#i felt like traveller and paimon felt like a proper unit in this quest. their bond was clear and quite nice to see

[watchmakermori]

the sumeru archon quest popped off. I started the second act and I just HAD to finish it today because I was so engrossed. this feels like a big step up from inazuma's wobbly writing, and it's also a more interesting and ambitious plot than mondstadt and liyue had. I particularly like that the traveller feels a bit more...engaged? Like an actual character? In the other nations, the traveller has kind of been a bystander. while I wish they would commit to giving them more voiced lines, the sumeru storyline feels more geared around them. With the other nations, it often felt like the plotlines could progress in almost the same way whether the traveller was there or not. this time, they have clearer and more specific motivations: it's obvious why they want to find the dendro archon - specifically the god of wisdom - and ask her questions about their sibling. their relationship with dunyarzad is also developed enough to provide secondary motivation, too - she feels like a much more successful, developed npc in comparison to teppei, who we actually get enough time with to care about.

all of the characters are introduced at a nice pace, as is a lot of the worldbuilding. I like that we meet new characters with each new area - collei and tighnari for the forest, dehya, nilou, dunyarzad and nahida for sumeru city, alhaitham and dori for port ormos. it breaks it up well and stops it from feeling overwhelming. the fact that the first act lays the groundwork for how sumeru works - the eremites, the akademiya, canned knowledge, the akasha, etc. - means that second act can delve into these concepts more thoroughly without being too confusing. I love how creative and weird the second act was, too! I wasn't expecting them to go with a weird, time-loop type thing, and I love that a genshin storyline actually managed to throw me off and do something unexpected for a change

it's a much stronger start than sumeru had, and the fact that the archon quest may not actually be wrapped up until 3.2 gives me a lot of hope for the rest. I can't wait to see how scaramouche ends up involved. my guess is that the fatui will have some hand in the dream-harvesting that the akademiya is doing, but beyond that, I'm not sure what to expect. I'm very excited, though

also alhaitham is a sussy bastard. I could fix him but whatever's wrong with him is much hotter

#genshin impact #generally i think the quality of the quests has been good since the end of inazuma #i wasn't as harsh on inazuma as some people but this is LEAGUES better #i LOVE alhaitham #i want to know what he's up to #i like that he doesn't really act warm to the traveller. he just uses them #he's clearly got his own agenda but who knows what #i like dehya too! and nahida is really interesting! #i was never a nahida hater but i think her set up as an archon is fascinating #the only character im not as fussed about is nilou tbh. but that's mostly because she didn't do very much #funnily enough i also think paimon was less annoying in this quest #i felt like traveller and paimon felt like a proper unit in this quest. their bond was clear and quite nice to see #i'm just happy overall #i could do with less of paimon recapping with obvious exposition. but it's definitely been worse