There's no such thing as a perfect game, and Genshin is no exception. While a lot of the flaws are often overstated, a lot of the criticisms are definitely valid as well. With that said, I'd like to point out some of the things that Genshin has done exceptionally well since version 4.0 and hopefully spread some positivity going into Lantern Rite.

1. Archon Quests

Without spoiling anything for anybody - Fontaine's Archon Quest was overall amazing IMO. MHY definitely put in a lot of effort to make the AQ as interactive & engaging as possible. I loved the mysteries surrounding Fontaine and how we had to play detective to figure everything out one by one. The jail part was a bit iffy and there are some filler content that could've been better, but overall it was a solid 9.5/10 IMO.

2. Exploration

Fontaine's design was nothing short of amazing. I was really scared that they'd mess up the underwater exploration like a lot of games tend to do by introducing air mechanics or something, but they turned it into an amazing experience. Underwater combat leaves a bit more to the desired, but it's overall not an issue since most of the underwater monsters are fairly weak.

When we thought it couldn't get any better MHY released Chenyu Vale. Maybe it's my bias towards Liyue styled maps (and the fact that I have Xianyun's C1 to jump around with) but this area is fantastic. The environment is beautiful, the puzzles are fun and the music is so soothing. It's incredible that we get back to back maps that absolutely clears everything pre-Fontaine IMO.

Solid 10/10 here.

3. Character Designs

I absolutely loved the aesthetics of Fontaine characters including the new skins that just released. I'm surprised MHY released such "revealing" skins since they ran into some issues regarding this in the past and had to re-design Jean/Lisa's outfits in the past. Hopefully this means that they're over this and can continue to design characters to their hearts' content in the future.

In terms of gameplay, I would've liked to see just a little bit more consistency between characters. I love Lyney, Navia and Wriothesley but at this point I don't think it's outrageous to point out that Neuvillette is much stronger from a gameplay perspective. Xianyun IMO could've been designed a LITTLE bit better, but I'm honestly having an absolute blast with her right now so I can't complain too much.

With that said, I like how MHY is trying to bring back some of the unused/least used reactions and attempting to make it viable (they're not doing a perfect job but I like the attempt). Freminet isn't going to make shatter meta, but at least it's there for the players looking to make use of it. Chevreuse isn't going to make overload meta overnight, but I definitely see the potential for future overload teams. Navia making use of crystalize is a nice touch as well. It's not perfect by any means but I do like the attempts that they're making.

Another thing I have to applaud MHY on is that the new 4 stars they're releasing have been generally great in the last two patches - specifically Chevreuse and Gaming. Both of these characters are good at C0 and become very close to 5 star level characters at C6. They're not Bennett or Xiangling great, but 4 star characters that function without needing Constellations are great for the game IMO.

10/10 for aesthetics 7/10 for gameplay.

4. Weapon Designs

THANK THE LORD MHY seems to have finally dropped the stupid weapon series that they kept insisting on releasing even though it did not match the character aesthetics whatsoever. I'm glad whoever decide to give Nilou the Brick as her signature has finally been put in their goddamn place. To be fair I think the weapon designs have been pretty good since Nilou, but it's nice to see that they've continued the trend in Fontaine.

The weapon designs seems to finally be aligned with character aesthetics instead of being pulled out of their asses. Furina's signature is also probably the sickest 5 star weapon in the game, you could definitely tell a LOT of thought and effort was put into that weapon. Definitely worth the 200 pulls it took me to pull it I'm not crying I swear I'm not coping.

Overall 10/10 so far (god I hope I didn't just jinx us).

5. QoL updates

A LOT of QoL updates in 4.3 were very much welcomed. I can't remember all of them but getting rid of stairs in domains is an absolute god send and should've been done years ago. Artifact leveling/locking is a nice touch and claim all expeditions is great.

Honestly these are QoL updates that should've been done a long time ago so I'm not that impressed by it, but at the very least they've gotten it done. Now we just need artifact load outs.

Conclusion

There's probably a ton of other things that I missed, but I think overall 4.x has been really good so far despite some mishaps. There's no such thing as a flawless/perfect game, but there are definitely a lot of positive things that MHY has done in the past year that doesn't get mentioned enough. Hopefully MHY continues with this and continues to put effort in making Genshin one of the best games on the market.