sorry for the rant up ahead, i don't really have my thoughts collected on this, but i wanted to know if anyone else feels the same
heaven's reach was at first very exciting for me. i played genshin for years before quitting (right before IN came out), and the architecture and vibe gave me huge nostalgia. but it's SO hard to navigate. there's not enough distinct areas (i know it's just one city, but for the purposes of gameplay), i can't name you one place i can remember except for the bar from the beginning of the new quest. every place is some kind of big building with a huge plaza/garden (bonus points if there's a giant statue in the middle), and they're all named something like "___ of ___ and ___"
i hope i'm making sense. i still love heaven's reach, but as someone who puts aside the main quests to go with explore new areas right as they come out, i just don't have any energy to go look at the same buildings and jump around them every day. i feel like all other areas in IN had a few visually distinct subsections, and heaven's reach is kind a copy pasted version of itself.
also there's too many teleport waypoints!!! i get so confused whenever i look at the map 😭