Do we need to worry about powercreep in Genshin?

The problem with newer 4 stars is that their full potential is locked behind constellations, sara, faruzan, gorou, mika, kaveh, yunjin etc. these characters at c0 tend to feel very underwhelming and uncomfortable to play at c0, but with their constellations they’re actually incredible units who are as op as bennet in specific circumstances

I love how little direct powercreep there’s been so far. I can build my favorite characters without worry of them eventually being useless! They did twist my arm to pull for Neuvilette though, his strength is ridiculous!

I think the most obvious way they can avoid power creep is to make different endgame modes and this also applies to combat events. It's all time trials so certain attributes dominate the meta, it's the reason healers and defensive characters get so much hate, because after a certain point, the only content hard enough to need optimizing, are timed DPS checks. If we had survival modes, boss rushes or other modes that had no time limit but had other win conditions or required different team comps, it would leave much more design space so there would be far less of a push to make characters that do the same thing but better in the few areas that matter most in Spiral Abyss.

Neuvillette is stronger as a hypercarry, but Ayato is much more flexible and suitable for many more teams.

i honestly really hate the reverse powercreep that happens to alot of new 4*s. ive gottten to the point where i just dont expect anything good of those character releases, because i know that they will most likely be either underwhelming, or just mid. it sucks and makes those charas feel like theyre being released just for the sake of having some characters released (imho). it just feels like they are missing something??

i think with neuvillette, hoyo is simply experimenting with the hypercarry playstyle, and just haven't figured out their specific formula for it. we saw similar experiments with Lyney (mono pyro) and Freminet (unga bunga physical), actually, so it could be that they're still fine-tuning the mechanics and went a little overboard with the otter man.

I don't think neuvillette is a one-off. he's more of a trend of one region having a single dps unit of special note. He is what xiao was supposed to be to zhongli, what Alhaitham is to nahida, what raiden shogun herself is, what diluc once was. Each region gets to have a strong support (usually an archon now) and a strong DPS by default, and they're usually important in the story.

I thought this video was very accurate In general I think mihoyo is powercreeping more in terms of characters smoothness and ease of use than actual dps ceiling. I do theorycrafting videos so I constantly monitor these numbers, and for example while neuvillette isn't head and shoulders above others in that sense, he does feel better than many characters just because of how easy it is for him to reach that dps ceiling in real play, and also how guaranteed his aoe feels. I think we had something like this with a character such as wanderer too, which in my opinion kinda powercrept yoimiya in terms of ease of use: both ranged left click spammers, but wanderer has better range, aoe and mobility ( this makes him feel better without a shielder than yoimiya ). Hoyoverse has its own metrics to determine character strenght and I'm sure this ease of use, which contributes to how good a character is for the average/casual player, is a big part of their kit designs

Neuvillette is ridiculously powerful for sure, and super fun to play... but yeah hopefully the video is right and he won't be the start of a powercreep trend!

Genshin is powercreeping pretty much since the beginning, I'd say about four times in a year there's a new thing released that shifts damage ceiling up. Out of more notable ones, Zhongli, Hu Tao, Yelan, Dendro as a whole, they all moved the cap quite a lot. But the thing is that actual difficulty bar did not move by far that much. And with it I account even for the hardest Abyss cycles we had so far that occurred during 3.x. Many were complaining but in the end many have beaten it using old characters, just used in creative arrangements. Poeple who have fun beating Abyss using 4-star characters with 4-star weapons have yet to have their streak interrupted. And overworld is as easy as ever, I have just seen a video of someone exploring Fontaine using level 20 characters. Which is in fact great. There's a lot of Genshin except the Abyss and for significant part of players Abyss does not even exist. Such people have zero need to get stronger characters to "succeed", they get them for all other reasons. Note Hoyo never showcases character strength in their demos. They showcase their design, their personality, their animations and effects. They're selling eye candy and experience, not DPS. The powercreep is there just for those for who it matters, those who measure beauty in damage per second. Note on your closing remarks: Abyss will always be a DPS check. The kind of check may change over time as it did in the past, i.e. elemental application check, burst damage check, sustained damage check and so on but it will always be a DPS check. That's the purpose of Abyss. For other challenges, there's exploration and limited time events.

Something to note: Yelan actually does about the same damage as Xingqiu as a solo unit (she does more damage than Xingqiu when they're paired together because Xingqiu makes up for some of her energy while providing hydro resonance and resistance shred via constellations). This is mostly due to her worse particle generation in teams with inflexible on-fielders (like hu tao, cyno, or yoimiya). In addition, Ayato still provides better hydro application (in addition to off-field presence) that Neuvillette does not (though this difference doesn't mean much for most people who don't care that much about combat). In general, though, I agree with your points! Especially on ambient powercreep, it's definitely something noticeable, especially after the release of dendro.

There is a clear power difference between Ayato and Neuvillette. Sadly a lot of people will think this means Ayato is no good, when he is actually very good when built. Def 'good enough' for any normal content. Ayato is also very easy to play. I've already seen a thumbnail stating that people should not pull for Ayato his next banner. But if someone needs a hydro DPS now and not in half-a-year (blind guess about a rerun) or just likes Ayato, it really is their own business. Not everyone is trying to clear the Abyss in record time. Both gentlemen are among my favorites. If Neuvillette might be a bit ahead of Ayato now, it is not because of his 'hydro pump'. It is just that Dragons are amazing. 🤩

Imo the ONLY bad powercreep comes when you NEED new characters because your old characters don't have enough damage to go through some content. Genshin is doing great so far dealing with this since, as far as i know, you can do any content with any given character, which is great. Nice vid 😊

Genshin also is known for pulling out and deviate the next characters to single out those that are strong (leaving an element on the floor to burst your dendro seeds), if Neuvillette is strong and people are juicing over the prospect of a future unit to further improve his damage like a hp buffer... then we can most likely expected that character to never come out or be so restrictive in its mechanics to not make Neuvillette stronger, maybe they will be hydro too so either you want Furina or this character but all 3 of them will reduce your options. Venti was the closest this game had to a must pull, and now he is in line. Another thing is that for some reason they love to put all hydro characters into 5-star rarity, the game has seen 7! 5 stars while only 1 4-star since 1.0 so the competition is really piling up, in the same way that pyro is overstack with onfield dps. Cryo is funnily the more varied element on their roster, everyone in a way have something distinctive, and they lack a reaction with dendro. I got Nevillette and my Ayato is still a blast to play on my soup teams, Neuvillette is useless when I need offield hydro.

I think it's a pretty good reminder that no matter what, powercreep is always going to be a thing even if it's not as noticeable in day to day play. Except Otter Prime. 😎 Neuvillette is ridiculous tough and that only increases as you gain constellations for him. I'm pretty sure that c6 Yelan and c6 Otter Prime could clear the abyss with 3 stars as solo teams. Thank you sweet Saurus for another wonderful video 👏💜🥳

My hope is that Neuvillette just signals a small boost in numbers for newer characters, in the same way that Ganyu did. They eventually pulled back on how good post-Ganyu 5*s were (Xiao and Ayato are great characters but were definitely more balanced). My speculation is that Ganyu and the powerful 5*s that came after her were an overcorrection from the Zhongli fiasco and if I had to guess now, the reason Neuvillette is so powerful is because HYV are trying to introduce more variety now that Hyperbloom and Dendro in general has pushed the damage ceiling a little higher. Hopefully they'll reign it back a bit in future patches

I have no squab about Neuvy's abilities and such but I find it really funny to see him in coop floating around like a kite while he uses his hydrocannon. I like Ayato more because he is more stylish and is so easy to use.

"Novelty over higher numbers" Yes! This!

I really appreciate your perspective, nuance and effort in this comprehensive and deep analysis

i think the reason why neuvillette outperforms ayato is simple - neuvillette is a super powerful dragon. they just keep up with the lore par here and i love it. ayato is still very good at his role and if his mains love him they will still use him, I am glad im not this much into combat to care if one hydro dps is better than other hydro dps. a year ago i pulled ayaka for sole reason for her being "top cryo dps". did i use her anywhere else than open world? nah. i just don't need to keep up with the abyss this much. yes for sure i want characters to be strong there but i want MY FAVORITE characters to be strong, not some random unit who i don't like this much. and yes i am ready to invest in a character even if they are dori if i like that char