#also Venti is officially the god who visited the most region

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A Universe Full of Mystery and Intrigue | A Continuation of the Genshin Impact Review (Blog #4)

Introduction

This blog is a continuation of my previous blog about Genshin Impact, except this time I will be talking about the more artistically-oriented parts of the game, which includes, the story, characters, art design, and music. However, the bulk of it will be about the story.

Part 1: Progress (1/2)

As of right now, I have reached Adventure Rank 45, as well World Level 5. I have completed all of the main-line story quests, as well as some of the side story quests that were also available. As of right now I have three five star characters and one five star weapon.

I had read over my previous blogs and found that my Genshin gameplay review had a larger amount of information than my Hades gameplay review. I take this as a sign of improvement in my skills as a writer as well as the ability to organize ideas coherently.

Part 2: Review (2/2)

*Disclaimer: keep in mind that these are just my takeaways from the game, and that many may not share the same opinions as me. I emphasize this on part 2 in particular because of how it deals with more artistic/storytelling aspects.

As prefaced in the introduction of the previous blog, the game follows the story of a young traveler. The female avatar is named Lumine while the male avatar is named Aether. For the sake of simplicity, I will refer to the protagonist sibling as Aether and the lost sibling as Lumine, as this is how they are depicted in official promotional material

The two siblings are traveling across different worlds when they are stopped by a strange god, who’s identity is unknown. During their battle, the god takes Lumine, encasing her in a strange, cube vortex, while they themselves are cast into the world of Teyvat, a new place they have not yet explored. The circumstances of their arrival itself are mysterious as well, as they are unsure of how they got there or what point in time they had been flung into.

And that’s really what Genshin is abundant in: mysteries.

Whether it is about the world or the backgrounds of particular characters, there is almost always a point of intrigue that can one can ponder for quite a long while.

It is the job of the traveler to uncover more of these mysteries through various story quests. Some of them are self-contained stories, while others focus on the plot as a whole (these are called the Archon quests).

Teyvat is split into seven nations: Monstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, Sumeru, Fontaine, Natlan, and Snezhnaya. Each of them are attributed to one of the elements shown in the previous blog, and they all worship a god of that same element (referred to collectively as “The Seven”). Currently, only Mondstadt and Liyue are available, as Mihoyo is still developing the rest.

Each nation is based off of a real-world culture, which I find extremely engaging. Monstadt seems to be a mix of both Switzerland and Germany, while Liyue takes inspiration from China. From what I’ve gathered, I do believe that each culture is well-represented. This reflects in each of the characters that hail from these regions. It is easy to distinguish who comes from where.

For example, look at:

Diluc, a pyro user who is the owner of a winery in Monstadt,

vs.

Xiangling, a pyro user who is a world-renowned chef from Liyue.

Although these two characters have the same Vision (elemental power), the clothing that Mihoyo designs them with are very clearly from two different cultures, and they also embody each character’s personality. Xiangling is much more bubbly and outgoing, which show in the trinkets hanging at her side and the bright colors of her outfit. Diluc is much more aloof and quiet, and his darker attire and the simpler handling of his hair convey that to the viewer.

Though, some of the designs don’t blow me away like others do (some can be rather boring in my eyes), the characters are unique, and most are definitely not as generic as I was led to believe.

The soundtrack of this game didn’t stand out to me all that much, however. Perhaps this is simply because I wasn’t listening closely enough or because the music blended a lot with the environment of the game. Upon realizing this, I listened to a few soundtracks on their own without opening the game, and came to find that I particularly like the Liyue tracks, which I will leave a playlist of here.

Feel free to skip around to whichever tracks interest you the most! My personal favorites are Moon in One’s Cup and Flows of Jade-Like Water.

Anyhow, back to the story aspect.

Aether first goes to Monstadt, as it was close to where they had woken up. Along with their floating travel companion Paimon (the generally annoying mascot for the game) who he had saved from drowning, they quickly found themselves entangled in Monstadt’s “Stormterror” crisis. Stormterror is the name of an ancient dragon that was originally a guardian of the city, but was corrupted by the Abyss Order. The Abyss Order is a sinister league of monsters bent on destroying all of civilization and the reign of the gods. It sounds cartoonishly evil at first glance, and doesn’t seem worth giving a second look. However, at the end of the Stormterror Crisis, it is revealed to the player that Lumine is the one leading the Abyss Order. Aether himself does not know, as he never actually saw Lumine. This was revealed to the player alone (though this changes in the latest story arc). It leaves them to ponder the possible motivation for Lumine to take a darker path.

Aether is looking for each of the Archons (gods) in order to get answers about the world and information about the unknown god and his sister. He met Barbatos, the anemo archon, who took the form of a bard named Venti. With his aid, Aether helped him resolve the Stormterror crisis.

After that, he travels Liyue in search of Rex Lapis, the geo archon. Unlike Barbatos, who does not often visit his people in Mondstadt, Rex Lapis shows himself to his people once every year in the Rite of Descension. However, things go awry when it appears that god is assassinated at the rite, and Aether is the prime suspect of the Millileth (Liyue’s military). After an elaborate search for the corpse in order to find the real killer, it turns out that Rex Lapis faked his own death in favor of turning over the rule of Liyue to the Qixing, the business leaders that oversee the country (which noone knew about).

Over the course of these events, Aether was able to glean very little information. It is arguably not until the most recent quest that he really made a breakthrough. When he returns to Mondstadt, he meets a mysterious man named Dainsleif, who is dedicated to finding intel about the Abyss Order and to stopping them from achieving their goal. From this man, they learned about an ancient civilization that was destroyed by the gods. This nation was called Khaenri'ah, and existed 500 years before the current events of the game. After following clues about the Abyss Order’s new plans, they find an underground lair with a strange warped statue. This is where Aether fights a general of the Abyss (named the Abyss Herald), and his sister finally reveals herself when he is about to kill him.

From their first interaction since her disappearance, he found out that the Abyss is from Khaenri'ah, and that they took monstrous forms after it was destroyed. Lumine reveals that Dainsleif is also from Khaenri'ah, and that he was cursed with immortality. She then escapes with the Abyss Herald, leaving Aether in shock.

This raises many questions. How did citizens of Khaenri'ah change their forms so drastically? How did Dainsleif gain his immortality? How is Kaeya (a captain in the Monstadt cavalry) from Khaenri'ah if it was never clarified that he is immortal or not? There are always some unanswered questions with each new story update.

This ambiguity keeps players, including myself, interested in the game and motivates them to keep up with their announcements for content.

Conclusion/Reflection

I really did not have any expectations coming into this game. I legitimately thought that this was a game I would easily forget after a while, but I was proved wrong. Though I purely started to play out of the game’s aesthetics, Mihoyo hooked me on this game’s interesting plot and characters. I also enjoyed all the cultural representation that they are planning for the new areas, as well as the culture in the existing ones. This shows constantly, and is even incorporated into various aspects of the lore. If Mihoyo keeps this up, I’m sure I’ll be playing Genshin Impact for a long while.

Final Score: 4/5