my biggest downfall is being a fan of this game

but fr, i have so much to say about this game. i dont care about the lore, which means i only have 3 things to mention.

first, the combat system in this game is so much fucking fun to dive headfirst into, even if its obvious from the get-go that powercreep is gonna be a real bitch in a few years. the complexity of genshin's combat is ridiculous, especially with its origins as a cheap BOTW knock-off. im not smart enough to write something engaging about it, but team building and theorycrafting teams is so much fun.

second, the gacha system. god this company fucking sucks massive balls. mihoyo or hoyoverse or whatever they want to go by is so insanely stingy it makes me wanna die. ive been a gacha gamer for a long time but never encountered such shitty pulling systems or lack of rewards for such dedicated fan bases.

third, characters. lot to unpack here, but if it wasn't for hoyoverse's deep seated racism due to being a chinese audience pandering company, their character design could have been top notch. the archons are a great example of this, with many of their characters being so memorable the moment you meet them even if you are someone like me who could not care less about their storylines. wish mhy didnt suck ass though.

overall, pretty fun. shitty resin system though i hope whoever designed it trips and spills their drink onto themselves

i wish someone took fnaf away from scott before this game solely because of how hard this man fumbled the most sick villain. springtrap is so unbearably cool as a character, with the twisted loading screens habitating my mind years later, but was given the lamest gameplay loop and jumpscares known to man. there is no fear of the unknown here, just anger at the shitty camera system that does nothing and the boringness of each night. this game's real shine comes from the lore and special cutscenes accessible each night, but that barely matters when you can't enjoy the actual night progression itself. it tries it's best

similar to fnaf 3, this game has so much potential just to trip at the finish line. much scarier than fnaf 3, but only because of the forced nature of the jumpscares. since you need to play this shit with cranked up speakers, you'll jump at the loud noise. thankfully, the designs of the nightmares are insanely cool, and this installment is the one that features most of the foundation for its extensive and convoluted lore that we are still fucking around with to date. better than fnaf 3, but still kinda weak.

this game makes me want to bash my head into a wall from the writing of its story alone. i could look past the poor release solely because of the hype i had from a fnaf installment with arguably one of the best environments. this game is gorgeous, ray tracing or not. unfortunately, a bright and stylish mall isn't the most terrifying location which really hurts the "horror" aspect of this game. the characters are okay, albeit a little underdeveloped (but also theyre literally animatronics so i guess its fine?), but the travesty lies in vanessa. without going into too many spoilers, the way they utilized this character (or didnt...) is a shame considering her exposition in the vr game. the endings all suck, by the way. fuck this game's writing ong im getting upset thinking about it too hard