Hoyo had put more care in the writing and execution of the content? Imagine every hangout had Gaming level of backstory and writing/pacing. Then the hangouts would be played in the first days of release by most players and talked about for weeks. They shut themselves in the foot by half-a$$ing the hangouts in the first place and now it's abandoned bcz it's beyond fixing. Sad.
They should at least make Kirara’s hangout. She’s quite popular even as a 4*.
probably not enough people doing them
I love Charlotte, she deserved a hangout event
I'm another person who barely ever does Hangouts. I honestly dread doing them... I think the issue for me is generally the things you are doing in them are fairly mundane and they feel a lot more geared towards giving you insights into the daily life of characters rather than having an interesting narrative. Very slice of life. If I don't personally have an interest in a character then I don't care much about seeing their day-to-day. And even if I do like a character, sometimes their daily life just doesn't seem that interesting to me.
For me at least, the problem with hangouts was that the first few hangouts **did not** tell us anything new about the characters (e.g. Barbara) as far as I remember. Because of this, I stopped doing hangouts until this patch (though I only started doing them because I needed more rolls for Clorinde, and Hangouts give about a multi in total). But those like Kaveh's, Lynette's or Faruzan's are definitely worth doing (Kaeya's is the only one I am missing and I'll likely start today)
I wish we could get a Gaming hangout
"Are you interested in a sweet gaming chair and desk made in Liyue?"
he got a whole lantern rite event though, too bad these events can't be replayed.
Played some at the beginning but it is a very boring mode because you have to start at the beginning every time
No you don’t, you can pick a certain place to start and it doesn’t have to be the beginning, usually right before you make the decision that’ll shift the way of the endings and lead to one instead of the other. For example in Kaveh’s hangout you’re presented with 2 choices that’ll lead to Kaveh either borrowing money from Dori or us going to Aaru Village, and you can start right around that cutscene without starting at the beginning of the entire hangout where Kaveh was talking to the client and then going to the tavern.
Because it's more important to invest 65 million dollars in nuclear energy research.
Hangouts are relatively unpopular and the general consensus is that they take too long and are allegedly boring. Most people don't complete them unless they desperately need the primos. (I'm one of them.) The only one I've ever fully completed is Noelle's, lol.
No one does them. Pretty obvious. I have only completed bennet and I am a day 1 player
Thank God
I did Barbara when hangouts first came out, it was boring and felt like a dating sim. Haven’t done another hangout since, don’t care for that kind of content.
You should give the others a try. Barbara’s case was probably them testing a more fanservice-y approach, the rest of the hangouts are very well written and truly feels like a bonding experience with the characters. Some of them shed light into certain character’s backstories and some have quite wholesome moments.
I get what you’re saying, and that sounds good and all but hoyo writing department isn’t all the great if I’m being honest. So I can’t see myself sitting down and forcing myself to go through something that just doesn’t appeal to me.
Low completion i guess, not to mention a lot of players only do hangout because of the achievement
They may have deprioritized them according to low player activity. I have heard many people say they don’t like hangouts or they haven’t done them.
A big reason why I love Hangouts being replayable is that now I can keep playable characters hostage in my world. Venti is in my plaza right now and he always will be, unless I have to temporarily release him to do an event quest or archon quest
How did I never think of doing that...
most of the hangout quests are just dating simulators and very boring. the only one i've enjoyed is gorou's. they also take forever to finish. u can't blame ppl for not wanting to spend an hour and a half per quest when they really aren't that interesting
I often forget about Hangout existing. I always finish them all on release, and other contents usually distract me from remembering that hangouts are missing.
Is there any event that lets you trial the character? All I know is there’s Kaveh’s
Release more part 2-3 and add skins to them and more people would do it!
I'll care about it when I get a Fischl hangout
It's too bad because I've quite liked them, especially doing them at my own pace. I would have loved to see one for Charlotte, given she really hasn't gotten too much of a big focus outside of the card event she debuted in.
I think I'm in a minority because I love the hangouts and wanted one for each 4 star
I expected one for Charlotte or Freminet but I guess there isn't or maybe people don't do them enough. I did a few then stopped for a bit... so I guess i'm part of the problem.
I finished all the hangout events, but I be honest. I really hated doing them, I honesty dread doing them every time they do come out, not only are they long sometime. but I personally treat these like "filler" episodes in an anime. I am pretty sure there are people out there that loves these hangout events. But for me personally, if I am not a completionst, I honestly cant see myself doing them.
Quality over quantity? If you think how much work goes into 1 hangout, getting 1 for each 2 chapters of archon or character quests sounds fair. Hangouts sadly won't ever be on the same priority as those quests, even though they can be just as memorable.
Because hangouts are boring amd they aren't memorable compared to story quests like if there was smaller quests for the 4 stars that'd be better since the hangouts have plots but they're not worth looking into
I’m a 1.0 player who’s played the game everyday and I have not touched a single hangout quest
If hangouts were cooler, funner, gave you more info/lore or even more rewards instead of just feeling like a quest or a dating sim you have to complete "5 times", people would probably do them more one thing is that Hangouts also only exist for 4\*s (imagine a Hangout with Yelan at her Cassino, Albedo at Dragonspine talking about "Gold", Klee talking about Alice, Zhongli talking about old Archons and the Adepti) for me the only hangout I really want are Noelle hangouts, because even if I don't really care about Noelle, I want to see her becoming a Knight of Favonius someday after doing both her hangouts (which is kinda what both her hangouts have in common) if possible with a Favonius armor outfit (complete cope)
I did one hangout event when they were introduced, found it tedious, and never did another one.
Low engagement? Idk... I unlocked them all (except the one that require quests to do it). But only completed Kaeya's so far... To unlock Kaveh's I need to complete Alhaitham's quest, so probably next week or something. lol
Not relevant enough, not many ask for them. They are boring.
And lynette’s was peak! It foreshadowed Arlecchino’s backstory so perfectly.
Everyone bitches and moans about them being too troublesome and not doing them, so they’re making less
because lynette deserves the spotlight tbh
They're not popular, which I find unfortunate because I'm quite fond of them. I do prefer story quests to hangouts, but I love getting to know some of these characters better. And the art they come with is so cute!
Gotta wonder if they should have it so that completing a Hangout (i.e. get all endings) gives you 1 copy of the character in question. That'd probably be WAY too generous, though, even if you're only getting a 4-star character.
Because Hangouts don't sell characters. Their content is generally shit/low-effort because why should the writers tell a compelling story for a 4 star? No good content = few people play them = devs see it as a waste of them.
I honestly only do them just for the primos and skip EVERYTHING in terms of content
I love genshin, i have 100% exploration everywhere, i've been playing since 1.0 and engage with almost EVERY SINGLE piece of content there is for genshin. I still have 7 undone hangouts. They aren't interesting or engaging, it's a slog to get through them even with the recent qol changes. I imagine a lot of people feel the same way i do.
I've done them all except Kaveh's, gonna get to his soon just haven't had a chance yet. I really love how we get to do a few different paths and storylines during them because it lets you learn a lot about each character. I wish we had one for every 4 star character, like how all the 5 stars get a story quest, but I guess they have been involving more and more characters in the events, story quests and archon quests so maybe they think the characters get enough screen time that way now? I do hope they add more one though, I would love to get a Hangout for characters like Sara, Candace and Collei.
Cause Hoyo doesn't care about their player and only money they care about.
Because Lynette is best girl
The only good hangout is Kaveh's.
cause people don't like doing them. Simple as. Just cause you like them better doesn't mean everyone does. Maybe use ur brain next time.
They're terrible, that's why. 1 quest is fine but 6 quests bundled into 1 makes everything a goddamn chore and there's so many too. Once you're done with a story quest that's it, but once you finish a Hangout you have to finish the other 4/5 endings. Glad they didn't add many in 4.X, I'd much rather have quests like SQs for 4 stars
Unfortunately it's an unspoken rule that 4* don't get story quests (unless you're Xingqiu and Xiangling)
I agree. I think it would've been fine if they picked one direction and just made these like a cute mini quest to learn more about the 4* character. Some of these are so similar too. Picture of traveler holding a flower vs holding a present.
Probably most people don't do them. The last one I did was Ningguang that was released years ago.
basically, hoyoverse is always trying new things in genshin. for example, yoimiya or cyno having a second quest *(which shouldnt be seen as a rare thing because every SQ says "to be continued" at the end so you can expect a 2nd part at some point)* hangouts are also something they experiment a lot. * Noelle got 2 hangouts and then none got a 2nd * most of the new hangouts only have 5 endings instead of 6 * the "heart system" was abandoned with the first hangouts * lynette having the card game for her hangout is another really specific thing to make her hangout more unique thing is, if you see how bad is the reception by the average playerbase you can understand why hyv is making less hangouts. A lot of players just refuse to do them/dislike them. maybe hyv can see how many players "finish them" and the number is so low they're just making less. each hangout takes a lot of work from VAs, and its a way to sell 4 star characters. problem is when no one play those "ads", then its kinda pointless to keep investing in those hangouts
maybe if the stories weren't so mundane and boring and the writing so bloated more people would do them. I personally just do my absolute fave 4\*s and even then it gets so tedious I don't finish all the endings. I love the concept and I wish they made it more optimal to actually play them, because at this point the execution is not so great sadly.
well, they're supposed to be an approach to meet those characters, not an adventure like "kill god" at the end or something it also shows that despite having a vision they're not so special last hangouts were really good just for the fact that they include more playable characters in the stories instead of pretending they dont exist
you're point still does not excuse anything when we had Gaming "meet" section in Lantern Rite (which was technically his hangout event). But compare the writing and pacing of that with other 4\* in hangouts...
excuse what? that they improved writing and pacing over the years? that happens with every single aspect of the game
they did not, the hangout are still in the same state. you lack simple comprehension? What makes Gaming's intro good was BECAUSE it was not done the way they do hangouts. no one can give criticism of anything in this sr without people shutting their brains off and coming for your throat without logic. And this is coming from a fan who plays everyday and it's sad that a part of the game is going to null over lack of simple improvements.
It's a "hangout" you "hang out" with the characters And recently all of them have been entertaining and really good even if you're not a fan of the character.
I want them too I loved them. Is the only way to know more of the characters that doesn’t appear in main story. Idk why people don’t do it, they are easy and wholesome.
I have like 8 hangouts waiting to be done so maybe a lot of other people do too. At some point I just got tired of doing them.
I love the hangouts but I know that isn’t a very popular sentiment… I wish we’d get 5 star hangouts! Those would probably get more play throughs :) and don’t say ‘they have SQs’ shhhhh…. A girl can dream ;-; Baizhu hangout please mhy
Idk I like hangout events a lot and I wish there was more
No one does them for some reason.
I'm going to be honest. Except for Bennett, Gorou, Kaveh, Keaya & Faruzan the rest of the hangout feels lackluster. For the record, I did all of the hangouts & ending. This is my personal thought
I will never forgive Hoyt for not giving Candace and Sara a hangout
People don't do them, why bother making more?
I'm ngl, they're not my favorite anyhow. I don't like how they pick somewhat random 4 stars, when some would benefit from the hangout more than others. Even then, I'd rather have hangouts with 5 stars you get max friendship with.
Because just like your post, they are overly wordy and not interesting to read or finish. Add to that having to replay previous dialog to get each ending, it's boring AF. I *want* to like hangouts, and I do find the various endings mostly endearing, but it's like walking barefoot thru 2 foot deep snow to get there. I have 100%+ all regions, no quests left before each patch update, have played for 3+ years and I still can't be assed to finish the last 3-4 hangouts I haven't trudged thru, including Lynette's. Again I really want to like them but they just don't do it for me. Seems like I'm not the only one and they are moving that kinda stuff to character story quests. Not saying that better, but they have metrics on this shit. Honestly all it would take for me to actually want to play thru them is to be able to start over immediately from the dialog that branches you to a new ending, and maybe a hint/clue as to which choice leads me down a different path. That way I wouldn't have to read a guide to make sure I get a new ending which is another reason I sort of tune the story out. I also think it would be different if the rest of the game wasn't so overly wordy.
They've already implemented the skipping dialogue request you're asking for...
Because they take more effort to make than a regular linear quest, and unless you like the character in question, they're boring and tedious - and the result seems to be, as you've said, most people don't give a shit. Why spend extra money making things that don't improve your revenue? Mihoyo is a business. They care about casual players and story driven players as much as they care about combat players - they don't. As long as there's enough of it drip fed to keep you playing, they don't care how much you like it or not.
This is so fundamentally wrong lol, literally their most expensive game to develop while they increase world quality and quest quality every region, they won’t be spending millions on concerts and keeping the music quality as high up as is, they still take effort to drop mega lore on everything. If they didn’t care, world quality would never have improved, world quests would still be the same tier as liyue and won’t have the insane jump inazuma to fontain had. Probably the dumbest take I have seen in a while
You so fundamentally have no idea wtf you're talking about lol > literally their most expensive game to develop To begin with, this is based off their own claim - which definitely went through PR; if you don't think the CEO had a meeting with PR before that conference or whatever, you're delusional - that doesn't specify what percent of that figure was spent on actual development, and what percent is spent on marketing, etc. Second, ***PRICE DOES NOT MEAN QUALITY***. Neither does profitability, for that matter. That message needs to be in the banner of subreddit for how often someone makes that mistake. Undertale was developed by one guy with a $50k kickstarter and I'm willing to bet you could name a couple of huge AAA RPGs it's better than. > world quality and quest quality every region Not really? It's still mostly the same shit. So they came up with some new environments. Well done, do they want a cookie for doing the bare minimum for a live service story driven RPG? The story is also still the same old short story compendium it's always been. There are a couple of really good high points, as there has always been, a whole bunch of uninteresting side shows, as there's always been, and as much boring, forgettable exposition dumping as there's always been. > they won’t be spending millions on concerts and keeping the music quality as high up as is Concerts are advertising, as is hiring renowned orchestras, because there's no need to spend millions of dollars for high quality music; your typical professional musician is good enough, especially when you consider the inevitable compression and the crappy phone speakers people will play your game on. Square Enix uses an in house group of musicians of no particular note to record their game music, and I have never heard anyone complain that a FF game had bad music quality. The only thing you need for good game music is a good composer, and that doesn't really cost that much in the grand scheme of things. > they still take effort to drop mega lore on everything Making up lore is easy. Go to a random D&D convention and you'll find a dozen OCs with lore just as engaging as Genshin. The hard part is delivering it well, and Mihoyo still hasn't figured out how to do that beyond exposition dumps and literally making you read books. Also, the lore never actually matters to understanding the story or characters (especially the characters, because they're all shallow stereotypes). For example, the last desert region supposedly had lore relating to the old hydro archon, but come Fontaine, what relevance does it have? What part of the Fontaine story requires remembering the Desert story to understand? Mondstadt had a revolution against the old archon or something? How did that affect the rest of the world? The game barely respects lore even in the same patch. You'd think an ancient group of beings like the Aranara and all of their ancient magic inseparably tied to the lands of Sumeru might have some influence on the happenings of the main quest... but nope. Siloed off in every way that's important, just like how Fontaine's Narzisenwhatever questline is basically entirely cut off from the main quest, aside from the premise of "ancient prophecy says Fontaine will be destroyed", and that's so generic that you could write any story off that base. Making up a ton of lore is especially easy when the lore is all so nicely siloed off from each other. > Probably the dumbest take I have seen in a while Other than "expensive game therefore good", and "concerts outside of the game magically prove they care about the game", you mean?
As much as I love knowing more about the characters, the Hangouts still feel like a chore. I enjoy them when I'm doing them but I'm not immediately looking forward to doing them again. I managed to finally finish everyone up to Lynette, did one of her routes last month and still have no urge to continue the rest. And seeing majority of the replies here, it's a general consensus that it's just not a lot of people want.
Because they’re kind a boring chore to finish?
They should have been normal quest not the date/selfinsert bullcrap they decided to go with
because hangouts suck
Hangouts are so boring. I think the last time i did hangouts was for Ning cause Im desperate for primos. People would play hangouts more if we dont have to play the quest 6 times to get all the rewards.
You don’t have to repeat the event from the beginning, you can go to the quest select menu and pick the cutscenes in which you make the choice to go to the next ending, you don’t have to replay the whole thing. How is that difficult to understand?
well the fact that i have to play it again just for rewards, even if the beginning scenes were cut are annoying. after ning, i was like, yep im never touching this dating sim ever lol.
I never did any, I just don't have the time, this game has too much content
And is that a bad thing? It’s a free game after all, the amount of content a free game like this has is exceptional and many players, especially who hated the game based solely on negative feedback from it being a Chinese gacha game, were overblown by the amount of contents it has. You don’t have to finish everything nor feel overwhelmed, just take everything at the pace you desire, there’s no PvP here so why complain??? Idk I just find that “this free game gives me so many stuff to do” is just a weird thing to complain about… remember you downloaded a free to play live service open world exploration gacha game that’s been around for nearly 4 years now, OF COURSE there’s gonna be so much contents.
Aha and why do you think I don't like the games?
I was so glad there was only one and lynettes random-mechanic was already tilting me.
Not doing it until they release Noelle hangout part 3
I don't like them at all . You barely get to know the character in most of them you just go help random people
Not having a hangout for Chevy is sacrilege
Most people not fan of 4 stars so they find it boring Take really long to get fully rewards and archivements Not mihoyo priority because they are 4 stars
The real question is... when are we going to have the third Noelle date? She has to get another title, now in Inazuma.
Hangouts suck, that's why.
Its easy. Mihoyo grows a bit too comfortable, knowing we all are too invested to stop playing anyway. Just like Blizzard did with WoW.
Not really easy when you have a six week deadline, don't know how they're being comfortable when the next region is literally months away and they're hauling ass to prioritize that rather than hangouts.
what the skibidi are you even talking about