@
harumichi
Since July, huh? That means you've missed mostly just the summer event and the start of natlan. I'll describe both below (with less detail for natlan so as not to spoil), but as the summer event is no longer available, I won't use spoiler text for it (since there's... no way to do it at this point).
Our summer event this year was a toy-themed world called Simulanka. It had its own little plot, but the parts that might come into play later involve Durin, the dragon that died on Dragonspine, possibly coming back to life. In Simulanka, there was another version of him that one of the Hexenzirkel witches created because she felt sorry for the real one. After some misunderstandings, the Traveler was able to make friends with this alternate Durin, though weirdly enough he made better friends with Scara/Wanderer (his redemption arc continues, I guess). Kirara got a new outfit, and so did Nilou (those are still in the shop, of course).
Natlan hasn't actually been out that long. We're only just on 5.1 as of tonight. So far the area is actually relatively small, imo, and there's no plan for expansion till at least 5.2. That's not to say there isn't stuff to do, just that it's not nearly as expansive as Sumeru. It's smaller than even just the rain forest part.
You've only missed one last Fontaine character, Emilie, and there have been three Natlan ones, with a fourth releasing tonight. The good news is you get the 4* for free during the archon quest, but the others are 5*.
As for reasons to return... I'll be honest, I took a long hiatus recently, too. I had 100% a lot of things, and just kind of ran out of stuff to do, plus I was busy irl. I came back a few days before the end of the summer event, speedran the whole thing, and got ready for natlan. I'm pretty glad I did. So far the Natlan characters (and the area itself) have been really interesting in terms of new gameplay. There are new ways to traverse the map by using the saurians, creatures you can "indwell", or basically become. You spot one while running around, you can possess it and run around as it. The day after 5.0, I told my sister I'd play a whole game as the green one, because it's so cute and fun. I stand by that lol.
The new characters' animations are next level, although some people aren't fond of their designs. The environments are very unlike any other region, and they're quite visually interesting and fun to explore. There's a decent amount of new quests, a revamped reputation system for this region, and the whole area basically rains chests and primos down upon you. Seriously, I'm f2p and I had enough to get kinich (recent 5*) even if pity had forced me to 90
and I'd lost the 50/50. Almost all from natlan. (I'm an exploration player, though, so your mileage may vary.)
Okay, I'll stop glazing it, but really, I have enjoyed this new update immensely, and it brought the fun back for me. Hopefully it can do something similar for you.
Anemo Bow)
Electro Bow)
