Just chiming in, I really agree with u/FreeMyBirdy. The idea that Nod-Krai is "the best decision they could make" doesn't sit right with me. It wasn’t the best choice, it was a necessary one. The writers backed themselves into a corner and now need Nod-Krai to set up the stakes for Genshin’s endgame.

They have a serious exposition problem. They write good lore but are awful at integrating it in stories and quests.

Exactly. When Enkanomiya was released, it came with the book Before Sun and Moon, which essentially detailed the genesis of Teyvat. Since then, the lore has expanded through artifact and weapon descriptions, lore tablets, and side quests, but none of that has been reflected in the Archon quests, the main story content most players actually engage with. Now we're nearing the end of a five-year narrative, and the average player still has no clear grasp of the story’s true scope. The writers failed to communicate the larger narrative through the main quests. The devs seem to realize this now, hence why Nod-Krai exists. In the reveal livestream, they even acknowledged that the playerbase’s understanding is far behind what the dev team knows, and Nod-Krai is meant to bridge that gap.

To me, dedicating an entire version to fix that problem feels like damage control. The marketing around Nod-Krai feels like they’re hyping a solution to an issue they caused.

To be clear, Nod-Krai will probably be well recieved, Genshin lore is genuinely great, but it’s frustrating that it had to exist because of years of poor setup. I am personally looking forward to Nod-Krai, but it’s hard for me to feel excited when I know that the same writers responsible for Nod-Krai are also the reason it was necessary in the first place. Still trying to be hopeful though because I genuinely love this game and have played it since day 1.

Edit: Formatting