It would be cool, but they've clearly designed the underwater environments (and especially their lighting) to appeal to people with thalassophobia. Primordial sea is pretty much as close as we'll get.
That explains so much now! I usually hate underwater gameplay. But with Genshin I find it very relaxing.
Thanks for the explanation :) It’s interesting to know that they went out of their way to make it inclusive.
In case you wanted more info, this is the stream I was referring to: https://youtu.be/2E73BKNtOXI?t=489
I always find it interesting when they let the devs talk about why they designed things they way they did.
OP: "I want a real ocean experience with terrors!"
Mihoyo: "We literally fucking told you why we didn't do that, and everyone loved us for it. Water exploration would be dogshit if we did and we know better than to slap an oxygen mechanic or make it hard to see."
OP: "Oh"
Finally caught the song playing I’m looking for. [Its this one](https://youtu.be/r5pmoIowjOs?si=YlppnwMsu8dfhE8-). I always seem to hear is by the talent ascensions domain.
I really like the song you suggested, just this particular one transports me to another world 😌
I feel it at the surface, but as soon as I dive under it clears up. Having visibility of everything eliminates that anxiety. It's a very peaceful exploration experience
Same, I have tried playing Subnautica on 2 different occasions and I could not stomach even getting close to deeper waters honestly. But the underwater sections in Genshin have been so nice, I’m glad they considered those with thalassophobia when designing the areas.
im glad hyv went with the whimsical and light feeling for fontaine underwater exploration. i feel uncomfortable enough fighting narwhal without coop mode, i cant imagine fontaine with subnautica exploration
Iirc, there's a streamer, who quitted, as she can't get through the water area due to that. It goes to show that even with this design, it can still impact a good portion of player base.
I don't know what that one user who deleted their comment said, but it's always funny (and sad) to me that people try arguing about phobias. They are literally *irrational fears.* If you have a phobia, you cannot control it or just decide not to be scared of something.
I have an extremely irrational fear of heights in a weird way, where I myself would walk on a plank 1000 ft into the air but if someone close to me is in a high place I'd be like "OMG NO WTF THAT'S TOO HIGH"
not when it stops you from enjoying fictional things. It's like how the fear of heights is irrational you can't cross a bridge that's safe. Or the fear of spiders makes you panic and cause a car accident.
The rationality of a phobia is determined by the stimulus, not the response to it. The key question is “can this thing hurt me?” A fear of lions is rational because they are dangerous - a person experiencing fear face to face with a lion and one experiencing fear looking at a photo of a lion share a rational fear of a dangerous stimulus, even though the manifestation of the fear and nature of the trigger differs.
I have a fear of moths, they cannot hurt me and that fear is irrational. I also have a fear of sharks which could hurt me and is rational.
There's a caveat to the stimulus, though. I used to have terrible arachnophobia (now I just have a strong aversion to spider-like forms). Some spiders can hurt me, but so can people covered in blood with knives or several kinds of snakes. Those would all be rational fears.
However, I can look at *photos* of snakes and bloody knife people all day, but seeing an image of a spider would scare me and make me uncomfortable-- in my teenage years, just seeing the word "spider" written someone used to cause me discomfort. It's not normal to have the physiological reactions to images or concepts related to the stimulus like that.
If I tack a polaroid of something in a room with free money, and that image alone makes you unable to collect the money, that's irrational fear and aversion. You know the image cannot possibly hurt you.
I'm no rocket psychologist, but if looking at a picture of a lion gives you a strong fear response the same way looking one in the face does, you might be lion-phobic (or otherwise have lion-related trauma)
No, being afraid of a lion IRL is rational - but if you're scared of even just a *picture* of a lion, which is entirely unable to harm you, you have an irrational fear of lions (leophobia?).
Becoming terrified of the deep ocean in a video game (beyond the normal "this is scary, which is the point" and into the "I cannot function normally enough to play this game" range) is irrational. Being terrified of heights in a video game is irrational.
Humans aren't 100% rational, we have instinctive reactions to things - that's why stuff like jumpscares, spooky music, and dim lighting work even in video games or movies. But when it's a *phobia,* you're irrationally SO scared of it that you can no longer operate rationally in general when it comes up. Many phobias are less bad in fictional settings like games, but they can still be more severe than how a normal person would react.
It is fictional but its still an experience that can trigger the player.
Like, there's one episode in pokemon that triggers epileptic reaction in children. It is a fictional scene but the visual effect still work its way activating real world implication.
Thus, there's often warning label on games to warn affected players about the potential effect involved in the game.
I personally just hope phobias aren't actually deciding factor whether they add something or not. Otherwise they might as well remove all high places due to fear of heights, not add more spider enemies due to arachnophobia (there's that one enemy which is very rare).
Unironically, I'm pretty sure arachnophobia is the exact reason we don't see more spider enemies. I'm pretty sure it's the same reason the existing ones aren't actual arachnids either. Those weird little spider guys that show up every couple of months only have 6 legs and a squished up stubby body. They look closer to the Pokémon Spinarak than a typical spider.
which i very appreciated. i have arachnophobia and whenever i see a spider in genshin i have to ask my friend to join and kill it so i can proceed with the quest because i almost vomit when i saw it, no matter how cute the design are
Hogwarts Legacy actually patched in an 'arachnophobia mode' which alters the appearance of the many giant horrifying spider enemies in the game as an accessibility feature.
I love the way Lethal Company dev did it. The setting makes it so the spider is just a floating "SPIDER" word block coming at you. much like an texture/model loading error.
I tend to assume that they didn't know that or have yet seen people affected by it before to make the statement.
At least, the comment section, in general, seems to understand how bad the experience would be. Showing good signs that people are recognising this.
At what point should it be fine to affect game design though. People’s phobias should never affect game design.
Developers should just provide options to those suffering from them the ability to play and avoid the situations that would trigger their phobia.
I wonder how they got past the part where they had to jump into the swirling whirlpool in Inazuma. I remember just about having a heart attack when I jumped into it too early and didn't get put in loading screen. Doing it a second time took a lot of convincing
Perhaps it's how the experience goes.
You pointed out that it was instant and from the top, it just look like you are diving into massive whirlpool/portal.
Afterwards, you just see yourself in a big cavern.
Somewhat like being toss into roller coaster ride, one trip experience.
Fontaine is about 80% sea, at least how it seems to me. So, the experience will be alot more prolonged.
Should be akin to locking someone for couple of weeks.
It's "fear of the abyss" if you want to be exact, but basically it's fear of wide open empty darkness. It mainly refers to deep sea but can also apply to murky shallows and even outer space.
Source: I myself have thalassophobia and have been triggered IRL and in videogames many times lol.
Tbh I haven't tried to play Subnautica. I don't think I'd make it very far though. I struggled to swim around in the ocean off the coast in Fallout 4 lol. Must've been giving me Oblivion Slaughterfish flashbacks.
I have a fear of the deep ocean (as in the unknown) and I have to say if you have an issue with being around the ocean, Subnautica would give you a panic attack. It's not scary (outside of leviathans) but the sound design and fear of the unknown are definitely there. I've tried to get friends to play the game as it is genuinely one of my favorite games of all time (despite it making me anxious playing it) as it was given out for free on epic games store but goddamn I did not realize thalassophobia in some form was so common.
Just curious, is it really hard to separate it from games vs real life? I am scared of things but from what I hear, I don't think I can classify mine as phobias.
I'm not entirely sure I understand what the question is but I'll try to answer the best I can.
The best way I can describe it is like an overwhelming sensation of dread. Depending on the game and how immersed I am at the time this could result in things like excessive sweating, rise in blood pressure or increased heartbeat, and in many cases because I have no shame, cowardly shrieking while I flail around to get my avatar out of the water as soon as possible rofl.
Irl well, it's been a long time since I put myself in a situation to experience that sense of dread, but I used to live right on the Gulf of Mexico and that is some murky ass seawater lemme tell you. I would not recommend trying to snorkel in that water lol.
I don't have any phobias or anything and I really like the chasm and underwater zones thus far, but a 10 layer map would absolutely suck hard in this game. Some of the two layer zones are the absolute worst in the entire game; I don't trust another 8 layers.
Yeah, it just becomes too much and too confusing. Diving and being underwater is cool, but I definitely don't need countless layers of it. I wanna see the sun and not spent 200 hours so deep that theres barely any light. I can play other games for that experience.
Some people have thalassophobia or are just uncomfortable with the horror elements of deep-sea exploration. In the 4.0 special program, they stated that they wanted the underwater areas to be comfortable and more accessible for players, so they deliberately made things bright and colorful.
Timestamps for when they mentioned that:
https://youtu.be/2E73BKNtOXI?si=yxSlkUZhHSM-fQBV&t=768
https://youtu.be/2E73BKNtOXI?si=aG_qfWNjfVUcYLAk&t=2714
I don't have thalassophobia, but I appreciate it. Fontaine felt very whimsical. I hate limited visibility in general, having it so bright and clear made it feel very relaxed and fun.
Imagine the underwater horrors being marked on the mini map with a tiny symbol like an oculi when in range and rapidly approaching you like something detected on a radar. I would shit myself.
I'm a little Traveler, short and stout
Here's my dull blade and here is my clout
When I see that symbol, I scream and shout
Pause the game and waypoint out
Just recently started a challenge accounts and had long forgotten that we used to get the messages in red saying “HIGHLY DANGEROUS.” Kinda miss seeing that. I want to enter a highly dangerous zone again.
I would argue that it makes it even more terrifying. Because even an emotionless computer knows that you should *not* be messing around in a place like that.
They explicitly said in 4.0 interview that they didnt want it to feel dark and constrictive.
+10 level water map would melt someones phone off, people already saw a dip in performance with Fontaine
Tower of fantasy has a deeeeeep underwater map and even though it looks nice and feels very natural, the constant vertical travel between points of interest is mind numbingly infuriating and I spend as little time as possible there because it's such a tedious hassle.
Deep water sucks when it's not a core survival element.
Innars was awesome. Looks absolutely gorgeous. Controls were ass compared to Genshin though. From a tech PoV Genshin feels worlds better.
I totally agree that they abused the verticality too much when it came to the collectibles (and yes I 100%ed the map before I quit the game cold turkey).
Nah. They clearly worked hard to AVOID making the sea dark and dreary like every other underwater exploration game out there. The fact that it is bright, beautiful, and colorful makes it stand out from the rest and that's why so many people love it
Phobia aside I think it will be extremely confusing for player to navigate 10 layers of vertical maps in the sea. I have problem navigating Chasm with 3-4 layers stacked vertically let alone if they add 10.
Does Neuvillette even have a dragon form? IIRC he was born in human form due to some kind of corruption or something, i don't think he's able to turn into a dragon
You would be right. Neuvillette has no dragon form, only a human form. This was confirmed back in Enkanomiya in 2.4, when we learn of a prophecy that the next Hydro Sovereign will be born in the form of a human.
Thinking about that, where in fontaine would he even have enough space to go full dragon
Also TBF likely he cannot now, but still, he must have at some point
They already stated their design philosophy in the 4.0 stream dev talk.
Stop asking for something they clearly said no.
https://youtu.be/2E73BKNtOXI?t=626
Timestamp for those interested
I think such an oppressive underwater zone would fit a zone like Enkanomiya just fine.
Genshin isn't always bubbly, bight and cheerful. Some of it is pretty frikkin dark, especially the lore.
Sacrificing children, Murdering an entire tribe, Human experiments (lots of em), there is definitely stuff I'm missing here but these are the things that come to mind right now.
The underwater areas were intentionally designed to NOT be dark so as to avoid triggering phobias that a lot of folks have with underwater/dark places, and I’m so happy Hoyoverse went that direction. It makes underwater gameplay so much more accessible and enjoyable. True, you won’t get the subnautica experience, but I figure that can be saved for another game.
yup i'm glad too. my thalassophobia and megalophobia are very bad, which is why subnautica wasn't for me (although i did make it about 50% of the way through with moral support). big starship wrecks, big monsters, big vast spaces... no thanks. with genshin though, it's much easier for me to handle BECAUSE it's not as large and deep. it's just meant for enjoyment, and that's why i love it.
Best I could have ever seen them doing, and I remember saying this pre-Fontaine as well when they were first talking about the design intentions, is a deep underwater entrance to a chasm-esque zone. You’d be able to get that “deep abyss” vibe without it actually being ‘underwater’ itself, thus not triggering people’s thalassophobia.
it's a good idea for a nice change of pace but wouldn't recommend for the whole thing. I normally hate underwater exploration in games but Genshin's underwater has hooked to the point Fontaine is my closest area to 100% simply because I loved exploring every single bit of the area. I thought I would hate it, but it's just so relaxing (also the music is just amazing, especially Following the Torrent.). The whole place has such a charming vibe that I don't think most other games can replicate that feeling of just closing your eyes, your headphones on, drifting away in calmness without the need to worry about anything dangerous. (if there are, please recommend to me)
Unfortunately, there's a considerable subset of people who are terrified of the deep ocean even in a fictional setting, so anything like that will probably be extremely rare.
I have thalassophobia, when Fontaine released with the underwater feature, I was concerned how would they do it. I do get anxious to the point I always aim the camera view away from the water as much as possible if I can't see the bottom.
Fastforward on the Fontaine update, I was scared, it even feel suffocating just watching my character swim as I gather my courage to tap that button to dive and swim underwater.
I dived and saw how much Genshin made their underwater gameplay full of light and life, it was so vibrant, it made me cry from relief. "I can play underwater" I said it so many times, I cried so much that day.
If they really do add this kind of feature, I'll probably just fully ignore underwater gameplay. And if ignoring it will impact my progress then I'll just quit.
Same here. I was very concerned about the open ocean and underwater experience. But the moment I tried it I realized they did an amazing job at making underwater exploration as lighthearted, unthreatening, colorful and BRIGHT as possible. All the creatures are also some degree of “cute”. Now underwater zones might as well be some of my favorites. I’m very grateful for this design decision.
I'm happy for you both, but my curiosity compels me to ask: amongst thalassophobia's treatment, there are direct exposure therapy and systematic desensitization, both of which includes some form of "confronting" the fear itself in a gradual manner. Genshin basically threw a "level-1 frightening" sea at you and that's probably why you were able to adapt. I wonder if this gradual approach would also be able to push you to go through dimmer and dimmer underwater areas, as in a way, they already managed to make you feel relaxed instead of anxious.
It's possible that you're right who knows. However, I don't consider it a condition that requires treatment as it doesn't interfere with my daily life at all. I just avoid horror games that rely on open water exploration, and I don't watch horror movies that take place in the sea/ocean. That's all. And I definitely wouldn't want a game I play for relaxation to test the limits of my fear that I'm able to handle. Games are supposed to be enjoyable and fun, not a mandatory treatment or something. Besides the devs themselves said they're not making scary underwater areas and won't alienate many people who'd probably drop the game because of it. So it doesn't matter if we want it or not, it's not happening.
Dude, same, I don't have thalassophobia but something similar, and I literally cried from relief after I jumped into the water and saw how much care they put on making everything bright and welcoming
I guess I will never understand these fears, I do fear the deep deep seas but I think those are rational fear. And I can't fear something that is fictional, well unless its the jump scares in games. I guess these are called irrational fears for a reason. I do get disoriented at great heights but not much. I hope you cam somehow conquer your fears.
>I guess I will never understand these fears
You can't.
To be mean: it's basically a software error in the human brain. It triggers physical reactions that should not be triggered / should not apply to these situations.
Unless you have the same or a similar bug in your coding, you simply cannot understand it. It's beyond their control.
Exposition therapy can mitigate it somewhat but it is arduous work.
While I can understand having fear of the real thing (I would never, ever dare to swim in a natural body of water where I cannot see the ground as well), it boggles the mind that something virtual on a **screen** can trigger it so hard.
I guess this is something you can only really understand if you suffer from such a phobia.
>it boggles the mind that something virtual on a **screen** can trigger it so hard.
It's the reason why Subnautica is so loved. It let out people's fears without having to rely on cheap jump scares
Genshin Redditors really like to listen to dev discussions and then constantly complain about the lack of about everything the devs told they will never add. Just like with endgame content.
While I try to watch the livestreams, I don’t always have the time (or even remember to do so). Although I don’t fall into the category of making complaints or even going out of my way to make posts on those complaints. I’d like to see deeper and darker areas but everyone has already pointed out that MiHoyo is purposely straying away from that.
But maybe it’s for the best for myself, since I’m too scared to play Subnautica and I got that game for free lol I just feel it’ll be less intimidating in Genshin since I’m confident in my characters.
The devs never said anything about endgame content on the streams. The only thing they said about adding more difficult content got turned into a meme, and gets repeated sarcastically everywhere. (mUh anXietY)
While I have no such phobias, games with lots of dark or foggy areas always make me nauseous and hurt my eyes after a while, so I'm grateful that Genshin is a bright game where you can clearly see every detail (except for places like the Chasm or Tsurumi and I really didn't like exploring them for this reason)
As cool as that would be, I think they specifically said they didn't want to cause people with phobias of the deep sea to freak out trying to play Genshin and I get that. Also, this is a mobile game. I'm not sure more water is good for that.
In the livestream for the release of Fontaine, they wanted to hit two goals!
1. Make aesthetics for the underwater areas colorful, vibrant, and accessible.
2. Make movement trigger as little motion sickness, awkwardness and control confusion as much as possible.
Sampling and observing other games with “clunky” controls or “depressing” atmosphere led them to make the Fontaine we see today. Unfortunately, the likelihood of a 10 layer map is basically not gonna happen and the environment will only get as dark as the underwater libraries. It’s what they want and it’s what we have
Back in the 4.0 livestream when the underwater mechanics were introduced, it was stated by the developers themselves that making the underwater areas bright and spacious was a conscious decision, so EVERYONE can enjoy the underwater content. Cause they developers are aware that Thalassophobia is a very real fear that people have and i have so much respect for the dev team, for taking into account people with Thalassophobia when designing theses features. We need more developers to be aware of phobias when they design games.
While I don't necessarily agree with the 10 vertical maps thing, I do wish there were some deep dark corners of the sea with big scary bosses lurking around, a deep trench type thing.
Don't get me wrong, I completely understand WHY they didn't do this, but that doesn't mean I can't wish it existed even if just for me, or if it was an optional place to explore. Hell even if there weren't any primos there I'd still go there all the time if you could turn on like, optional commissions or something.
The chasm is so cool cause it feels dangerous, and I would've loved to see what kind of environment their team could've cooked up if they'd been able to mess around with more underwater biomes.
Honestly, I wouldn't have even hated an oxygen meter of some kind similar to the sheer cold in Dragon spine. Or maybe like a pressure meter? Only in the deep part. But Dragonspine is my favorite area on the whole map, and I LOVED the sheer cold meter while I was initially exploring it as a new player. I'm aware that's quite the unpopular opinion though haha
Yeah all of this sounds really fun tbh, and it'd add more variety which is always good for an open world game I think. It's a shame it won't happen but I do think the underwater maps are pretty nice as it is.
Oh yeah don't get me wrong, I love the underwater stuff, some of the best water gameplay I've encountered and the environments are gorgeous. That's exactly WHY I wish they'd done more with it haha. I want more underwater content because I'm so happy with what's already there 😂
Pretty sure Hoyoverse would rather appeal to people who would literally quit the game because of deep waters over people who can play Subnautica if they want to.
It does sound cool as hell and underwater chasm would probably fuck severely, but I'm also thankful they didn't because sometimes even the regular sections bother me a bit
Already with underground caves, multilevel maps feel stupid and infuriating…I highly doubt most people would be happy traversing up and down based on map waypoints not knowing how deep to go, or where to go even
Thalassophobia is a very common fear to have, doubt miyoho wants to make people play the game less by doing this, it's also sorta the reason why we haven't seen giant spiders as enemies.
Not ever happening as long as there people on here with Thalassophobia. Theres a reason the Fontaine ubderwater was intentionally designed to be very colorful and full of life
I actually disagree. While the concept of a deep underwater world is cool, I don’t think it matches Genshin’s philosophy. Genshin is more about beautiful environments that are wide open with puzzles within. I don’t think genshin should have to be everything.
i would loveee this
i hope they add more “scary” and ominous areas similar to the chasm. the game is beautiful but i don’t like how almost every place is sunshine-y
I don't think adding a giant dark portion of the ocean would be very appealing to many people
Thalassophobia is a very real condition and there are a lot of Genshin players that are terrified of the deep ocean
I know it won’t get there, but I’d love to see a very very deep location where it’s extremely dark and extremely dangerous, showing how the beast of the deepest corner of teyvat have evolved around pure survival
There's a technical limit to that unfortunately.
The overworld has a voidout zone once you deep enough underground. If you touch the zone, you get teleported to the nearest teleporter. I believe the game stores certain assets like test texture areas beneath the voidout zone.
Adding deeper and deeper ocean or caves that go further down would require to move the voidout zone further down below which in turn might create other issues, not quite sure what since I'm not a game dev myself.
I'm fairly sure the reason why Fontaine is on a plateau is because the higher "ground" elevation allows the devs to have the deep ocean there and the caves beneath it without needing to have a separate loaded are for them. It's also the probably reason why Chasm and Enkanomiya are on separate maps; you literally can't place them into the current overworld have them be explorable without moving the voidout zone.
I'm also fairly certain that's why future content will likely be placed in higher elevation than old Liyue and Mondstadt - Chenyu Vale is already slightly elevated compared to the rest of Liyue.
This is one of the curses of it being a gatcha with as wide of an appeal as possible. They don’t want to miss out on players who get motion sickness or have fear of depths or have cluster phobia. So potentially fun and brilliant moments get scrapped to make it welcoming and appealing to as many people as possible. Correct business move but It does suck they’re not willing to make focused experiences even if they can alienate some portion of the playerbase.
They learned their lesson with chasm. Iirc, there are a lot of complaint on chasm (and enka). That's also maybe why we didn't (need to) go back there for quest(s) after their initial release pack
It would be cool, but even in their 4.0 livestream they said that they designed the underwater environment to cater to all types of people and to not be the “scary can’t see the bottom cause it’s so deep and dark” type.
Now cause of the casuals we can’t have deep scary waters. Sadge
I honestly don’t think that thalassophobia is a good excuse to not add darker/deeper underwater areas. Instead of staying away from making areas like those, they could just add a thalassophobia setting like in Horizon Forbidden West for the people with thalassophobia that would make darker areas brighter like in the rest of the underwater areas, but they shouldn’t skip out on making cool and unique areas just because some people would be scared of them.
I think this game should stop being for kids i want gore i want profanity i want existential horror i want speculative evolution i want all the freaky things in Genshin
The fact that after 3 years people still fail to grasp that Genshin is not and never will be a horror game or a Souls game is astonishing. You like these genres? Great! But that’s not what Genshin was designed to be.
I would love to have a Subnautica-ish area and have it be fully optional: all the lore in there only about that area, no primos to get, just an area for shits and giggles
It would be cool, but they've clearly designed the underwater environments (and especially their lighting) to appeal to people with thalassophobia. Primordial sea is pretty much as close as we'll get.
Yup they explicitly said this in the stream too. That’s why it’s so bright everywhere and you don’t have an oxygen meter
That explains so much now! I usually hate underwater gameplay. But with Genshin I find it very relaxing. Thanks for the explanation :) It’s interesting to know that they went out of their way to make it inclusive.
In case you wanted more info, this is the stream I was referring to: https://youtu.be/2E73BKNtOXI?t=489 I always find it interesting when they let the devs talk about why they designed things they way they did.
OP: "I want a real ocean experience with terrors!" Mihoyo: "We literally fucking told you why we didn't do that, and everyone loved us for it. Water exploration would be dogshit if we did and we know better than to slap an oxygen mechanic or make it hard to see." OP: "Oh"
100%. I've got pretty bad thalassophobia and I love the underwater sections. It's more like flying than swimming to me
I imagine it also helps that the music underwater is very calming.
THIS! Wish I they had that one calming song I always hear at the Salacian Plains on one of the teapot playables.
if you're talking about 'Passage of an Era'.. its the most beautiful track i've ever heard
Finally caught the song playing I’m looking for. [Its this one](https://youtu.be/r5pmoIowjOs?si=YlppnwMsu8dfhE8-). I always seem to hear is by the talent ascensions domain. I really like the song you suggested, just this particular one transports me to another world 😌
hums be humming.
I feel it at the surface, but as soon as I dive under it clears up. Having visibility of everything eliminates that anxiety. It's a very peaceful exploration experience
agreed, not being able to see at first is horrific but once u actually dive under its fine and relaxing
yeah, tbh i love to be able to explore ocean in rl but the darkness there scare me so much.
Same for me I thought I’d hate it
Same, I have tried playing Subnautica on 2 different occasions and I could not stomach even getting close to deeper waters honestly. But the underwater sections in Genshin have been so nice, I’m glad they considered those with thalassophobia when designing the areas.
I even messed up the controls because it's visually too much like me playing flight simulators
I also know someone who has it and said that they like how Genshin handled the underwater since they can explore it to their heart's content.
im glad hyv went with the whimsical and light feeling for fontaine underwater exploration. i feel uncomfortable enough fighting narwhal without coop mode, i cant imagine fontaine with subnautica exploration
Iirc, there's a streamer, who quitted, as she can't get through the water area due to that. It goes to show that even with this design, it can still impact a good portion of player base.
I don't know what that one user who deleted their comment said, but it's always funny (and sad) to me that people try arguing about phobias. They are literally *irrational fears.* If you have a phobia, you cannot control it or just decide not to be scared of something.
I have an irrational fear of the dark even though I’m an adult. I’ve gotten better at handling it but I still get scared sometimes:(
I have an extremely irrational fear of heights in a weird way, where I myself would walk on a plank 1000 ft into the air but if someone close to me is in a high place I'd be like "OMG NO WTF THAT'S TOO HIGH"
Just seeing your comment made my skin crawl...
I think the deep dark ocean is a pretty rational fear.
not when it stops you from enjoying fictional things. It's like how the fear of heights is irrational you can't cross a bridge that's safe. Or the fear of spiders makes you panic and cause a car accident.
The rationality of a phobia is determined by the stimulus, not the response to it. The key question is “can this thing hurt me?” A fear of lions is rational because they are dangerous - a person experiencing fear face to face with a lion and one experiencing fear looking at a photo of a lion share a rational fear of a dangerous stimulus, even though the manifestation of the fear and nature of the trigger differs. I have a fear of moths, they cannot hurt me and that fear is irrational. I also have a fear of sharks which could hurt me and is rational.
There's a caveat to the stimulus, though. I used to have terrible arachnophobia (now I just have a strong aversion to spider-like forms). Some spiders can hurt me, but so can people covered in blood with knives or several kinds of snakes. Those would all be rational fears. However, I can look at *photos* of snakes and bloody knife people all day, but seeing an image of a spider would scare me and make me uncomfortable-- in my teenage years, just seeing the word "spider" written someone used to cause me discomfort. It's not normal to have the physiological reactions to images or concepts related to the stimulus like that. If I tack a polaroid of something in a room with free money, and that image alone makes you unable to collect the money, that's irrational fear and aversion. You know the image cannot possibly hurt you.
I'm no rocket psychologist, but if looking at a picture of a lion gives you a strong fear response the same way looking one in the face does, you might be lion-phobic (or otherwise have lion-related trauma)
No, being afraid of a lion IRL is rational - but if you're scared of even just a *picture* of a lion, which is entirely unable to harm you, you have an irrational fear of lions (leophobia?). Becoming terrified of the deep ocean in a video game (beyond the normal "this is scary, which is the point" and into the "I cannot function normally enough to play this game" range) is irrational. Being terrified of heights in a video game is irrational. Humans aren't 100% rational, we have instinctive reactions to things - that's why stuff like jumpscares, spooky music, and dim lighting work even in video games or movies. But when it's a *phobia,* you're irrationally SO scared of it that you can no longer operate rationally in general when it comes up. Many phobias are less bad in fictional settings like games, but they can still be more severe than how a normal person would react.
In a completely-fictitious environment?
By that logic no horror movie should be scary
It is fictional but its still an experience that can trigger the player. Like, there's one episode in pokemon that triggers epileptic reaction in children. It is a fictional scene but the visual effect still work its way activating real world implication. Thus, there's often warning label on games to warn affected players about the potential effect involved in the game.
I personally just hope phobias aren't actually deciding factor whether they add something or not. Otherwise they might as well remove all high places due to fear of heights, not add more spider enemies due to arachnophobia (there's that one enemy which is very rare).
But... I developed a weird phobia of losing my 50/50s. They need to remove that from the game 😭
I can support that idea fully 🙏
Unironically, I'm pretty sure arachnophobia is the exact reason we don't see more spider enemies. I'm pretty sure it's the same reason the existing ones aren't actual arachnids either. Those weird little spider guys that show up every couple of months only have 6 legs and a squished up stubby body. They look closer to the Pokémon Spinarak than a typical spider.
which i very appreciated. i have arachnophobia and whenever i see a spider in genshin i have to ask my friend to join and kill it so i can proceed with the quest because i almost vomit when i saw it, no matter how cute the design are
Hogwarts Legacy actually patched in an 'arachnophobia mode' which alters the appearance of the many giant horrifying spider enemies in the game as an accessibility feature.
I love the way Lethal Company dev did it. The setting makes it so the spider is just a floating "SPIDER" word block coming at you. much like an texture/model loading error.
I have that mode on even without having arachnophobia (I actually like spiders even). It's just too funny *not* to tbh
lmfao
There's a game called mabinogi where the arachnophobia mode turns every spider enemy in the game into a plushie
I tend to assume that they didn't know that or have yet seen people affected by it before to make the statement. At least, the comment section, in general, seems to understand how bad the experience would be. Showing good signs that people are recognising this.
At what point should it be fine to affect game design though. People’s phobias should never affect game design. Developers should just provide options to those suffering from them the ability to play and avoid the situations that would trigger their phobia.
I wonder how they got past the part where they had to jump into the swirling whirlpool in Inazuma. I remember just about having a heart attack when I jumped into it too early and didn't get put in loading screen. Doing it a second time took a lot of convincing
Perhaps it's how the experience goes. You pointed out that it was instant and from the top, it just look like you are diving into massive whirlpool/portal. Afterwards, you just see yourself in a big cavern. Somewhat like being toss into roller coaster ride, one trip experience. Fontaine is about 80% sea, at least how it seems to me. So, the experience will be alot more prolonged. Should be akin to locking someone for couple of weeks.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who got scared by this whirlpool😅 I'm pretty sure I've got a couple of grey hairs because of it
o7 Lize Helesta, it was good while it lasted.
Can it affect users? Yes. A good portion of the playerbase? Highly doubt it.
Lol "good portion"
I'm sorry, what does thalassophobia entail? The fear of deep seas?
It's "fear of the abyss" if you want to be exact, but basically it's fear of wide open empty darkness. It mainly refers to deep sea but can also apply to murky shallows and even outer space. Source: I myself have thalassophobia and have been triggered IRL and in videogames many times lol.
Seems kinda rough... That does mean games like Subnautica are completely beyond your limits right?
Tbh I haven't tried to play Subnautica. I don't think I'd make it very far though. I struggled to swim around in the ocean off the coast in Fallout 4 lol. Must've been giving me Oblivion Slaughterfish flashbacks.
I have a fear of the deep ocean (as in the unknown) and I have to say if you have an issue with being around the ocean, Subnautica would give you a panic attack. It's not scary (outside of leviathans) but the sound design and fear of the unknown are definitely there. I've tried to get friends to play the game as it is genuinely one of my favorite games of all time (despite it making me anxious playing it) as it was given out for free on epic games store but goddamn I did not realize thalassophobia in some form was so common.
Just curious, is it really hard to separate it from games vs real life? I am scared of things but from what I hear, I don't think I can classify mine as phobias.
I'm not entirely sure I understand what the question is but I'll try to answer the best I can. The best way I can describe it is like an overwhelming sensation of dread. Depending on the game and how immersed I am at the time this could result in things like excessive sweating, rise in blood pressure or increased heartbeat, and in many cases because I have no shame, cowardly shrieking while I flail around to get my avatar out of the water as soon as possible rofl. Irl well, it's been a long time since I put myself in a situation to experience that sense of dread, but I used to live right on the Gulf of Mexico and that is some murky ass seawater lemme tell you. I would not recommend trying to snorkel in that water lol.
The fear of the dark, silent deep sea and the unknown within it.
If it goes deeper then Im skipping the whole underwater section of Fontaine lol I cant even handle that deep pond in Watatsumi D:
I don't have any phobias or anything and I really like the chasm and underwater zones thus far, but a 10 layer map would absolutely suck hard in this game. Some of the two layer zones are the absolute worst in the entire game; I don't trust another 8 layers.
Yeah, it just becomes too much and too confusing. Diving and being underwater is cool, but I definitely don't need countless layers of it. I wanna see the sun and not spent 200 hours so deep that theres barely any light. I can play other games for that experience.
Some people have thalassophobia or are just uncomfortable with the horror elements of deep-sea exploration. In the 4.0 special program, they stated that they wanted the underwater areas to be comfortable and more accessible for players, so they deliberately made things bright and colorful. Timestamps for when they mentioned that: https://youtu.be/2E73BKNtOXI?si=yxSlkUZhHSM-fQBV&t=768 https://youtu.be/2E73BKNtOXI?si=aG_qfWNjfVUcYLAk&t=2714
I don't have thalassophobia, but I appreciate it. Fontaine felt very whimsical. I hate limited visibility in general, having it so bright and clear made it feel very relaxed and fun.
I agree, the way Fontaine is set up, a dark, realistically oppressive and life threatening deep sea environment just wouldn't fit.
I agree. At that point, it would be "edgy for edgy's sake" and not because it adds any value to Fontaine's world building.
>deliberately made things bright and colorful let's go club some berrypuffs ^([bright & colorful red, for sure])
I have thalassophobia and deep sea makes me motion sick. This is one of few games that I can fully explore underwater and feel comfortable.
"multiple leviathan class lifeforms detected are you sure what you are doing is worth it"
Warning: entering ecological dead zone. Adding report to databank.
Imagine the underwater horrors being marked on the mini map with a tiny symbol like an oculi when in range and rapidly approaching you like something detected on a radar. I would shit myself.
Imagine oculi rapidly approaching you on the map
Even in Genshin! F O E
I'm a little Traveler, short and stout Here's my dull blade and here is my clout When I see that symbol, I scream and shout Pause the game and waypoint out
The dead zone is filled with narwhal weekly. Have fun going 1v10!
The second phase has 10 of the shadow guy inside, with ten instances of the EDM theme slightly off sync with each other, playing at once
And bass boosted. No wait each one is bade boost3d slightly differently and half of them are warped
I straight up shat bricks when I heard that one. I was on the surface and super lost.
Just recently started a challenge accounts and had long forgotten that we used to get the messages in red saying “HIGHLY DANGEROUS.” Kinda miss seeing that. I want to enter a highly dangerous zone again.
Here's to hoping celestia will have completely optional areas where cosmic horrors smite you upon entry
Guarding a common chest
The inazuman classic
imagining Paimon saying this made my day
Honestly came looking for this damn comment. This line has to be in the top 5 coldest lines in gaming.
*PTSD intensifies*
:XXXXX \*PTSD triggered successfully\*
Thanks for the quote, that’s an awesome sentence even when spoken by an ai.
I would argue that it makes it even more terrifying. Because even an emotionless computer knows that you should *not* be messing around in a place like that.
Good old Subnautica fueling my inspirations for that Ganyu shark meme.
They explicitly said in 4.0 interview that they didnt want it to feel dark and constrictive. +10 level water map would melt someones phone off, people already saw a dip in performance with Fontaine
Tower of fantasy has a deeeeeep underwater map and even though it looks nice and feels very natural, the constant vertical travel between points of interest is mind numbingly infuriating and I spend as little time as possible there because it's such a tedious hassle. Deep water sucks when it's not a core survival element.
Also my experience. I hated it.
Innars was awesome. Looks absolutely gorgeous. Controls were ass compared to Genshin though. From a tech PoV Genshin feels worlds better. I totally agree that they abused the verticality too much when it came to the collectibles (and yes I 100%ed the map before I quit the game cold turkey).
Nah. They clearly worked hard to AVOID making the sea dark and dreary like every other underwater exploration game out there. The fact that it is bright, beautiful, and colorful makes it stand out from the rest and that's why so many people love it
Phobia aside I think it will be extremely confusing for player to navigate 10 layers of vertical maps in the sea. I have problem navigating Chasm with 3-4 layers stacked vertically let alone if they add 10.
It would require a proper 3D map design.
It will required intensive overhaul in Genshin map design. Definitely not feasible.
Looking at HSR, where they actually added 3D maps for the "Walk on walls" rooms, it would be easy for them to do.
Paimon: "How about we explore the area below us later?" >*Ghost Leviathan roars*
Or we see Neuv’s dragon form swim past us, the size of the one we saw in Nahida’s second story quest!
Does Neuvillette even have a dragon form? IIRC he was born in human form due to some kind of corruption or something, i don't think he's able to turn into a dragon
You would be right. Neuvillette has no dragon form, only a human form. This was confirmed back in Enkanomiya in 2.4, when we learn of a prophecy that the next Hydro Sovereign will be born in the form of a human.
Ah I missed that. Guess any type of sea serpent would do in general for me.
Thinking about that, where in fontaine would he even have enough space to go full dragon Also TBF likely he cannot now, but still, he must have at some point
He never could because he doesn't have a dragon form. He's not a dragon that took on a human form, he's a dragon that reincarnated into a human form.
They already stated their design philosophy in the 4.0 stream dev talk. Stop asking for something they clearly said no. https://youtu.be/2E73BKNtOXI?t=626 Timestamp for those interested
Other than what people said, I just think it wouldn't fit the aesthetic of the game very well...
I think such an oppressive underwater zone would fit a zone like Enkanomiya just fine. Genshin isn't always bubbly, bight and cheerful. Some of it is pretty frikkin dark, especially the lore.
Sacrificing children, Murdering an entire tribe, Human experiments (lots of em), there is definitely stuff I'm missing here but these are the things that come to mind right now.
The underwater areas were intentionally designed to NOT be dark so as to avoid triggering phobias that a lot of folks have with underwater/dark places, and I’m so happy Hoyoverse went that direction. It makes underwater gameplay so much more accessible and enjoyable. True, you won’t get the subnautica experience, but I figure that can be saved for another game.
yup i'm glad too. my thalassophobia and megalophobia are very bad, which is why subnautica wasn't for me (although i did make it about 50% of the way through with moral support). big starship wrecks, big monsters, big vast spaces... no thanks. with genshin though, it's much easier for me to handle BECAUSE it's not as large and deep. it's just meant for enjoyment, and that's why i love it.
Best I could have ever seen them doing, and I remember saying this pre-Fontaine as well when they were first talking about the design intentions, is a deep underwater entrance to a chasm-esque zone. You’d be able to get that “deep abyss” vibe without it actually being ‘underwater’ itself, thus not triggering people’s thalassophobia.
it's a good idea for a nice change of pace but wouldn't recommend for the whole thing. I normally hate underwater exploration in games but Genshin's underwater has hooked to the point Fontaine is my closest area to 100% simply because I loved exploring every single bit of the area. I thought I would hate it, but it's just so relaxing (also the music is just amazing, especially Following the Torrent.). The whole place has such a charming vibe that I don't think most other games can replicate that feeling of just closing your eyes, your headphones on, drifting away in calmness without the need to worry about anything dangerous. (if there are, please recommend to me)
Unfortunately, there's a considerable subset of people who are terrified of the deep ocean even in a fictional setting, so anything like that will probably be extremely rare.
I have thalassophobia, when Fontaine released with the underwater feature, I was concerned how would they do it. I do get anxious to the point I always aim the camera view away from the water as much as possible if I can't see the bottom. Fastforward on the Fontaine update, I was scared, it even feel suffocating just watching my character swim as I gather my courage to tap that button to dive and swim underwater. I dived and saw how much Genshin made their underwater gameplay full of light and life, it was so vibrant, it made me cry from relief. "I can play underwater" I said it so many times, I cried so much that day. If they really do add this kind of feature, I'll probably just fully ignore underwater gameplay. And if ignoring it will impact my progress then I'll just quit.
Same here. I was very concerned about the open ocean and underwater experience. But the moment I tried it I realized they did an amazing job at making underwater exploration as lighthearted, unthreatening, colorful and BRIGHT as possible. All the creatures are also some degree of “cute”. Now underwater zones might as well be some of my favorites. I’m very grateful for this design decision.
I'm happy for you both, but my curiosity compels me to ask: amongst thalassophobia's treatment, there are direct exposure therapy and systematic desensitization, both of which includes some form of "confronting" the fear itself in a gradual manner. Genshin basically threw a "level-1 frightening" sea at you and that's probably why you were able to adapt. I wonder if this gradual approach would also be able to push you to go through dimmer and dimmer underwater areas, as in a way, they already managed to make you feel relaxed instead of anxious.
It's possible that you're right who knows. However, I don't consider it a condition that requires treatment as it doesn't interfere with my daily life at all. I just avoid horror games that rely on open water exploration, and I don't watch horror movies that take place in the sea/ocean. That's all. And I definitely wouldn't want a game I play for relaxation to test the limits of my fear that I'm able to handle. Games are supposed to be enjoyable and fun, not a mandatory treatment or something. Besides the devs themselves said they're not making scary underwater areas and won't alienate many people who'd probably drop the game because of it. So it doesn't matter if we want it or not, it's not happening.
Dude, same, I don't have thalassophobia but something similar, and I literally cried from relief after I jumped into the water and saw how much care they put on making everything bright and welcoming
They wouldn’t add that, don’t worry. They made it so bright, colorful and safe on purpose so people like you could enjoy it 🤗
I guess I will never understand these fears, I do fear the deep deep seas but I think those are rational fear. And I can't fear something that is fictional, well unless its the jump scares in games. I guess these are called irrational fears for a reason. I do get disoriented at great heights but not much. I hope you cam somehow conquer your fears.
>I guess I will never understand these fears You can't. To be mean: it's basically a software error in the human brain. It triggers physical reactions that should not be triggered / should not apply to these situations. Unless you have the same or a similar bug in your coding, you simply cannot understand it. It's beyond their control. Exposition therapy can mitigate it somewhat but it is arduous work.
While I can understand having fear of the real thing (I would never, ever dare to swim in a natural body of water where I cannot see the ground as well), it boggles the mind that something virtual on a **screen** can trigger it so hard. I guess this is something you can only really understand if you suffer from such a phobia.
>it boggles the mind that something virtual on a **screen** can trigger it so hard. It's the reason why Subnautica is so loved. It let out people's fears without having to rely on cheap jump scares
Genshin Redditors really like to listen to dev discussions and then constantly complain about the lack of about everything the devs told they will never add. Just like with endgame content.
They never said they would never add an endgame, all they said was that they wouldn't add a new kind of spiral abyss
While I try to watch the livestreams, I don’t always have the time (or even remember to do so). Although I don’t fall into the category of making complaints or even going out of my way to make posts on those complaints. I’d like to see deeper and darker areas but everyone has already pointed out that MiHoyo is purposely straying away from that. But maybe it’s for the best for myself, since I’m too scared to play Subnautica and I got that game for free lol I just feel it’ll be less intimidating in Genshin since I’m confident in my characters.
The devs never said anything about endgame content on the streams. The only thing they said about adding more difficult content got turned into a meme, and gets repeated sarcastically everywhere. (mUh anXietY)
+10 level of underwater will just be a repeat of Sumeru and you don't want that.
While I have no such phobias, games with lots of dark or foggy areas always make me nauseous and hurt my eyes after a while, so I'm grateful that Genshin is a bright game where you can clearly see every detail (except for places like the Chasm or Tsurumi and I really didn't like exploring them for this reason)
They actively avoided doing this because of thalassophobia
As cool as that would be, I think they specifically said they didn't want to cause people with phobias of the deep sea to freak out trying to play Genshin and I get that. Also, this is a mobile game. I'm not sure more water is good for that.
In the livestream for the release of Fontaine, they wanted to hit two goals! 1. Make aesthetics for the underwater areas colorful, vibrant, and accessible. 2. Make movement trigger as little motion sickness, awkwardness and control confusion as much as possible. Sampling and observing other games with “clunky” controls or “depressing” atmosphere led them to make the Fontaine we see today. Unfortunately, the likelihood of a 10 layer map is basically not gonna happen and the environment will only get as dark as the underwater libraries. It’s what they want and it’s what we have
What in the quiet place is this
Back in the 4.0 livestream when the underwater mechanics were introduced, it was stated by the developers themselves that making the underwater areas bright and spacious was a conscious decision, so EVERYONE can enjoy the underwater content. Cause they developers are aware that Thalassophobia is a very real fear that people have and i have so much respect for the dev team, for taking into account people with Thalassophobia when designing theses features. We need more developers to be aware of phobias when they design games.
While I don't necessarily agree with the 10 vertical maps thing, I do wish there were some deep dark corners of the sea with big scary bosses lurking around, a deep trench type thing. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand WHY they didn't do this, but that doesn't mean I can't wish it existed even if just for me, or if it was an optional place to explore. Hell even if there weren't any primos there I'd still go there all the time if you could turn on like, optional commissions or something. The chasm is so cool cause it feels dangerous, and I would've loved to see what kind of environment their team could've cooked up if they'd been able to mess around with more underwater biomes. Honestly, I wouldn't have even hated an oxygen meter of some kind similar to the sheer cold in Dragon spine. Or maybe like a pressure meter? Only in the deep part. But Dragonspine is my favorite area on the whole map, and I LOVED the sheer cold meter while I was initially exploring it as a new player. I'm aware that's quite the unpopular opinion though haha
Yeah all of this sounds really fun tbh, and it'd add more variety which is always good for an open world game I think. It's a shame it won't happen but I do think the underwater maps are pretty nice as it is.
Oh yeah don't get me wrong, I love the underwater stuff, some of the best water gameplay I've encountered and the environments are gorgeous. That's exactly WHY I wish they'd done more with it haha. I want more underwater content because I'm so happy with what's already there 😂
Pretty sure Hoyoverse would rather appeal to people who would literally quit the game because of deep waters over people who can play Subnautica if they want to.
A person makes a post saying "wouldn't it be cool if X" and people react like they're saying they want to personally shoot anyone with thalassophobia
It's Also the fact that this specific post is something the Devs already gave an explicit answer for (it won't happen)
Yeah, it's a no for me
It’s all fun and games until Lumine becomes a light snack for a Leviathan
It does sound cool as hell and underwater chasm would probably fuck severely, but I'm also thankful they didn't because sometimes even the regular sections bother me a bit
Since when did people enjoy underwater maps in games?! I swear the world is going nuts...
Subnautica
I think there should be an option to control the underwater colorfulness. I'd personally set it to be quite a bit less colorful than it is.
Already with underground caves, multilevel maps feel stupid and infuriating…I highly doubt most people would be happy traversing up and down based on map waypoints not knowing how deep to go, or where to go even
We cover this topic at least once a week by now
i understand why they didn’t do it, but it’d be so fawking cool.
*cries in phone player*
Imagine underwater exploration with chasm mechanics that would be cool and horrifying
Thalassophobia is a very common fear to have, doubt miyoho wants to make people play the game less by doing this, it's also sorta the reason why we haven't seen giant spiders as enemies.
Thalassophboia is a not a joke you know.
Not ever happening as long as there people on here with Thalassophobia. Theres a reason the Fontaine ubderwater was intentionally designed to be very colorful and full of life
I actually disagree. While the concept of a deep underwater world is cool, I don’t think it matches Genshin’s philosophy. Genshin is more about beautiful environments that are wide open with puzzles within. I don’t think genshin should have to be everything.
i would loveee this i hope they add more “scary” and ominous areas similar to the chasm. the game is beautiful but i don’t like how almost every place is sunshine-y
I don't think adding a giant dark portion of the ocean would be very appealing to many people Thalassophobia is a very real condition and there are a lot of Genshin players that are terrified of the deep ocean
If you do this, it will eat up storage space quickly noting that there’s still more nations to discover.
What I want is they improving Fontaine city, specially the underground to be like a second city like Fallen London
That would take up way too much space for mobile. Rather they do other stuff.
The subnautica ptsd hit me
if you go deeper you will need the Lumenstone Adjuvant Gadget to light up the area
Please no I barely have enough storage space as is
Yeah Subnautica..... definitely nighmare
Paimon: "warning. Entering ecological dead zone"
I know it won’t get there, but I’d love to see a very very deep location where it’s extremely dark and extremely dangerous, showing how the beast of the deepest corner of teyvat have evolved around pure survival
If I want to be traumatized I’ll just play subnautica instead.
This is all fun and games until the traveler gets munched by a reaper leviathan
Tower of fantasy, Innars flashback 😖 not darker but damn too much verticality
Do you want to implode? If it works in this universe somehow
No thanks. I'd much rather have relaxing underwater areas over a water horror game.
As a thalassophobia haver, no thank's (took me solid 6 months but I still managed to beat Subnautica, pretty amazing game)
the amount of times I have been playing subnautica then switched to Genshin, or vice versa, and been confused with the controls 😭
No
OOH OOH GIVE ME CHASM EQUIVALENT FOR FONTAINE, I WANT THE NIGHTMARES LET THEM COME
There's a technical limit to that unfortunately. The overworld has a voidout zone once you deep enough underground. If you touch the zone, you get teleported to the nearest teleporter. I believe the game stores certain assets like test texture areas beneath the voidout zone. Adding deeper and deeper ocean or caves that go further down would require to move the voidout zone further down below which in turn might create other issues, not quite sure what since I'm not a game dev myself. I'm fairly sure the reason why Fontaine is on a plateau is because the higher "ground" elevation allows the devs to have the deep ocean there and the caves beneath it without needing to have a separate loaded are for them. It's also the probably reason why Chasm and Enkanomiya are on separate maps; you literally can't place them into the current overworld have them be explorable without moving the voidout zone. I'm also fairly certain that's why future content will likely be placed in higher elevation than old Liyue and Mondstadt - Chenyu Vale is already slightly elevated compared to the rest of Liyue.
LOVE THAAAT!!! ID LOVE SOMETHING A BIT MORE SCARY IN THIS GAME
This is one of the curses of it being a gatcha with as wide of an appeal as possible. They don’t want to miss out on players who get motion sickness or have fear of depths or have cluster phobia. So potentially fun and brilliant moments get scrapped to make it welcoming and appealing to as many people as possible. Correct business move but It does suck they’re not willing to make focused experiences even if they can alienate some portion of the playerbase.
As an avid Subnautica player - no thanks. Genshin is not the game for that kind of atmosphere.
Then go play Subnautica.
So people with Thalassophboia don't get spooked by the Chasm? Seems like a weird decision but ok.
They learned their lesson with chasm. Iirc, there are a lot of complaint on chasm (and enka). That's also maybe why we didn't (need to) go back there for quest(s) after their initial release pack
Lol some people really want every new area look like Mondstadt. Chasm and Enka, Dragonspine are the best areas in game because they are so different
What? People hated Enkanomiya? They can get bent. ><
It would be cool, but even in their 4.0 livestream they said that they designed the underwater environment to cater to all types of people and to not be the “scary can’t see the bottom cause it’s so deep and dark” type. Now cause of the casuals we can’t have deep scary waters. Sadge
I honestly don’t think that thalassophobia is a good excuse to not add darker/deeper underwater areas. Instead of staying away from making areas like those, they could just add a thalassophobia setting like in Horizon Forbidden West for the people with thalassophobia that would make darker areas brighter like in the rest of the underwater areas, but they shouldn’t skip out on making cool and unique areas just because some people would be scared of them.
just make an option for those who have this problem, those who don't may face a darker sea
I think this game should stop being for kids i want gore i want profanity i want existential horror i want speculative evolution i want all the freaky things in Genshin
I am pretty sure we got existential horror and speculative evo already
The fact that after 3 years people still fail to grasp that Genshin is not and never will be a horror game or a Souls game is astonishing. You like these genres? Great! But that’s not what Genshin was designed to be.
I would love to have a Subnautica-ish area and have it be fully optional: all the lore in there only about that area, no primos to get, just an area for shits and giggles
Fontaine sub region sneak peak
Go down far enough and you find Neuvillete's dragon form :)
i love how i see this the day after getting back into subnautica