#me playing 4.2: this is cool and all but where is kaveh

[kujousaramybeloved]

silly kaveh

[pass1onepr1ncess]

I've mentioned Genshin on this blog and posted an art piece a bit ago about Furina for 4.2 but here's my first actual Genshin text post.

I have a lot of mixed feelings on Sumeru. When I first saw the characters, I was extremely disappointed. The designs are pretty cool in terms of clothing and shape and such, but the skin colors are so pale for a nation based on SWANA and Egyptian cultures. Not to say that either of these groups can't be pale or light-skinned, but like. When your darkest characters are Cyno and Candace and they're still BARELY dark at all? It just rubs me the wrong way. Not only that, but Nahida- the Archon of said nation- being nearly PAPER white is just. Hm. Idk. But the stories and personalities of these characters are really good! I think other than Fontaine, the Sumeru characters are some of my favorites in terms of backstory! Plus, as we get more nations and Hoyo actually starts to know what they're doing, the cast of each nation has intertwining relationships and dynamics and it's wonderful!! Cyno, Tighnari, and Collei are such a sweet found family dynamic, Kaveh and Alhaitham are so so chewable whether you ship them or not, Candace and Dehya being the girl's girls of the desert while still being strong fighters and warriors is lovely!! And I could talk about Nahida and Wanderer all day, don't even get me started. Or Nilou, Dehya, and Dunyarzad! The fact that even an NPC was so well done!!

And the stories of Sumeru are good, don't get me wrong. The Archon Quest was a wild ride and it was extremely captivating, but here's the thing. Every single Sumeru quest feels like I have to spend three months to get them done.They have good stories to tell and they're genuinely really interesting, but because doing the actual quests takes for-fucking-ever, I lose interest and start skipping dialogue and such. And listen, I'm a lore-player. I play Genshin specifically for the lore, and I just cannot sit through this fucking Aranara quest. Everytime it tells me to go do another side quest, my love for Sumeru drops a little bit more and more.

Sumeru isn't my least favorite nation. Well, it just barely misses that mark. Inazuma is at the bottom of the list solely because the way they did the Archon Quest has the exact opposite problem of Sumeru: It felt rushed and ended so abruptly, and I felt like I didn't have time to connect to any of the main characters in the quest. I think this could be solved at least a little bit by having Ei's story quest be part of the Archon Quest where we go and battle Raiden Shogun. And the reason I say this isn't even necessarily to make the Archon Quest longer but because I feel like without it, the Archon Quest isn't complete.

The whole reason Ei and Raiden put Inazuma in a lockdown was because of two factors: the Fatui's manipulation and Ei's grief for Makoto. We solved the Fatui issues in the Archon Quest, but that was only part of it. The reason Ei and Raiden were able to be tricked by the Fatui in the first place was because of her grief, because she doesn't want anything in Inazuma to change after Makoto's death and she's willing to go to extreme measures to keep it that way because she's grieving for Makoto and doesn't want to- or rather can't- let go of the past. We hardly touch on that in the Archon Quest, so it feels like we only solve part of the problem. Ei still isolates herself in her Plane of Euthymia and meditates, still dwelling on the past and letting her grief consume her.

But in her story quest, we see her start to heal and let go and we see her grief start to lessen. It doesn't go away right away, of course, that's not how grief works, but we see her make progress and realize that she has to move on in order to help both herself and her nation. And that is what makes the whole story of Inazuma complete. The source of the Sakoku Decree to keep Inazuma the same was because she wanted to keep everything as it was when Makoto was the Electro Archon, like how a parent will keep their kid's bedroom untouched even after that kid grows up and moves away. It was because of that mindset of holding on to Makoto that she didn't see how the Fatui were pulling the strings and hurting her people. But because of the events in her story quest, she's able to see past her pain and past Makoto and realize that her people need her.

But again, because that was in her story quest and not the Archon Quest, it feels unfished and rushed. And then with Sumeru, it just feels like they stretch it out too far and fill their quests with a lot of unnecessary details and small side quests. It drags it out too long and I start to lose interest in the actual important parts of the story. It kinda feels like Sumeru is a big run-on sentence, if that makes sense? I've spent so fucking long on this Aranara quest and I'm STILL not done, it's insane.

In a way, especially with Sumeru being released directly after Inazuma, it was like they reazlied Inazuma was so rushed and went "Well, we gotta make the next one longer!" and then turned the dial WAY too far to the other side.

Anyway, that's all I really had to say! Like I said, they're getting better at handling these issues as we get more nations and they listen to the players. Fontaine was absolutely wonderful! Not too short, not too long, and the characters and dynamics were great!! I'm a little scared for Natlan since Hoyo has such a shit reputation for handling any culture that's not European or East Asian, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up just to be disappointed, but here's to hoping that at least the stories will be good!