Nahida Archives - The Wide Screen

April 1, 2023

Everything We Learned From The Genshin Impact Version 3.6 Special Program!

HoYoverse, the game studio behind Genshin Impact, has been fighting (and losing) the battle with leakers since before the game even launched. In recent months they’ve gone to great lengths to try and deplatform particularly prolific leakers like the notorious Ubatcha, subpoenaing Discord and later Twitter to expose users’ information, and they’ve been partially successful at what they set out to do, forcing all but a few of the most high-profile leakers using both these platforms to deactivate and go into hiding…for a little while, at least. Not long enough, evidently, because the contents of yesterday morning’s Version 3.6 Special Program were already being distributed on social media weeks ago by leakers who have probably deliberately remained low-profile because they’re the very same people resuming operations under new identities.

Baizhu from Genshin Impact, standing in the doorway of Bubu Pharmacy. He is tall, with long green hair and spectacles, and a white snake wrapped around his throat. He wears a purple-and-black crop-top, trousers, and a white coat as a cape. A jade orb levitates over his gloved left hand. — Baizhu | clutchpoints.com

Now, I have no personal problem with leaks, and I think they can be very helpful for players who want to be strategic about where and when they spend their money (even if it’s just in-game currency, because that stuff is hard to earn). But there’s leaking details about an upcoming character’s kit to give folks a slight head-start when pre-farming Ascension Materials and Artifacts, and then there’s spilling an entire version’s worth of information, right down to the minigames – and this is the latter. I mean, you’d think HoYoverse would have learned from the wildly positive reception to the completely unexpected announcement of the Genshin Impact anime during the Version 3.1 Special Program that they should always have something more to offer than what leakers have already spoiled, even if it’s just a tease of future content, but the bare minimum is too difficult for them most of the time, so…

Anyway, what did we learn from yesterday’s Special Program? Well, not much, but for the sake of my upstanding readers who don’t look at leaks and were genuinely surprised, I’ll feign shock wherever necessary, although I personally suspect that HoYoverse knows they were beaten to the punch this time, given how little energy was put into organizing this Special Program. Not convinced? The limited-time character banners and weapon banners were “announced” during an intermission, fighting for attention with redemption codes. And it’s not like Yoimiya’s on the banner or anything. Version 3.6 features the return of Nahida, one of Genshin Impact‘s most successful characters, alongside the extremely popular Nilou, followed by the release of fan-favorite Baizhu and his signature weapon (and a random Ganyu re-run). Two new Artifact sets were later revealed in the same fashion, including the Vourukasha’s Glow set supposedly designed to buff Dehya (it won’t, unfortunately, but it’s a nice gesture).

The release of a whole new area in the desert of Sumeru was almost as hastily glossed over during the actual program, remarkably given the sheer size of this map-expansion and the amount of content waiting to be discovered there, including a new weekly-boss – the leafy dragon Apep, unlocked after completing Nahida’s second Story Quest, which explores what happened to the dragoniform deities named Sovereigns who once ruled Teyvat – a new world-boss – the Iniquitous Baptist, whose ability to wield three Elements at once will make her a pain to fight in the Spiral Abyss – and a whimsical new gameplay mechanic that allows the player to maneuver through difficult terrain in the form of an adorable dragon. A limited-time Event in Version 3.6 will also make use of this mechanic, giving players the ability to drop bombs on enemies.

The male version of The Traveler from Genshin Impact, wearing a black-and-gold outfit with a long blond ponytail, facing off against Apep, a giant leafy green dragon under a dome of what looks like green stained glass. — The Traveler fighting Apep | theloadout.com

The centerpiece of Version 3.6 is the Akademiya Extravaganza being held on the grounds of the Sumeru Akademiya, during which representatives from all six Darshans (schools of thought) will be competing for a grand prize in what is described as a trial of wits as well as physical and martial prowess. Representing Amurta, the school of biology and environmentalist philosophy, Forest Ranger Tighnari is returning to Sumeru City all the way from Gandharva Ville. Faruzan, the four-star Anemo bow-user available as a reward for participating in the Event, represents her alma mater Haravatat, the school which studies semiotics. Kaveh, the so-called “Light of Kshahrewar”, is the obvious choice to represent that Darshan, the school of technological sciences and innovation. Rtawahist, the school of astronomy and astrology, has put forward the sleepwalking Layla as their champion. Spantamad, whose members specialize in studying the Elements that make up Teyvat, settled on Cyno, the Akademiya’s General Mahamatra. And Vahumana, the school of historical studies, has selected a mysterious new student at the Akademiya whose name will be different for each player.

Each Darshan will have their own booth set up at the Akademiya while the Extravaganza is ongoing, and players will find minigames here that represent the schools’ six highly individual ideologies. For instance, Kshahrewar challenges you to create the shortest possible path to a destination by assembling random objects in different ways, while Haravatat tests both your skills of deduction and your ability to read between the lines by presenting you with a puzzling story and letting you guess what really happened. Meanwhile, unrelated to the Extravaganza, Akademiya scholars wandering in the desert will enlist the player’s help defeating giant sandworms known as Wenut in the Fulminating Sandstorm Event, and a maverick student will hire you to test out a potion that provides your team with random buffs in the Brewing Developments Event. And finally, the Overflowing Mastery Event will make a comeback, boosting rewards in various Domains for a short while.

Besides Nahida’s second Story Quest, a Story Quest for Baizhu and a Hang-out Event centered around Layla will also be made available in Version 3.6, giving players the opportunity to get to know these two characters better at their leisure. No Hang-out Event for new playable character Kaveh, though, which is extremely disappointing given that he might just be one of Genshin Impact‘s most popular characters already, despite having appeared only two or three times in-game. Claymore-users are generally known for their brute force and aggressive animations, but Kaveh, the first Dendro claymore-user, refuses to get his hands dirty while fighting and lets his sentient toolbox Mehrak do all the heavy lifting for him, while he strikes a pose. He’s not only ridiculously endearing, however – Kaveh brings to the game an interesting new playstyle built around the Bloom reaction (as opposed to Hyperbloom or Burgeon, its offshoots), with an Elemental Burst that immediately detonates all Dendro Cores in its vicinity. Obviously, he’ll need to be paired with someone who does an insane amount of Hydro application, and with Nilou on the banner preceding his release, I’m guessing that would be her.

Kaveh from Genshin Impact, standing in Sumeru City in front of a fountain. He has light-blond hair, and wears a billowy white shirt with a red shawl, and carries a suitcase in his left hand. — Kaveh | genshinresource.tumblr.com

As for Baizhu, the five-star Dendro catalyst-user is a nice addition to our current line-up of healers and shielders, his ability to heal the whole party during open-world exploration just by picking up certain plants and flowers would be incredibly helpful, his voice is soothing, and his attack animations are graceful, so I see the appeal. I’m probably not gonna pull for him (though I might pull for Kaveh on his banner), but that’s fine: I spent most of my Primogems on Dehya’s banner anyway, and I want to start saving up for the new Hydro characters that will presumably release alongside the region of Fontaine in Version 4.0 or earlier. Unless a new Geo character comes out before then and throws a wrench in my plans.

What do you think of Genshin Impact Version 3.6 so far, and which characters are you planning to pull for? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

December 16, 2022

Sumeru Didn’t Need Another Archon – A “Genshin Impact” Analysis

**SPOILERS FOR ALL GENSHIN IMPACT ARCHON QUESTS AHEAD!**

Four Archon Quests deep into the overarching narrative of Genshin Impact, a couple of patterns have started to emerge. It’s pretty much a given at this point that in each new region we visit, our slowly meandering protagonist (who just wants to find her/his sibling and leave the world of Teyvat forever) will begrudgingly grow attached to a new group of characters all destined to be playable as we come together to try and prevent our common enemy, the Fatui Harbingers, from capturing the Gnosis of that region’s respective Archon. Each and every time, the situation escalates out of control and eventually requires us to put our life on the line for the people of Teyvat and their gods, and each and every time, the mission fails because at the last moment the Archons only ever halfheartedly try to stop the Fatui (to be fair, if we ever stopped to question why that is, we might realize that they’re not the bad guys in this story, but our self-righteous protagonist has a hard time comprehending that anyone they don’t get along with is a good person).

Lesser Lord Kusanali in Genshin Impact — Lesser Lord Kusanali | oneesports.gg

But while we fail more often than not at whatever it was we originally set out to do, letting the Fatui slip through our fingers with another Gnosis in their possession, there is something we’ve learned from all our encounters with the Archons and interactions with their subjects in three of the four regions – namely, that gods are intrinsically unfit to govern humans, and it’s only by moving forward without them and their impossible ideals that Teyvat can adapt to overcome the challenges it now faces. I don’t believe it’s merely coincidence that the Traveler’s journey began in Mondstadt, the one and only region in Teyvat whose respective Archon willingly stepped down hundreds of years prior to the events of Genshin Impact to ensure he would never become a tyrant, or that in Liyue, we helped the Geo Archon fake his own death so he could do the same for his people.

In Inazuma, the transfer of power was not peaceful – but only because the immovable Electro Archon turned out to be a semi-sentient yet emotionless puppet whose programming physically prevented her from allowing any change to occur in Inazuma. Once we got through to the real Electro Archon, Ei, who had been cooped-up for centuries meditating on the meaning of “Eternity”, we very quickly convinced her to step in and put a stop to the strife she had inadvertently caused in a misguided attempt to keep her people safe from her own intense emotions. In her second Story Quest, Ei agreed to come out of isolation entirely and rule Inazuma alongside her puppet, imparting with her what she now believes wholeheartedly; that the nation and its people can change over time and still last forever. That being said, the two of them act as a line of defense against existential threats while Inazuma’s internal affairs are now managed primarily by regular humans and youkai belonging to the Tri-Commission.

But in Sumeru, Genshin Impact bucked the trend entirely. Here, our protagonist’s intention is not to help a god abdicate, but to install a god on the closest thing Sumeru has to a throne. This seems to go against everything else the game has to say about gods and their dealings with humans, and it’s bewildering to me that more people aren’t talking about what it means – not just for Sumeru, but for the regions of Teyvat we haven’t yet visited, like Fontaine, Natlan, and Snezhnaya. First thing’s first: let’s take a closer look at what really happened in the Sumeru Archon Quest.

Sumeru, prior to our arrival, was a nation in desperate search of a god. Their current Dendro Archon, Lesser Lord Kusanali, was a mere child in god-years who had barely grown in strength and wisdom over the last five centuries, concerning her citizens and particularly the sages of the Sumeru Akademiya, who fondly remembered a time when the original Dendro Archon, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, effortlessly kept her people safe from all manner of threats. In every corner of Sumeru, worshippers of an ancient deity named “King Deshret” had started popping up, prophesying his imminent return and eagerly looking forward to the overthrow of the weak Dendro Archon. But in the heart of the Akademiya itself, the sages were hard at work designing a god of their own – a being far stronger than the Lesser Lord Kusanali, powered by the Electro Gnosis stolen from Inazuma by the Fatui Harbinger Scaramouche, who volunteered his mechanical body to be this new god’s vessel.

Scaramouche Boss Fight in Genshin Impact — Scaramouche Boss | gamespace.com

Ultimately, the sages had to be stopped – if left to their own devices, they would have surrendered the care of Sumeru to a god beyond their ability to control, all while Lesser Lord Kusanali languished in a cell, incapable of protecting her people from the obvious machinations of the Fatui. A civil war between King Deshret’s worshippers and the Akademiya loyalists would have been inevitable, thousands would have died, and the nation would have tumbled into chaos, until the Akademiya itself was weakened to the point where they would have no choice but to bow to their new god’s every order. Sumeru would have become a vassal-state of Snezhnaya, and the Fatui would have gained the accumulated knowledge of the Akademiya without shedding a single drop of their own blood.

So we collaborated with Lesser Lord Kusanali to stage a coup in the Akademiya, round up the corrupt sages, and defeat Scaramouche. It was an excellent plan, and we would have pulled it off without a hitch if the Fatui Harbinger Dottore hadn’t been waiting on the sidelines the whole time, waiting for the last possible moment to swoop in and steal both the Electro Gnosis and the Dendro Gnosis, which Lesser Lord Kusanali traded for the immediate destruction of Dottore’s small army of clones and information regarding the “false sky” of Teyvat, respectively. Satisfied, the Fatui departed Sumeru, leaving Lesser Lord Kusanali to pick up the pieces and begin reassembling a deeply-divided Akademiya.

That’s where my problem arises, because that’s the situation in which we leave Sumeru, with Lesser Lord Kusanali governing the region from her position of power in the Akademiya – a prison no longer to this most indefatigable deity. It is nowhere stated, suggested, or even implied that this is to be a temporary situation, or that Lesser Lord Kusanali intends to step down at any point in the future. The Traveler believes (for reasons I think I understand, and will elaborate upon in a minute) that she will mature into a competent Dendro Archon despite her lack of experience in pretty much every scenario, and sure, she proves time and time again that she listens attentively to all her peoples’ prayers…but she’s also the first to admit that she still doesn’t fully understand human emotions, and she doesn’t know when or whether she ever will. I fail to see how even a benevolent god with good intentions can rule Sumeru the way its people deserve when the message that Genshin Impact has sent in every previous Archon Quest is that gods inevitably make mistakes and mortals always pay the consequences. It’s not like there weren’t plenty of other candidates for the job, including all the uncorrupt sages at the Akademiya (Tighnari’s master being one of the most notable).

Aether standing before the Irminsul Tree in Genshin Impact — Irminsul Tree | pcgamer.com

What’s worse, the people of Sumeru have very little say in the matter. Upon defeating Scaramouche and the corrupt Akademiya sages, the Traveler and Lesser Lord Kusanali took steps to ensure no such internal threat would ever arise again by venturing deep into the pulsating heart of the Irminsul Tree, which contains all of Teyvat’s accumulated data from its past, present, and future. There, we encountered the faint remnants of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, Sumeru’s first Dendro Archon, who had been waiting patiently for us to come along and help her erase herself from Irminsul completely. The Traveler, being an outsider to the world of Teyvat, is soon the only person who remembers Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, while the rest of Sumeru is deluded by Irminsul into thinking that Lesser Lord Kusanali was always the Dendro Archon, and that the sages were guilty of committing treason against their god.

In essence, the Traveler has eradicated every challenge to Lesser Lord Kusanali’s reign not because she’s the rightful leader of Sumeru (that claim could potentially be disputed by King Deshret, if ever he returned, but we trusted Lesser Lord Kusanali and the Akademiya sages without hesitation when they told us he was dead), nor because she proved she was the most qualified person for the role, nor even because the people of Sumeru told us they wanted her (but we “corrected” their memories, so that’s no longer an issue)…no, everything we did for her, we did because our protagonist decided for us that she was our best friend after first meeting her. And while the Traveler is certainly capable of making mistakes, this decision of theirs is not framed as one within the story, and the fandom certainly doesn’t seem to see it as one. People assume Lesser Lord Kusanali will be a good Dendro Archon because they like her character.

And that’s fine, by the way. But it’s been bothering me for weeks now that the Sumeru Archon Quest seems to set a precedent for our protagonist going around forcibly suppressing the memories of the people without their knowledge (much less their consent), rather than actually addressing the root cause for their discontent and working to change the unsustainable status quo in each region, as we’ve done in the past. In particular, I’m thinking of the Eremites, King Deshret’s loyal worshippers, and how the persecution they endured for hundreds of years (all of it perpetuated by the Akademiya, mind you, and in the Dendro Archon’s name) is swept under the rug so that they will accept Lesser Lord Kusanali as their god without argument: actually helping them is far from a top priority for the Traveler, and that responsibility is shifted onto the character of Cyno by the end of the Archon Quest.

Aaru Village in Genshin Impact — Aaru Village, home of the Eremites | pcgamesn.com

In the most recent Archon Quest: Interlude, Inversion Of Genesis, the Irminsul Tree is tampered with yet again, this time with the effect of erasing all memory of Scaramouche. Every mention of that name, even voiced lines of dialogue, have been removed from the game entirely. The lore surrounding Irminsul is all very interesting, don’t get me wrong, but the act of altering Irminsul is already a lazy plot-device that I want to see less of going forward (the easiest solution to this problem was already foreshadowed in the Winter Night’s Lazzo trailer).

But I’m getting way off-topic. Back to Lesser Lord Kusanali, I do have one theory (that, believe it or not, came to me in a dream) for why we helped her take control of Sumeru without any caveats – a theory which I believe could also provide clues about the three Archons we have yet to meet, and their eventual fates. Bear with me here. The seven Elements personified by Archons in Genshin Impact are Anemo (air), Geo (stone), Electro (electricity), Dendro (plant-matter), Hydro (water), Pyro (fire), and Cryo (ice). You need only skim through this list to recognize that the outlier is and has always been Dendro, Lesser Lord Kusanali’s Element. Where the other Elements are inanimate and incapable of changing without external pressure, Dendro is alive. Crucially for my theory, Dendro is capable of growing, of adapting to different conditions on its own, of evolving and changing.

See where I’m going with this? It makes a great deal of sense to me that the Traveler, as the only person in Teyvat capable of wielding all seven Elements, would know that growth and adaptation are fundamental aspects of the Dendro Element (not only in real-life, but in Genshin Impact‘s gameplay as well), and would therefore know that Lesser Lord Kusanali will adapt to become the Archon her people need because it is her Element’s natural inclination to do so. I can’t actually confirm this is the case, but looking back at the free-spirited Anemo Archon, the old and stolid Geo Archon, and the shockingly violent Electro Archon, it wouldn’t be the first time an Archon’s Element has dictated their actions and personality on some level. And I doubt it will be the last.

Very soon, our travels across Teyvat will take us to Fontaine, a land presided over by the Hydro Archon, Focalors. We know from Lesser Lord Kusanali’s description of her that, like any body of water, she can be unpredictable and temperamental at times; but it may be because she’s especially susceptible to the gravitational pull of a celestial body hovering directly above Fontaine (that would be Celestia, a floating city inhabited by the suspiciously silent gods who originally put Focalors and the other Archons in power). My theory is that the raging tides within Focalors will only be calmed when Celestia is finally unmoored, whether by us, by the Fatui, or by a maddened Focalors herself. Beyond that, we know nothing for certain, but the Pyro Archon erupting before having to be extinguished and the Cryo Archon’s cold, dead heart being thawed by some demonstration of love both sound like safe bets to me.

In order from left to right: Raiden Ei, Lesser Lord Kusanali, Venti, and Zhongli from Genshin Impact — Raiden Ei, Lesser Lord Kusanali, Venti, and Zhongli | dotesports.com

This simple theory can ultimately only justify the Traveler’s choices in-game, and perhaps help us understand their reasoning for deciding which Archons have to go, and which can stay – it doesn’t make me feel any better about the fact that even a single Archon will remain in power at the end of the day, and it doesn’t necessarily allay my fears that HoYoverse will muddle the themes of Genshin Impact‘s story. But hopefully now that I’ve gotten this off my chest, I won’t have to stay up at night scouring the internet trying to find any discussion of this topic, only to have my most convoluted search-terms produce zero results, because now this post will be out there. If anyone has similar feelings on the Sumeru Archon Quest, I encourage you to elaborate on what I’ve written here and share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

October 27, 2022

Everything We Learned From The Genshin Impact 3.2 Special Program

Every update to Genshin Impact is immediately preceded by a “Special Program” highlighting all the new features coming to the game in that particular update, as well as anything else the developers might want to share regarding the game’s future – such as the stunning announcement of a Genshin Impact anime series that made last month’s Version 3.1 Special Program one for the history books. Unfortunately, while it was always unlikely that the high bar set by that Special Program would be cleared anytime soon, a string of almost-impossible-to-avoid leaks at HoYoverse have resulted in most, if not all, of Version 3.2’s potential surprises being spoiled for players long before they were meant to be announced, and the Special Program on Sunday suffered from having virtually nothing to add to these leaks.

Most egregiously, the unveiling of the new Scaramouche Weekly Boss was met with uncharacteristic apathy from the very same people who have been waiting for this for years – not because it doesn’t look absolutely terrifying, but because footage of this new Boss has been floating around on social media for weeks at this point, giving everyone who’s seen it far too much time to absorb the shock, process it, and move on. And that is a damn shame, because next to Scaramouche, most of Genshin Impact’s six Weekly Bosses look like child’s play. Sure, the Raiden Shogun is difficult (I’ve fought her exactly once, and have no plans to challenge her to a rematch until it’s absolutely necessary), but even she can’t use five of the seven playable Elements against us simultaneously.

Scaramouche, in his final form (or rather, his penultimate form, since it is very likely he’ll become a playable character in Version 3.3 following a name-change, a slight redesign, and the gift of an Anemo Vision), resides within a colossal robotic exoskeleton that hovers in mid-air above the player and is capable of swiftly dashing from one side of the arena to other. This robot, constructed by the corrupt sages of the Sumeru Akademiya with assistance from the Fatui, is powered by Divine Knowledge extracted from the minds of scholars who study the Irminsul Tree (the world tree at the heart of Teyvat, and the source of the Dendro Archon’s power), and is intended to serve as the vessel for a new God to replace Lesser Lord Kusanali, the current Dendro Archon. Ironic, then, that one of the two Elements the robot can’t wield is Dendro: instead, a vaguely bug-shaped drone infused with Dendro Elemental Energy will assist the player throughout the fight, firing missiles at Scaramouche – with the catch being that it requires recharges.

The Elements Scaramouche will be hurling at us include Anemo, Cryo, Electro, Hydro, and Pyro, so plan your own team composition accordingly. And if you’re wondering why Geo is the only Element not represented in this battle, know that I’m right there with you. The Fatui have quite literally been in possession of the Geo Archon’s Divine Knowledge since the final chapter of the Liyue Archon Quest, and now you expect me to believe that they won’t even use it in their attempts to replicate an Archon? I get that Geo is underrated by many players because its Elemental Reactions suck, but I didn’t realize that was the case even in-universe. I almost feel obligated to bring a whole Geo team to this battle out of spite.

Players will have two brand new characters to test against the Scaramouche Weekly Boss in Version 3.2 – Nahida, a.k.a. Lesser Lord Kusanali, and Layla. Nahida, the Dendro Archon of Sumeru, is a five-star character (available only through a limited-time banner) with a bunch of unique qualities: not only will she become Genshin Impact‘s first Dendro catalyst user, she will also be the first catalyst user with the ability to aim her Elemental Skill – a small viewfinder, through which she can mark multiple opponents with a “Seed of Skandha”. Up to eight opponents can be marked at once and they will be linked to each other for a time, meaning that if one marked opponent is affected by an Elemental Reaction (or by the explosion of a Dendro Core), they all take Dendro DMG. This effect is called Tri-Karma Purification. Off the battlefield, Nahida can use her Elemental Skill to quickly collect any natural resources caught in her viewfinder, including flowers and fruits…and scanning over certain NPCs with the viewfinder will reveal secret internal dialogues, which sounds cool and slightly invasive.

Nahida’s Elemental Burst casts a Court of Dreams around her, within which different effects will occur depending on how many characters of a certain Elemental Type are in your party – for example, having one Pyro character on the team will increase the DMG dealt by Tri-Karma Purification, but having two will increase it even further. She is obviously going to be an excellent character to have on your team, and it’s a shame her design is both terribly boring and (not coincidentally) devoid of any cultural influences from the actual regions that theoretically inspired Sumeru and its characters, or else I would probably have pulled for her when the time came. As it stands, I’ll be saving my Primogems.

The other new character arriving in Version 3.2, an insomniac student of astrology at the Sumeru Akademiya named Layla, is a four-star Cryo sword user with the potential to supplant Diona as Genshin Impact‘s best four-star shielder. Her “Curtain of Slumber”, which forms around her after she falls asleep, creates Cryo shooting stars that multiply every time a character in the party uses their own Elemental Skills – when four such stars have appeared, they will break away from the active character and target nearby opponents. Layla’s Elemental Burst summons a ceiling mobile that hovers above the battlefield, firing off shooting stars.

It was mentioned during the Special Program that Layla would also be at the center of an event in Version 3.2, Fabulous Fungus Frenzy, wherein players will have to capture, name, feed, and train their very own small army of sentient fungi with the aim to collect Primogems and other rewards, including the four-star Electro claymore user Dori. Besides Layla, a character from another nation will apparently be arriving in Sumeru to witness the Fungi battles – and while I’d be overjoyed if it turned out to be Arataki Itto, I have a suspicion it’s either Yae Miko or Tartaglia given that their limited-time banners will be rerunning concurrently with this event.

My most-anticipated Event in Version 3.2, however, is Adventurer’s Trials – a series of diverse and peculiar challenges designed to give players a reason to use characters strategically, for their unique skills rather than for their DMG output. Events of this sort could help to combat the trend amongst higher-level players of using the same four or five characters to brute-force their way through all of Genshin Impact‘s Events and endgame content alike, and that to me is even more exciting than the addition of new endgame content (though Genius Invocation, the competitive card game set to be released in a future update, does sound promising).

In other news, the most noteworthy of several miscellaneous adjustments to Genshin Impact‘s system announced in the 3.2 Special Program is the addition of Serenitea Pot Replication, allowing players to directly recreate their favorite Serenitea Pot designs without the hassle of actually building them. Granted, you can only take what other, more talented or more dedicated players are willing to share with the world, but this is a very exciting feature for amateur architects like myself.

As for the hotly-anticipated Genshin Impact anime, no word yet on when that will air, who will star, or even what the story will consist of – but you can bet that whenever that information is revealed, that will be a Special Program to remember. The events of Version 3.2’s Special Program, however, are likely to be forgotten by this time next month: and that’s even counting the official reveals of the Scaramouche Weekly Boss and the Dendro Archon. What HoYoverse would ideally learn from this is that beating leakers to the punch is essential, but I’m cynical and I’ve given up on expecting them to learn anything from their mistakes. Anyway, what did you think of the Special Program, and what has you most excited for the upcoming version? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

August 3, 2022

“Genshin Impact” Version 3.0 Teaser Reveals New 5-Star Characters

**SPOILERS FOR GENSHIN IMPACT VERSION 3.0 AND 3.1 AHEAD!**

If you play Genshin Impact and are active on Twitter, chances are you had already come across the leaked character models of nearly every upcoming character from Version 3.0 through at least Version 3.4, long before HoYoverse gave in and officially revealed most of them in a recent teaser trailer for the upcoming region of Sumeru. The Sumeru character leaks have been (and continue to be) unavoidable – everywhere you turn, there’s fan-art of the most popular characters, redesigns of the characters that fans wish were more culturally and historically accurate (most if not all of them, if we’re being honest), and out-of-context screenshots from the ongoing 3.0 beta of the characters and NPCs we’ll be meeting straightaway when we enter Sumeru near the end of August.

The teaser trailer lays the groundwork for the Sumeru Archon Quest, which is expected to be larger in scope and potentially much longer than the controversial Inazuma Archon Quest. The six characters highlighted in this new trailer, those being Al-Haitham, Al-Tighnari, Cyno, Dehya, Nahida, and Nilou, are each rumored to play a significant role in the Sumeru Archon Quest (and that’s pretty much all I’ll say on that topic, because while this post is spoiler-tagged so we can talk about the characters themselves – primarily their kits and potential playstyles – I don’t want to completely ruin anyone’s enjoyment of the new Archon Quest by revealing story spoilers), but that’s not the only thing these characters have in common.

While there was initially some debate over Dehya’s rarity, leakers now unanimously agree that all six of these characters (including Dehya) belong to the five-star character class – the higher of the two character classes in Genshin Impact. Five-star characters, with their unique burst animations and high base stats, are generally considered stronger or more efficient than their four-star counterparts; therefore, most are only available on limited-time banners that rerun at random intervals, often coinciding with events in which said character plays a significant role. On the one hand, that makes them harder to obtain if you’re not willing to spend actual money on the Primogems you need to pull for characters – but on the other hand, it’s easier to guarantee a specific limited-time five-star for yourself than any specific four-star or even a Standard Banner five-star like Diluc or Jean.

Anyway, I could have told you that everyone in this trailer was a five-star based solely on the fact that Collei and Dori, two four-star characters rumored to be heavily involved in the Sumeru Archon Quest, don’t appear even briefly…the reason being that Collei and Dori, like all four-star characters, will be readily available on the permanent Standard Banner within a month of their first rate-up on Al-Tighnari’s banner – so no one will ever have any incentive to pay for them (and frankly, I wouldn’t pull for Dori even if HoYoverse was paying me, much less spend money on her).

Speaking of Al-Tighnari’s banner, there’s an interesting and surprisingly credible rumor going around that the on-field DPS Dendro bow-user will become the first new five-star to be placed on the permanent Standard Banner since Genshin Impact‘s launch, which is the kind of information that could either negatively affect his banner sales (especially if he’s one of the weaker five-stars, as Standard Banner five-stars tend to be) or potentially boost them (if fans of the character collectively jump at the chance to obtain Tighnari before he ironically becomes harder to obtain amongst a bunch of other five-star units).

Me, I’m saving all my Primogems for Cyno and Dehya, the only two playable characters in Sumeru (at least that we’ve seen) whose skin isn’t literally paper-white, making them by default the darkest-skinned five-star characters in Genshin Impact…although neither character’s skin is actually dark, mind you. In the real world, and almost certainly in the regions of South Asia and North Africa that inspired Sumeru, they’d be considered either light-skinned or white. In almost any other video game, including other gacha games by Chinese game developers like Dislyte, they’d be considered either light-skinned or white. Hell, even in Genshin Impact itself, when compared to brown-skinned four-star characters like Kaeya and Xinyan, and the unambiguously brown NPCs we’re starting to see throughout Sumeru, they’d be considered either light-skinned or white.

Some indignant players have cited the existence of Kaeya and Xinyan as indisputable evidence that the character designers at HoYoverse couldn’t possibly be guilty of perpetuating racism and colorism through their work, and in fact they’re actually progressive and ahead-of-the-curve, which is the type of excuse that I would maybe take seriously if Genshin Impact had, like, four playable characters at most…but as of this writing, that number is closer to fifty-four. And need I remind you that Kaeya and Xinyan are four-star characters, and thus nonsalable? The only reason these two characters and a couple of NPCs from Sumeru have brown skin is because they’re not made to sell, and if that ever changed for any reason, they’d be whitewashed.

That’s what this comes down to, ultimately. Genshin Impact‘s most desirable characters, its five-star characters, are intended to be desirable in every sense of the word (with the exception of Qiqi, a literal child), and their character designs almost inevitably conform to colorist notions of what is “desirable” because the beauty standards of China and Japan, HoYoverse’s two largest markets, are deeply rooted in colorism. HoYoverse didn’t create the problem, and they’re not the only corporation (nor even the only game studio) perpetuating it, but they also didn’t need to get themselves so deeply entangled in this mess and that’s what’s really frustrating about the whole situation.

Genshin Impact‘s fictional world of Teyvat is comprised of seven regions, and the three that have been released to date – Mondstadt, Liyue, and Inazuma – are inspired by late Medieval or early Renaissance-era Germany, Qing Dynasty China (well, to some extent), and Edo Period Japan, respectively. At those specific points in each country’s history, all three would have been predominantly ethnically homogeneous. Sumeru, however, isn’t based on just one country, but rather an amalgamation of something like thirteen different countries between Morocco in the west and India in the east – most of which are and have long been ethnically heterogeneous and racially diverse, by virtue of being situated at the junction of Africa, Asia, and Europe.

That’s why I have no sympathy for HoYoverse in this situation: because if you’re aware, as the game developers must have been after doing even the slightest bit of research into South Asian and North African people and their cultures, that you can’t ever commit to portraying these people and their cultures with even a modicum of respect, then you ought to either commit to the challenge and all of the responsibilities that come with it, or stop and think of a different story setting you can “borrow” from the real world that won’t have detrimental real-world consequences on the people whose cultures and history you’re “borrowing” if you mess up, as you inevitably will if you do what HoYoverse did, which is to stubbornly plow ahead without consideration for the consequences.

Even if you dismiss the lack of skintone diversity amongst the playable characters because “there are some pale or light-skinned people in South Asia and North Africa” (nobody’s saying there aren’t, by the way – we’re saying that it’s colorist for the playable characters from Sumeru to all be white or light-skinned, while the NPCs are tan or brown, but whatever), there’s still a stark difference between HoYoverse’s approach to the previous three regions and their current approach to Sumeru. For instance, the game developers very deliberately singled in on a specific time-period in Japanese history as the basis for Inazuma, to ensure that while they played around with more fantastical elements their focus remained clear and their vision remained cohesive. But with Sumeru, they’ve blenderized so many different cultures it’s impossible to tell which one is even the main ingredient in this dreadful concoction – which is spiked with a heavy dose of orientalism and exoticism for good measure.

That lack of focus behind-the-scenes is attested to in-game by Sumeru’s very own geography, which ranges from a humid rainforest on the borders of Liyue, to an arid desert in the far west where Sumeru butts up against the region of Natlan…with nothing in between but a few miles of sparsely-forested wasteland to ease that abrupt transition. We can see it again reflected in the whimsical architecture of Sumeru City, which bears little resemblance to anything in the real world, and in the fantastical flora and fauna of the rainforest area (the desert won’t be released until Version 3.1). And I’m sad to say it’s a recurring theme throughout the character designs – Al-Tighnari, Al-Haitham, Dehya, Nahida, and Nilou are Arabic/Amazigh/Persian in name only, and Cyno…isn’t even that.

Al-Tighnari, the first Dendro five-star in Genshin Impact, fittingly bears the name of an early 12th Century Arab agronomist and botanist…which makes it all the more upsetting that his design is unspeakably ugly and poorly-researched. He’s wearing a navy-blue hoodie (you can zoom in for yourself, it’s a literal hoodie) with mismatched sleeves because Genshin Impact‘s character designers are obsessed with asymmetry, navy-blue gloves (with rust-colored finger-pads, because why settle on just one hideous color when you can have the whole rainbow?), big rubbery-looking navy-blue bangles hanging off his arms, navy-blue lace-up boots, baggy navy-blue pants with red stripes down the sides, and a severe navy-blue bob hairdo with lime-green highlights. On top of all this, he has the ears and tail of a fennec fox…a navy-blue fennec fox, to be precise. I’ll be right back, I have to aggressively scrub my eyes with soap.

Ah, that’s better. Where were we? Oh yes, the next character on the list isn’t going to be playable until Version 3.4 or Version 3.5 at the earliest, but Twitter is already thirsting over Al-Haitham because he’s a tall and mysterious white man in a skin-tight, semi-transparent black bodysuit with one shoulder exposed (he has more muscle definition than Itto, I’ll begrudgingly give him that). Al-Haitham is rumored to be a Dendro sword user, although his release is still so far off that there haven’t been any leaks regarding the rest of his kit or potential playstyle. His design is sleek and futuristic, comprised of a lot of harsh angles and sharp lines; I don’t hate it, I just hate that it was probably chosen at the cost of the beautiful traditional clothing of any number of South Asian or North African cultures.

Cyno, whose name is derived from the Ancient Greek word for “dog”, kúōn, is an on-field main DPS Electro polearm user who lives in the desert area of Sumeru amidst the crumbling ruins of a civilization that once worshiped anthropomorphic gods similar to those of Ancient Egypt – including a jackal-headed deity whom Cyno emulates with his long-eared hat. I like the hat and its adorable ear-piercings, don’t know how I feel about the rest of Cyno’s outfit, which is relatively skimpy in comparison to most male characters in the game…it feels a bit like one of those ridiculous Halloween costumes for (white) adults that exoticize and fetishize Ancient Egyptian culture, but I’m hoping it’s not really that bad. We can’t see the entire outfit, to be fair.

I have similar concerns regarding Dehya, who is essentially wearing ripped jeans and a crop-top – not exactly what I would have picked out for a character who shares her name with a legendary 7th Century Amazigh queen, but maybe that’s just me. Nonetheless, Dehya is easily the best-dressed and most well-designed of the Sumeru five-stars (in my entirely unbiased opinion as an admirer of tall, muscular, claymore-wielding women), I just wish her design incorporated more…well, any elements of traditional Amazigh clothing. Between now and her estimated release date around Version 3.4 or Version 3.5, there’s still plenty of time to tweak her design slightly, HoYoverse (just please don’t lighten her skin any more, dear lord).

Nilou, described in the trailer as a dancer defying tradition, is rumored to be a sub-DPS or burst-DPS Hydro sword user releasing in Version 3.1, although we’ll meet her sooner than that during the Sumeru Archon Quest, as she’s presumably involved in the rapidly growing uprising against the Akademiya’s authoritarian rule of Sumeru. More research appears to have gone into her design than into certain other characters – Nilou even utilizes traditional Persian dance moves in her signature burst animation, and her outfit, ornate headdress, and tattoos are inspired by the costumes of Persian dancers from the time of the Sassanid Dynasty in what is now Iran. Unfortunately, her outfit has been sexualized to the point where she closer resembles orientalist stereotypes of belly dancers at first glance.

Finally, there’s Nahida – whose kit and playstyle haven’t leaked yet, although she’s currently rumored to be a Dendro catalyst-user releasing in Version 3.2, around the same time the Sumeru Archon Quest wraps up. Her outfit contains no discernible references to the traditional clothing of South Asia and North Africa, and honestly it’s a painfully average design on top of that; she’s wearing a simple, flower-shaped white dress with a couple of emerald-green accoutrements that clash terribly with her paper-white skin and hair. As fan-artists have been quick to demonstrate, Nahida really needed a brown skintone to complement the whites and greens in her clothing and hair if this was the route HoYoverse was insistent on taking with her design.

Well, that’s all of them. Unless there are a couple of four-star characters released in the near future whose designs really blow me away (I might pull for Collei, but I’ve already vowed never to use Dori even if I accidentally obtain her on the Standard Banner), I plan to save my Primogems for Cyno and Dehya…and yeah, that’s pretty much it. Sumeru and its five-star characters have disappointed me greatly – but my disappointment with HoYoverse is nothing compared to the hurt that South Asian, Southwest Asian, and North African fans have felt upon seeing some of these characters meant to represent them and their people, which is why I feel it’s important to actively call out the game developers and demand better…because it’s bad now, but it’s only going to get worse when the region of Natlan, inspired by pre-colonial South American and Mesoamerican cultures, comes out in Version 5.0, unless HoYoverse does something about it now.