So I like Genshin.
That's it. That's the bit.
No but fr I wouldn't really describe myself as a gamer, I played with my dad, brothers and friends A LOT growing up and I do adore and buy new releases of like 5 or 6 franchises every time they come out but I don't just buy new games anymore really if i dont have that already connection. There was a time in uni id buy story ones to just complete and dissociate to. 
that time has passed.
But like I ended up playing genshin for a bit during covid and just fell in love.
I thought I'd hate it cos I'd seen how horny and gross the fanbase could be and some of the outfits and jiggle physics 💀💀💀 i mean all the outfits are beautiful and I'd absolutely wear them but like omg who's fighting gods in heels with no support RAIDEN?!
but like what I think what hooked me was the fact that outside of their aesthetic design, all of the women were written great.
Not like feminist icons to stand out (lmao they absolutely do cos the blatantly male lead staff have a bias towards the female characters) but just how they are written as people.
I can't quite put it to words in how it's different from a jrpg but like when I've played jrpgs in the past I feel both ashamed of my body and an object as the opposite/foil to all the usually positive traits male protagonists get given.
In genshin I just feel bad about my body!! Yey!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭
I'm not making sense maybe. Genshin women feel like people. In terms of their characterisation they are people with motivations, not women with motivations if that makes sense?
When Jrpgs do it they get close but then BAMN the writers could not make some sexist reference or comment or characterisation. And it reduces us back to "women" vs a person who is a woman.
Actually that said there's like a few character that fancy the MC. What's funny is because I'm playing as Lumine, for me Genshin characters (ayaka who you dancing for girl? I fell for childe like an entire chapter ago, im locked up) who have flirted with me now makes my teyvat wholy sapphic and I love that.
So yeah it's not feminist by any stretch but it's also not sexist (relative to comparable games) in how it depicts women. It's genuinely been a pleasure to play the story as it's just powerful female character after powerful female character AND it feels like I'm just playing a life bite anime sometimes and that's so fun.
I dunno nobody feels like they are written as an object for men either or as a women to just push the male characters along. Instead women are written as real characters and that's so refreshing.
And then like furina, the whole ptsd plot hit hard. She's my favourite and nobody else is allowed to like her now (as well as siegwinne, mualani and citlali. Sorry not sorry)
I dunno, feels like in the west and Japan even when writers try to write strong women or just not be sexist they end up condescending us somehow. Here's genshin that I seriously doubt set out to do anything for women and did a way better job by accident.
If we ignore the aesthetic design and jiggle physics, WHICH I CANT AAAAAAAAAAAA THEY ARE SO BAD SOMETIMES.
But like yeah I dunno, it's weird that I'm seeing better written female characters in a gooner gacha mill and outside of a few romantically leaning scenes (childe 😍) when I'm playing everyone's just a person. Not a man or woman but just a person and imo I think that's why I personally got so attached to all of the characters and their little stories and motivations.
Also melusines, the melusines are the best bit and they are so cute and precious and I love them and my bf says I like them because I'm similar in my manorisms but that's stupid because they are so adorable and I'm not so narcissistic (I hope) and they have this big back story about how they were discriminated against and they get they're rights eventually and become beloved by the fontanian citizens and it is a legal decree to use she/her pronouns for them instead of it and that's super cute and I feel so happy for them and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa snxkdkfmelcnskwmdmekxjenxnend3mdms
Can we have some melusine emojii gif things please 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Edit: tbh childe is just the meme, it's all about our sensitive soft boy neuvillette and bad boy wriothsley 😍
Yes I do see what you mean now!!
Hmmm I see what you mean with the millicent and the samurai in inazuma yes.
But in sumeru we see a shift imo, yeah the city guard are mostly men but in terms of combat npc there's more women and they are just better. Then we get to fontaine and what you are saying kinda doesn't apply anymore unless they are writing a story where it's relevant like there's a one about marriage and stuff so the gendered stuff appears there as you'd expect but apart from that it's not.
The police and locals in fontaine are not gendered and in natlan all rules are out.
I think they've definitely improved in regards to sexism with npcs from pre 2.0 to now 5.2
I did notice that about Sumeru, and I fought some of Natlan's new foes in the Spiral Abyss.
Damn, maybe it's not a bad idea to get back into Genshin some time in the future, and just focus on the story and characters. Most combat will be trivial with my Raiden anyway, so... Because I'm kinda interested in Fontaine, really wanna know how Genshin handles a more technologically advanced region, and how that influences the writing. Also intrigued because you wrote that Furina's arc is really good edit: or like something along those lines I have a real smooth brain sorrryyyy
Fontaine is my favourite region and it's done so well. It's like clockwerk mecha steam punk meets European french courts.
Make sure to do neuvilettes story mission, it's then one about the melusines becoming citizens. Clorinde's is 100% the most fun story mission in the game hands down no competition.
Omg furina. The archon quest and her back story kinda kick started me into playing it. I'd been reading about the game and her and her story and there was a lot I could relate to especially with her ptsd and how she has to smile through her trauma and smxkwkckelflwldlwx if you play it and then her story quest you'll see how good it is.
Okay so with the natlan enemies, have you watched closely their combat animations? They are so goofy, like they always injure themselves by accident e.g. throwing their sword and it coming back to bonk them and that's part of the animation. They've got so much character and richness compared to like everything else before it.
Fontaine is my favourite cos of furina and melusines and I'm euro bitch so I'm blates bias but natlan is just the best designed region in the game no competition and it's taken me a long time to admit that 😭
Edit: oh also sumeru is a sloooggggg omg that was the slowest part for me, irl friends said they dropped out then too cos of how slow it felt but it gets so much better post sumeru!!!