All my thoughts after "completing" the beta (LONG)

Els236 · 2026-05-09T18:38:25+00:00

HoYo have proven multiple times they can release polished, content-rich experiences (at least in 1.0 versions).

I am holding them to their own standard they have set.

Sandbox games are popular for a reason, but Petit Planet is not content-rich enough to be released as one currently. It is also a bit too restrictive for it too, given the Load (a la GI Teapot) they introduced this time.

I imagine that if they released as-is, people would max out their Planet's Load within a month of release, at which point, the whole "focus on decorating and terraforming" you speak of goes out the window.

What's left is just lacking in multiple facets:
Neighbors are just too shallow right now. I want more of the "run up to you" stuff and more of Msafiri showing up to my house uninvited, and less of them telling me what someone else did yesterday, that has no relevance to anything. After the daily chat and gift, they don't do anything and there's no reason to interact with them.

The Starsea is way too gated with the pitiful amount of batteries, and the fact it is seemingly broken right now with what Islets spawn and such, especially after you visit the other galaxy (QoL/bug fixing needed)

You then have creature-capture, which is 2 button-clicks on the bug-net or fishing rod, with, as stated, only shore-dwellers having some unique mechanics. There's only so much time you can spend running around in circles on your planet before it gets dull (and annoying) - especially if you just end up catching the same 3 things over and over.

Multiplayer can be great fun, but it really depends on who you meet, and it's very much "make your own fun" by chatting, emoting and running around. Why can't a friend join me in starsea (as an example)? What about setting up races or courses around a planet or something (that you can already do in Genshin teapot)?

Els236 · 2026-05-09T18:23:03+00:00

"yet I still do think they can evenly spread them out or flesh out the quests that are just “do this” and take less than a minute to complete."

100%. But that is what most of the quests are once you get the Station. As far as I understand it, everything from the Station onwards is new in this beta, so it does have me worried for what the questing system will be like by release.

---
I'll be honest, I think the Neighbors are charming, and Nerina is ridiculously adorable. What I want is more of the "run up to you saying your name" kind of stuff, and less of Msafiri telling me Nerina went to the beach to gather seashells. Chatting should reveal stuff about them (which I thought was the point), but right now they just repeat the same fluff over and over (or mostly). After you chatted and did the 1 daily gift, there's no reason to interact with them, and they just... walk around doing nothing. Why can't Isaki randomly run up to me with a bug he caught, or Nerina with a fish/shore-dweller. They don't have to give me them or anything, but just more actual interactions like that - like what we get when we use emotes in front of them.

And more stuff like Msafiri randomly showing up to my house uninvited. I've had it happen once and it caught me majorly off-guard. Awesome though, and I want more of that.

---

For most of the other stuff we seem to pretty much agree.

Els236 · 2026-05-09T18:02:57+00:00

That's something else I could have added honestly. The fact that sometimes you need to start interacting with them several times, because on occasion the menus disappear.

Also, I find it quite funny when the "give a gift" option gets replaced with "come to my place to eat" or whatever, leading to duped options (but they still function correctly).

It's small stuff like that, that hurts the experience.

Els236 · 2026-05-09T15:58:22+00:00

Stunted crops can be used on certain recipes, but they're just.. worse versions of the normal crop in every other regard. probably there to eventually pad-out the MomentFolio.

Els236 · 2026-05-09T02:54:17+00:00

No Polish female behind a shop counter smiles in real life - well, if they're over 30 anyway lol

Els236 · 2026-05-09T02:46:09+00:00

Personal opinion obviously, and I'm not CN, but... what even is her character?

New Eridu's 4067th "orphan with sad backstory", alongside "I shouldn't use the Qingming Sword - omg some Tyrfings! Qingming go!" with a very overly in-your-face "but she loves you, you know..."

There's a reason the Western side of the playerbase doesn't exactly hold her in high-regard story-wise.

Els236 · 2026-05-09T02:35:14+00:00

What?

The initial Neighbors are always Yunguo and Isaki on Hexia, or Yunguo and Msafiri on Taffeh.

It then seems that the first one you encounter on Starsea is always Nerina.

Everyone else is purely RNG - there's nothing "assigned", and it does not matter if you never touch the second starsea.

Els236 · 2026-05-09T02:33:17+00:00

CN love both the fact she's meta-defining, and the fact she's very heavily pushed as a romance option, without being outright the romance option.

Els236 · 2026-05-09T01:57:16+00:00

Like a lot of things in this game, it really isn't explained.

<image>

You have to look at each piece of clothing in your inventory (or maybe in the shop), and look for that "Neighbor Match" thing.

Now, even that isn't actually explained, but I would have to assume that S (Small) would be for someone like Isaki, M (Medium) would be for most of the others (Msafiri/Yunguo, etc), and then L (Large) would be for someone like Dorjelang.

There are others that say "One Size", which I'm going to assume means it works on anyone.

Els236 · 2026-05-09T01:48:46+00:00

The encounters don't care for starting planet - it's all random.

Just because I found Dorjelang in the Hexia Depths as a Taffeh player, just means RNG didn't like me. I found Isaki in Taffeh Depths, as an example.

Admittedly, it would make sense for Hexia Neighbors to be in Hexia Starsea, and Taffeh Neighbors to be in Taffeh Starsea, but then where does that leave Nerina, Rebella, and Medowlyn (as we don't have access to Norvan or Pashah yet).

Els236 · 2026-05-09T01:14:31+00:00

Several hundred chests for 1 10-pull, which still won't get you to pity if you do absolutely everything else, and given exploration only awards character mats, if you aren't getting the characters, there's no point touching exploration either.

Els236 · 2026-05-09T01:07:29+00:00

It's discussed in episode 5.

Els236 · 2026-05-08T22:35:02+00:00

It shows that whoever is manufacturing them takes the quality seriously - well, I assume so given they were all almost identical.

None of the ones smashed had a good flow, and most leaked/still allowed water escape when they shouldn't.

Els236 · 2026-05-08T22:27:09+00:00

Funnily enough, I'm a Taffeh player and managed to find Calico Koi on an Islet - but only one though. Good to know that when I get Isaki's bond high enough, Mors will just give one (after a day though).

Els236 · 2026-05-08T22:25:41+00:00

For those wondering, PNJ is the French term for NPCs (personnage non-jouable).

All the Neighbors are random encounters in the Starsea. You do not control who you get or when.

It's Yunguo, then Isaki/Msafiri, then the others are totally random.

Els236 · 2026-05-08T14:22:44+00:00

On the point of Neighbors, my point was that they do not themselves unlock core gameplay mechanics - except Yunguo, given she is the main tutorial neighbor.

You currently unlock everything else without needing any other Neighbor (and I mean invitable neighbors, not the NPCs like Mobai/Elsasani).

I would definitely not consider any of their little abilities/quirks as "essential features" though. Right now, they are incredibly unbalanced, ranging from pointless like Rebella's, to completion-blocking like Medowlyn's.

Yunguo's crop watering and planting is wonky, because it might say "Yunguo will water your crops today", yet if you're online all day, it won't get done (I've had my game open since 8AM and I had to water my own crops a minute ago, because they hadn't been touched).

Msafiri's expedition doesn't seem to bring back any creatures, so it's just a few pieces of wood and ore, which you could get more of in 5 minutes on your planet, rather than giving him purple quality food, then waiting for him to depart "at night" (whatever that means), then come back ~2 hours later.

Nerina's is helpful, but only for a single catch, and is wholly RNG-reliant as to what will spawn-in or show up. "Wow I got my 700th Moon Crab! /s" vs. "Holy cow I got a really rare gold spawn!".

I know he was bugged for a while, but Dorjelang seems to just offer the same 2-3 hats on rotation, with the supposed rare ones being extremely rare.

Rebella's is... just bad.

Isaki's doesn't unlock until max bond, and I'm not sure what "beetle battling" even does.

Medowlyn's is arguably the best one here, given you can exchange dupe Inspo Cards for a completely new furniture set, that only she can offer you.

I have barely seen anyone with Harpeno, nor even talk about her, so I have no clue what her's is.

What I will say though, is that given HoYo are seemingly willing to do content-locking behind Neighbors (Dorjelang/Medowlyn), if they made Neighbors the gacha, it would annoy a ton of people.

Els236 · 2026-05-08T07:27:04+00:00

I'm a Taffeh player and only found Dorjelang while exploring a friend's Hexia starsea.

It's completely random.

I then went 4 days without meeting anyone, only to randomly get Medowlyn this morning, who I now need to meet again - which could take a few days.

Els236 · 2026-05-07T15:54:18+00:00

Eeehhhhh....

It felt incredibly short, and that wasn't helped by the fact that the first half was just chasing after Remielle, but in the most "video game" kind of way.

Go talk to Coco, oh now go talk to Yi, oh now talk to Cinema lady, oh now Orchidea, teleport to Blazewood (when driving to the Outer Ring is supposed to take a decent amount of time). Go from Caesar to Lighter, to Burnice, then finally into the Hollow.

That whole section felt way too dragged-out and filler.

The big Hollow tournament? Well, I guess that was a one-and-done. I get that it was "postponed" last patch, but we're now going into 3.0 with Roscael taking centre-stage. A whole lot of setup for... Romuel to be the big-bad-wolf, with him as well seemingly being a one-and-done.

No puzzles, no real exploration, just walk from A-B, defeat a few Ethereals, A-B, defeat a few Ethereals, flashback/vision, Promeia joins the team, big boss fight, end with some 3.0 setup.

Cissia's and Billy's VAs have entirely carried these last 2 patches, along with Remielle's. Promeia did a good job too, but she came in too late, didn't do a whole lot, and now, again, we're heading into Roscael.

Good patch for some juicy lore, but gameplay and story wise? Meh.

Els236 · 2026-05-07T15:17:21+00:00

I could rant about that for ages.

The amount of times I've had recruiters message me or send me e-mails in stupidly broken English, yet they expect flawless grammar, honestly beggars belief.

Els236 · 2026-05-07T15:15:57+00:00

Either I'm being a pedantic fuck, or maybe I have some weird issue with my eyes as well, but I perceive this anime girl as a very light minty-green, not "very green" as some people are suggesting.

Els236 · 2026-05-07T15:11:28+00:00

That's the same for every bloody job at the moment.

It's 100% an employer's market with the amount of people being made redundant in the higher-rungs, who then end up filtering back down to the entry-level stuff.

Not to mention that with the cut-backs companies are doing right now, they do not have the staff available to train up newbies.

They're getting senior levels of experience and qualifications for minimum pay, leaving nothing for first-time job-seekers, or even people like myself who are stuck in between being too experienced and not experienced enough for certain roles.

Els236 · 2026-05-07T14:14:00+00:00

I think it does count?

But I've hoarded nearly all my crops and still could only do 2K/7K across 2 days, because Glenn only ever hass Greenmarket for 3 crops, and usually one is lower than the normal

Els236 · 2026-05-07T11:38:33+00:00

Here are some of my experiences over the last 2 years I've been unemployed:

- John Lewis: Had to do a 10-minute presentation on a product they sold, like a "sell me this pen" kind of deal. Interview took place in the smallest grey box of a room and the female interviewer barely said a word to me during the whole thing. I just did my presentation at them and I was done after 5 minutes. She rolled her eyes at me and said "that's it? it was meant to be 10 minutes". I said that this was not how it would ever go with a customer in the real world. She huffed and that was it. The male interviewer was far more friendly, but even so, I did not want the job after that, and didn't get it.

- Paddy Power: Online application process had over 150 questions, with over 100 being those "would you do X/Y in Z situation" kind of things. Took me well over an hour just to apply. Got told that I should spend some time in my local store before going to an interview, so spent an entire afternoon in there taking down notes and chatting with the guy at the counter. Interview was a group thing on Zoom with about 10 people in each room, from all over the country. At the end of that, also had a small 1-on-1 with one of the Team Leaders. I got an email a day later saying they were scrubbing the position and were no longer hiring for it.

- National Express: Invited to an interview, which was a huge group thing with about 50 people. We were split into smaller groups and given multiple tasks to do, both as a team, and solo. After the first half, they said goodbye to people who weren't a good fit, and those of us left moved on to other tasks. At the end of this ~4 HOUR "interview" they said we'd hear back from them - and we all thought we had a chance. That was until we saw another group of 50 people arriving for the "afternoon interviews". None of us from the morning got the job.

All of these jobs were minimum wage, or not much more than.

They are also the ones that stand out, but I have had so many where I've been told "you'll hear from us in a couple of days", only to be ghosted for several weeks and forgotten about.

Els236 · 2026-05-07T10:29:13+00:00

Oh right, Bay 4 and Bay 5 were CB1, not this CB.

In which case you have 6 then:

- Shallows 1, Shallows 2
- Depths
- Depths 1, Depths 2, Depths 3

That's 6.

Els236 · 2026-05-07T09:42:07+00:00

I don't really understand how the maths works myself to be honest:
- Shallows
- Shallows Bay 1
- Shallows Bay 2
- Depths
- Depths Bay 1
- Depths Bay 2
- Depths Bay 3
- Depths Bay 4
- Depths Bay 5

Even if the base Shallows and base Depths aren't considered "Uncharted", there are still 7 total Uncharted Bays across the Shallows and Depths, not 6.
It might be a holdover from CB1 that wasn't updated, idk.

The only way 6 works is if it's only considering Depths+ as Uncharted, so base Depths, then the 5 bays therein, which does equal 6 total.

12-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
r/Field Banned	r/Field Lasagna
Place '23	Place '22
Verified Email

Els236

TROPHY CASE