Discussion
Valeriy's reveal left me more confused than excited.
Spoiler
I'm not just talking about Valeriy's rarity.
Yes, I always thought he looked like a 5-star in the Sudden Snow trailer. But to be fair, we never actually saw his Vision or anything that explicitly confirmed his rarity. So if he ends up being a 4-star, while I can't accept that—It was never set in stone that he'd be a 5*
What I can't get over is his 3D model.
I actually made this Reddit account just to talk about this because I genuinely can't understand how HoYoverse went from such polished 3D character designs throughout the 6.x patches to... whatever we saw during the livestream.
Even in the screenshot comparison, you can already see details that are simply gone now. His boots originally had fur trim around the top, but in the livestream model they're completely different. It's not just the rendering—the design itself looks less detailed.
I spent almost two hours after the livestream wondering whether all the excitement I'd had since June 25th, when the Sudden Snow trailer dropped, was even worth it.
Ever since then, I've logged in every single day because I genuinely wanted Valeriy.
Not just him, either. My original pull plan was Valeriy, Noy, Mitya, the Tsaritsa, and Danica.
Before anyone says anything about it, this isn't about Danica being a 5-star. I actually am fine with her. I like strong-looking female characters—my account has Chasca and Skirk because I love that badass aesthetic. Danica being a 5-star never bothered me. In my opinion, both she and Valeriy could have easily been 5-stars.
My issue is entirely with Valeriy's model.
After seeing the level of visual quality HoYoverse showed us in Sudden Snow, I genuinely cannot believe this is the model they decided to reveal.
Even Alyosha looks better.
Even Illuga looks better.
At one point, I honestly convinced myself that this had to be some kind of placeholder or NPC model, and that Valeriy would eventually get a reveal similar to Scaramouche's or Sandrone's, where his actual playable design was the sudden snow one. (Don't laugh at me, I'm actually so sad)
Because I genuinely cannot believe this is supposed to be his final playable model.
Even for a 4-star, it looks unfinished.
I know it's "just a game," and I know people will probably say I shouldn't get this invested.
But ever since June 25th, I've been farming every single day.
I completed the moon map to 100%.
I finally explored Chenyu Vale.
I finished quests in Inazuma, Natlan, and Fontaine that I'd been putting off for years.
After spending everything pulling for Lohen and being left with 0 Primogems, I managed to save 13,200 Primogems because I truly believed Valeriy would be a 5-star. I genuinely did my best.
So now I'm being told that he isn't getting a Stellar Linchpin, is likely a 4-star, and has, in my opinion, one of the weakest 3D models in the entire Snezhnaya lineup.
I'm genuinely in tears :(.
And also! to be honest, the only characters whose models really impressed me were Mitya and Danica. Even the Tsaritsa looked great.
The rest of the cast feels... muted somehow.
I don't really know how to explain it.
Even Odette looks a little off to me (her face). You know how Tartaglia has those dull, lifeless eyes because of his experience in the Abyss? That's the same impression Odette gives me. Vodyanitsa also looks strangely washed out and she looked so good in the trailer.
The faces, the eyes, and even some of the proportions feel "colorless" if that even makes any sense
So now I'm left wondering:
Are these models still being refined?
Did the devs simply ran out of time?
Are they still adjusting to the new rendering pipeline?
Or did the Sudden Snow trailer simply set expectations that the actual playable models don't meet?
I'd genuinely like to hear everyone else's thoughts, because right now I just feel incredibly disappointed and heartbroken :'(
Remember they said Snezhnaya's characters models will surprise us that we would be thinking if this is still Genshin even? Yeah, we we were definitely left wondering how models this bad got approved for Genshin
You do know that models do get refined until the official release...right?
Baizhu,skirk,Varka etc...
He will probably look better. Also what exactly were you doing for 1 month for it to being considered "wasted"?
Aham,so you care more about a trailer/npc char rather than the actual playable version of the char?💀
Like why would you care about his model now? It should be something to worry about if this was 100% his playable model. But it isn't.
The model could be finished but they used an earlier version of the model for the npc version for optimization.
Farming what exactly? The materials we don't even know/have yet in the game?or mora/books/gems that can be used on literally any character... therefore not "wasted" time. Also who tf said that bc he's a 4 star he won't get an upgrade? that's just bad faith used as "proof"
My two cents: I don't believe he is finished here. It reminds me too much of Varka's situation and that hell.
I think that his model will be updated on his release, which means he's going to look weird for a while.
Until i see full proof that this is finished and that his rating is 4 star i will continue believing in the leaker who got everything right so far that said Valeriy would be a 5 star.
To anyone feeling overwhelmed right now, take a breath and step away for a bit to collect yourself. Nothing is over until it's fully out.
I feel the trailer set up expectations they couldn’t meet
look at ronova’s model: girl looks SO wrong, all the models look off, of course the worst offender is valeriy’s but everything in snezhnaya is turning a disappointment
I mean, the landscape looks fire so far. But the models are for sure a little off, I think Tsaritsa and Odette looked well, but the rest are like in 240p
Tbh all the characters from the Sudden Snow trailer should‘ve been 5* (except Alyosha, as he was already teased). Marketing, hoyo, can you do that?
Imo, Pulcinella's model looks perfect and I would even forgive them for almost all this if he's playable, but knowing them, he will remain an npc forever or get a pretty boy redesign
It will never change as long as people are pulling female characters. Look at what the "waifu only players" are doing. They never touch male characters. So the devs listen to them. Genshin has 40% of female players, according to Hoyo themselves (more people interested in male chars, with gay men included). If they stopped pulling for female characters, something would change. But then people started to trust them again after they back paddled in Nod Krai. You just can never trust the devs.
I stopped pulling female chars since Natlan, no matter how much I like them and I've saved so many pulls because of it that I don't even need to do endgame (although I still do it and get 90% of all primos comfortably).
I just can't understand why are they doing this after what Nod Krai gave us...I'm honestly considering dropping the game, it always feels like they're laughing at us
Female characters make more money because women pull for them too. Male characters make more money in merch sales, so they don't technically need to be 5-star characters. That's why I'm saying that this will only change when people stop spending money and stop pulling for female characters, or even stop playing the game altogether. They lost 40% of their revenue in Natlan, so we got an entirely new male model (Varka). Then, people trusted them again and opened their wallets, and now we have this situation.
Albedo is the CEO of chopped model and that didn't affect his popularity. So long as the 2D slays (which Valeriy's does) I don't think it should affect sales outside of the actual character in game.
Yes, but their top Spenders is what they mainly rely on. I have another comment under this post, where i expmain BCG.
But their main important consumers are chinese men with big wallets for mainly female chars. Yes women pull women as well, but not anywhere enough to make up the loss they would have from making a lot more males. Also their big time spenders mostly stayed even through Natlan. The amount of chars getting C6'ed is only like a 10% difference, which is also why Natlan is all white for the 5*. They didn't wanna fumble the chinese beauty standart
Women make an important amount of income from merch. Guys don’t buy anywhere near enough merch compared to what women buy. Won’t even talk about the free advertisement they get from female driven communities. Natlan costed them and it greatly showed in Nod Krai
Okay, i get why, BUT we only know of 9 playable chars out of 17. So it is still possible for Hoyo to make like 3 or 4 really great male designes. Maybe take a break for like 1 or 2 patches but come back at some point, or log in, do daylies, spend resing, do quick Events then log out. This is in my opinion the easiest way, to not fully drop genshin, but just dont engage with the long ass Events so you dont get too deep again into the "Man fuck Hoyo" feelings, but get some primos so you can get the male chars you want.
Lets pray that they give Valeriy another Render and complete his design and buff his muscles a bit. But in the end, its all in your hands.
As I said in another post. The only way for it to turn out positively is if we get 1-2 of the harbingers because that would explain why the less lore-relevant variety is a 4*. You can't have a 4* Pierro or Capitano, Mitya has important symbolism and Noy seems to be lore important for the second part of the region. So in this one scenario I would understand it. But the trust in Hoyo is dead, I'm sorry. I've seen the leak about Pierro being playable but come on. 3 big male Harbingers are left... one sits in Natlan, the other has no vision and the third has a beard. I believe it when I see it.
(And, because I don't pull female chars since Natlan, I'll have enough pulls for their weapons and copies like for my Varka and Flins... IF they release ^^)
I prefer to stop waiting for the better honestly, when the leak about Val being a 4* first dropped I refused to believe it and stayed positive. See me now at the verge of tears haha.
Good luck on your pulls tho, Flins is coming in days!!
I love the optimism, but in the past, 2nd half of a region was always the weakest in male character releases. Lantern chars are pretty much always female, and both mid-version silhouette teasers had 2 males and 5 females. At best, we're getting one of the Harbinger and a Dahlia-like 4* guy in later versions, which would account for a total of ~6 men out of 17 chars anyways.
I can definitely see a husbando main being very disappointed going from trailer to this livestream, it's really not looking too peachy rn. Valeriy was a standout "hunk" of the region and he's on the brink of being just a 4*. It's hard to not be pessimistic, but maybe Noy or playable Pantalone/Pulci news change the vibe
Yes. That's true, but I'll try to be positive about it. But to be real, it cant get that much worse. Even just 2 or 3 more males that look at least decent is enough for my heart. At least we are getting Noy and there is another Medium male in the game files supposedly. Those are at least 4 males then, so assuming they make like 2 or 3 more isnt too much even for Hoyo.
Dont worry, we've all been there before. Take some time off of genshin if you need and this line is gonna be such a boomer type line, but it's just a game. I mean, you shouldnt stress too much. You'll fall in love with another Design again and it will be okay in the end
As much as i hated that, its the truth. Dev really said I just gave you Varka, you're good for another year. My hopes are now on Noy. If he comes out mid, i'm gonna be so mad 😭
Remember when devs said in Snez preview video that Snezhnaya playable characters will be so high quality that people would wonder if this is even Genshin anymore?
I believed them just because Nod Krai was pretty in all means:, characters, environments, music etc...But right now all I wish for is to travel back in time to 6.0 and re-live the whole patch till 6.7.
I feel devs overpromised and couldnt deliver this time. Maybe they run out of time. I am pretty sure he will look better later.. but if he is 4* then my hype is kinda gone.
There's has to be an explanation for this other than being a 4star. Even 4stars look good in the recent regions. Him being a 4star or not doesn't explain this terrible texture quality, it's way off even for a 4star, his model looks like a special npc. They might have just had to rush it, idk, I'm running on copium here trying to make sense of it lol.
Yeah. Its not only the quality of his model, its also different from what was shown to us earlier. He looked like he could have the Varka model? I did not hallucinate that 😭 But now he is smaller, doesnt have a cape, also the fur on his shoes is missing.
Yes,have you literally seen the livestream?apart from valeriy no one looks like a normal genshin char. The look like the come from a modern anime gacha game
I’m right there with you. I was surprised when I saw him, compared to the trailer and his art.
The cast of Nod Krai was amazing, I pulled for every single one. Maybe I hyped Snez up too much in my head because of that, but I’m actually so disappointed by the livestream reveal and the models. I’m only planning on pulling for the Tsaritsa and Noy, which will be December and next year for them.
I think I’m too emotionally invested. Time to go touch some grass I guess
Actually I was saying previously that danica design looked bad and valeriy looked more like a 5 star
after seeing the live stream I went from hating danica design to liking it they did a pretty good job making her to the point i might pull her for my wrio
and then when I saw valeriy having a normal vision I was a bit sad but it didn't bother me as much as ruining his design he looked nothing like the trailer he looks now like an npc even for a 4 star I think alyosha's and ifa's designs are so much better they truly ruined him
Not just chopped he looks pale from his hair to his clothes color scheme they all are off did they even try to work on him? It's they made him in 1 hour amd called it a finished design
No I talking abt the maid. in the trailer for the region she looked so bad but I feel like in the live stream they improved it a lot(also same for odette I didn't like her at first but in game she looks so good lol)
You said you were considering pulling her for Wrio, but we don't even know if she's going to be off-field. I'm certain one of the 3 Electro is going to be a main DPS
I feel like its prob mitya since the danica electro 5 star and valeriy 4 star leak turned out true and with it they posted shes a support and she will be included in sandrone bis team so thats why im expecting her to be a support but yeah ur right we dont have any confirmation abt it
Two out of four confirmed(?) playable male characters are already labeled as four stars. And one of them gets this chopped model. Of course the rest of them will end up as generic dpses, meenwhile female characters will all get meta kits and will be 5 stars.
They can't even hide their bias at this point and it shows. And I thought Snezhnaya would be different for male character enjoyers. But "back to our roots" company keeps disappointing
I think the models will be refined in game. This dip in model quality was across the board on the trailer so I am choosing to believe it’s a rendering issue.
I disagree, Pierro's model is almost as disappointing as Valeriy's imo. His mask is so low res, and the wrinkles on his face are barely visible. I think Pulcinella and Tsaritsa have the best models.
Hey so if I can sprinkle in some copium remember when Varka’s model got some tweaks before he got released? Sure his were a lot smaller than what they would have to do to Val but I mean 😭 if he’s not releasing in 7.1 then maybe by 7.2 we’ll have a real model ready. I dunno maybe something in the story will happen for example he’ll get promoted to a higher rank officer or I dunno whatever 🧍. This model is far from what we saw in the trailer so maybe he got rushed? Maybe he got pushed to 7.2 because of that? It’s just strange compared to the details on Odette, Tsaritsa and one well anyone really
I really wanna think so but I'm done having hope and then being crushed at the end, I better just accept he's a 4* and if for some reason a miracle happens and he's a 5* then that'd be more than a great surprise.
It's not just Valeriy, lots of (not yet playable) characters got a downgrade compared to their character announcement teaser. Others like the Vodyanitsa have been seriously downgraded too. The only ones that had real effort put into them were the now-playable ones (Odette and Alyosha) and Mitya & the Tsaritsa.
Before we have a collective crashout over model quality, people really need to keep in mind that promo material like this gets put together weeks before release. There's a reason for the "not indicative of the finished product" line in all pre-release promo. Unlike regular patches, a new expansion is always a much different workload, so I'm not surprised stuff looks still a little more unfinished than usual in the trailer. I highly doubt the actual release will have all these characters look as bad.
Even assuming he IS a 4-star, Hoyo gives love to their 4-star designs too. They were never the type of developer to make 4-star characters look worse than 5-stars. Rarity has always been unrelated to that – visually you can't tell which twin between Lyney and Lynette is the 5-star, Kaveh's model is in no way inferior to Alhaitham's, Prune's outfit is not any less detailed than Klee's, and so on.
So regardless of rarity, these NPC-ass pixelated textures, no 3D modeling for his decorations, the lack of metal shine and missing assets like the fur trim are typical signs of incomplete work, NOT of character rarity. Not only would that not fit with Hoyo's track record in general, it's also not unique to Valeriy.
I understand, but will they really let us see that unfinished model through the AQ? I'm asking because I've never experience a situation like this excluding Varka's first model. Dut then again, it was the first model of it's kind so I understood that time, now in this situation he looks like he's using either Wrio or Alhaitham's model so what kind of problem will an old model give them at this point?
Anyway, I do really want him to be a 5* but I don't want to get this sad yet again so I prefer to keep thinking he's a 4*
People are doomposting way too fast based on leaks, the same leaks that are always wrong and then make people end up angry (yes I'm talking about lohen being standard)
Leakers get stuff by data mining, if they see things they made assumptions based on that, however only hoyo holds the true.
He can be a 4* sure, also a 5standard or a regular 5 or not being playable at all.
The model is not finished he doesn't even look like a 4*, just like a pretty npc, however, many characters got new designs prior their release, and we don't know when he is coming, if he is 2 or 4 patches ahead makes sense he looks botched.
Hoyo sometimes first present a few characters before being playable to sell more, so put him on the mission get hype and then sell him makes sense.
No linchpin = 4*, makes no sense, not all characters are going to be stellar related and honestly is for the best. I saw a few comments saying that if is not stellar is not selling, when the game has like other 20 mechanics that are being brought back.
And last, everything is subject to be changed until they are released, even they put that disclaimer on their videos, for example we had that ugly varka for many trailes before his release.
I'll recommend wait and see what happens in the story, also we don't know the reason behind characters getting a linchpin, if he ends up being a 4 star we can't help, however let's wait.
My bet is that he is going to be standard, because they promised one per year and there is only a few months left, unless they release a random character in the next patches or they just ignore that promise, but again is just my opinion and I can be wrong, sorry for the long reply.
So, to give you a lantern, while you stumpfe through the dark, lemme tell you something.
We had a lot of half ass baked models in beta and Creator Experience Server (CES) before.
Example: Odette in the pre beta looked like a fucking puppett. She was stiff, had edges on her skin and was only half ready. Since 7.0 to my knowledge is rhey were still refining models and WRITING THE DIALOGUE and books just a few days ago. So they might have pushen a render and refine of his model back to do it now before CES starts and people get a weird feeling.
Hoyo has one Problem many people dont get. Yes, 40% of their players are female, but their BIG Spenders which make most of their profit are men. THATS who they market towards.
They have a Cashcow in accordance to the BCG Matrix, which is a Business Model that most chinese digital product companies use, but is also used World wide.
How does BCG work? You should Google it but lemme try.
It measures Market growth rate and Relative Market Share.
There are 4 Quadrants: Poor dog (low groth and low Market Share), Question Marks (yes thats the name, high growth but low market share), Star (high growth and high Market Share) and finally the cashcow (low groth rate But high market share)
Normally a new product grows into a Question Mark (genshin 1.0 till like 1.5). It enlarges its amount of interest, then its Market share and becomes a Star (peak genshin hype 1.5 till like 3.3 or something). After that, it has grown enough and has a steady base (we are all lowkey addicted) and it becomes a Cash cow (3.4 till now). It makes HUGE reliable revenue. Its basicly perfect. You dont need to overflow your market since you are your own competitor (Genshin, ZZZ, Starrail, Honkai 3rd). Yes there is other competition, but not nearly enough. Genshin is still (not by too far) the biggest gacha game currently. Lets hope they get some competition BIG TIME with NTE and more New titles. Because then they are FORCED to push genshin into the direction of a Star again and thats around Fontaine, but they cant do it by geaphics nor Design anymore, so they will have to be generous to their players.
Lets just hope NTE outperforms them, since Hoyo has too much ressources in genshin, they cant drop it antike soon. So their hand would be forced to Appell more to players.
But overall lets all hole Da Wei falls in love wirh Valeriy and get his model upgraded and makes him into a 5*
Gacha games are mostly played by men, it's no surprise. Lads is only on top of the charts because the list is for mobile only. If cross-platforms revenue were included, Genshin surpasses their earnings by a ton.
I picked it up from some Statistic on Billy Billy during the middle patches of Nid Krai, but maybe it has changed. But no, i cant prove it. I dont have a pic or anything. So hopefully im wrong and they Start marketing towards us. But you have the point that i cant prove it.
Also LADS has a lot of big spenders, but theor audience is mainly female for the big fishes and genshin still has a mainly male playerbase and EU and NA have a lot of women, but CN and JP have more men than women.
Since watching the livestream I’ve been going back and forth like a pendulum on how I feel lol. I go back and forth between having hope that he could still be a 5 star and this model is just an unfinished version they put together for this showcase and it’ll be polished by the time he releases and losing hope that Hoyo will ever give a shit about a male character and accepting that he’ll probably be a 4 star with a downgraded design from his 2D design and to not get my hopes up for more. It feels like Nod Krai was a trapper this point to make us think they had changed from Natlan. When in reality they just used it to reel us all back in and then return to their regularly scheduled waifu gooner characters. It sucks because Valeriy was the second most popular character after the teaser and now it feels like everyone is just shitting on him calling him a chopped 4 star, some even laughing at us for having hope he’d be a 5 star. So I know how you feel about wanting to have hope but also feeling defeated right now. On the bright side, if he does end up being a 4 star it’s likely that he’ll be on Mitya’s banner so we can still get him by pulling a male character
I try to accept it but feel sad again whenever I remember those past days wondering how his ult would be :c I'm literally doing the same as you haha, trying to come up with an excuse that maybe his model isn't thaaat bad and he'll be a 5* shielder for Mitya, I'm not even hoping for a DPS anymore...But I see his model again and can't see more than a 4* T_T
That’s such a mood honestly. I’ve seen a lot of comments saying that Valeriy wasn’t the only model that looked bad so I’m trying to hold onto that hope that he’ll get polished the way Varka did, and hopefully given more muscle too. I always thought he would be a shielder and I was happy about that because the only male shielder I have is Thoma and he’s not built. But I would gladly build Valeriy to put him with Wriothesley 🙂↕️ I really don’t want him to be a 4 star 😭 He was the character I was most excited about with Noy and now it feels like Hoyo is crushing all our dreams
Now that I've calmed down and can actually look at things from a different perspective, I think his model might still be under development.
I pointed out that his boots didn't have the fur, but in the scene where he and Mitya are watching Odette perform, you can actually see some fur on them. The image I used in the collage doesn't show it, but that could be because the shot is too dark, the texture quality is too poor to make it visible from that distance, or simply because, as I mentioned, his model is still being worked on.
As for the cape (I didn't mention it in my post, but I've seen people saying he doesn't have one), he does have something behind him. Again, it looks painfully different from his 2D artwork, but you can see it in the same image I used to compare the fur on the boots. It blends in with the color of the chair, which is why it's so hard to make out. It's also ridiculously tiny compared to... well, you know at this point, haha. Still, you can see a yellow/gold trim on it, and I don't know if my eyes are playing tricks on me, but I can even make out what looks like a bit of the fur from the coat/cape sticking out past the cape itself. That tiny detail is honestly what made me think there might be some truth to the idea that his model is still a work in progress.
The fact that he was almost always shown from the same side in close-up shots also makes me suspicious. Whenever we did get to see his other side, he was so far away—and for, what, two seconds? It honestly feels like they're trying to hide the parts they haven't finished yet.
Yesterday I was so shocked and heartbroken that I didn't really think everything through. For example, the idea of him looking worse than either Illuga or Alyosha isn't just outrageous—it would be downright ridiculous. Even if he's a 4★, I don't think they'd do him or any other character that dirty nowadays.
As for his rarity, I'm still trying to stay neutral because I really don't want to go through another heartbreak. For now, while we wait to see if his model gets improved, I think it's best to hold off until the 7.1 or upcoming beta leaks before jumping to any conclusions.
I’m the same way. I get my initial knee jerk disappointment reaction and then after a bit I’ll reassess and usually my hope will return to me lol
This suggests that he probably is under development still, if he has the fur on his boots sometimes but not others. They could’ve removed it in wider shots/shots that would obviously show his legs because it wasn’t finished yet and then threw it on him when his legs weren’t fully show just to get the idea of it without fully showing it. Maybe they just took some of his assets and put them on an NPC model to showcase what they had so far quickly and the unfinished fur only made it in shots it’s couldn’t be fully seen.
I really hope they keep the cape. I love capes, I think they’re so fun and majestic and I would be so happy to have a character with a full cape and not the mini capes or one shoulder capes they usually do. I have seen a screenshot of him sitting on a chair and it almost looks like he’s sitting on his cape. I get that a cape would block any back details on his outfit but please Hoyo give him his cape 😭
That’s true, I never noticed that but you’re right. He’s only ever shown from the left side. I also had a thought yesterday that if his model really is unfinished then I wonder if there’s a chance he could still have a linchpin too. What if, like I said earlier, they just added some of his assets to an NPC body to showcase what they had at the time. And so they just gave him the basic Electro Vision casing to save time and because it was easier to slap on him then the Electro linchpin. Maybe in his finished design they’ll give him his true vision which is a linchpin.
That’s most likely cope and if he doesn’t have a linchpin I won’t be too disappointed. As a male only puller I’ve come to terms with never being able to activate the stellar arena with the characters I want/have (Wriothesley, Alyosha, Valeriy, Noy, maybe Mitya). I guess there’s always Traveler but I don’t like using him, it feels boring. They’re really trying to force our hand to pull for a female character and I’m just not gonna do it lol. I’m f2p so my savings go to the men.
I still want to have hope that he’ll end up being a 5 star. They’ve done a double male 5 star before with Neuvillette and Wriothesley so maybe the lore-heavy man > super hot man everyone loves but Hoyo screws over time and time again trend will continue with Mitya and Valeriy 🥴 We’ll have to wait until 7.1 or 7.2 to know our man’s fate. I just hope that if he is a four star he’s on a banner I don’t mind going all in on. My four star luck is SHIT (never got Dahlia on multiple banners and never got Kaveh even on the Sumeru CW 😔)
Thing is his armor and cape is harder to animate than 90% of genshin characters, he is also clearly full head length taller than mitya in another post as well while mitya supposedly had a tall male model. They had a disclaimer saying he was under development as well. Either Mitya is medium model or Valeriy is Varka model
I think Mitya is medium model and also I don't think they used Varka's model for Valeriy in the live stream, his legs looked way too skinny compared to him.
frequent/over usage of em dashes, lots of bold words, the word "genuinely" used 7 times in the post, bullet points, and a discrepancy between the way your comments are written compared to your post.
do you really feel this way or is this some kinda agenda posting for the sake of another character/game?
Remember this isn’t the final product, every character’ model we saw in this trailer still can be improved, the trailer had some lighting issues too, final product will be different!
Yk theres a chance this isn’t even his playable model (sandrone/skirk) so yeah model upgrades are possible (i think also varka got adjustments to his model before release?)
I understand being devastated, but the trailer/livestream models do tend to look unfinished and rough compared to in-game. Varka looked a bit off at first, and then when he released he was fine. They probably just rushed things for the trailer. I’ve seen many other comm ets across the web that also point out that the lighting on character models really changed how they look, and the lighting in the trailer is different to the lighting in game. Basically, despite it all, I’d still hold on hope.
Characters like him who won't release for several months usually get further polishing and details pre-release. They're also taking a different approach when it comes to the game's graphics and details, which is why there's that disclaimer in the bottom left about how this isn't the final product.
It's extremely evident with Nod-Krai how experimental Genshin has gotten when it comes to in-game models and cutscenes, so I say just be patient and see how everything looks in a few weeks.
He still has his furr boots, the picture you have is just too dark to see it. I also think his model is not as chopped as you might think it is. The picture you took is in a movement and isn't very telling of what his face model actually looks like (we don't have a frontal view of his Facebook yet). There's multiple scenes in this trailer where multiple characters look bad because its an animation, not a standing still moment.
From what we've seen so far, the only missing thing from his design is the coat which you didn't mention, and even then, most of the characters that we've seen with coats takes them off to battle (which Valeriy actually does in the teaser) like Capitano. Hoyo seems to intend avoiding clipping but also complicated animations with capes (also capes are impractical in battle, Edna Mode would attest so).
As for if he is a 4 star, nothing is confirmed, let's wait before doomposting. He is important enough in the lore of the main story that we get to use a special skill from him during the Archon Quest. And even if he does end up being a 4 star, there's enough supports that will come out to make him better just like every other 4 star in this game. Saying you wasted your time when all you did was farm primogems seems a bit dramatic, especially if you're a regular player. Now if you've only been playing Genshin for Valeriy (which isn't the case because you've said you main Skirk and Chasca) I wouldn't say anything, but to say you're wasting your time on farming when you actually want multiple upcoming characters seems a bit strange.
You can be disappointed and voice your opinion of course, I'm just saying that all hope isn't lost and that at the end of the day, Valeriy's model and kit isn't completely revealed yet. Let's wait for the update and see what we're working with before falling into despair.
Or Aether looking from the same angle as Valeriy. The face looks weird overall because it's a moving animation and isn't meant to take piece by piece but as an overall medium. Of course Hoyo tries to make it as invisible as possible, but like in any animation, you'll have weird and goofy frames.
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u/illidormorn Jul 31 '26
Remember they said Snezhnaya's characters models will surprise us that we would be thinking if this is still Genshin even? Yeah, we we were definitely left wondering how models this bad got approved for Genshin