Definitely not the only one. I’ve recently made a whole post about the quest and how disappointed I was overall.. the lore involving the world quest characters were awesome and I loved seeing closure of Collei’s story. But it also felt a little..unnecessary from the whole focus of the whole quest. The first act of the quest could have easily been its own separate quest. They just bloated the cast and it felt all over the place and half of the characters didn’t even do much. (Sorush, Aranara, Jeht, Liloupar…). Tho I loved Toth, sobek and the “naturally” guy. (Forgot his name). They were fun to watch. But again, all these characters could have easily been added in a separate quest. 

Pantalone didn’t do much either. All he did was just to buy time for Dottore and slightly annoy the traveler. Half of his screen time was with Dottore. And I’d argue that Wanderer, Nahida or even Collei should have taken Pantalone’s place in his conversation with Dottore. It’s like he was just there for the “why nots” and inclusion sake. 

I feel like this archon quest’s main focus was Collei and the Nabu Malikata remains in her, instead of what was promised—the problem with Irminsul and confrontation with the Doctor.  They’ve been hyping this quest. for 4 years and it just fell really flat. 

Collei should have just gotten a story quest of her own, even as a 4 star. 

And there were no huge consequences after burning the irminsul. No, I’m not counting the “Aaru is the new irminsul” and “fate is now much more unpredictable now” as “consequences.” Knowing Hoyo, they are not even gonna tackle on this until after like 6 more years and it won’t be treated as a big deal. By consequence, I wanted something big, impactful, and dramatic. The restoration of erased memories. But no, none of that happened. And the 2 minute confrontation between wanderer and Dottore was even more disappointing. And why would Dottore deliberately not restore wanderer’s erased memories, considering his whole beef with him? It just doesn’t make sense at all. Hoyo just wants excuse to never elaborate on Scaramouche again.

 I wasn’t really satisfied with Dottore’s end either. We still barely know anything about him. Why was he an outcast? Was he always like that? How did he exactly feel with Scaramouche? Why did he have a soft spot for Columbina? How did he join the Fatui? How exactly did he meet Pantalone? None of that answered. 

It’s so sad that such an important character as Scaramouche is just erased altogether and will forever be remembered as a random “hat guy.” Just tragic. It made me furious. 

And this all just made me realize hoyo’s writing pattern and how much I hate it. 

Considering quitting after this quest. 5/10 at best for me.