Bit of a sleeper patch for me since I don’t like the card game and don’t intend to play enough of it to unlock the events. In an age of big data, video game developers pay a lot of attention to the content that players engage with and the content they ignore, so it’s important not to force yourself to play something you hate, lest you send them the wrong message.
Plus I have a lot of quests and hangouts I haven’t touched in Genshin Impact yet, and my Hydro Archon fund is a bit skinny, so this is a good time to earn primogems for when Fontaine eventually comes out. Two patches away, I think? We haven’t seen any official previews of the place, so maybe even more than that. I remember all the hype when Inazuma came out. Didn’t really like the place (too depressing somehow), but I’ve really enjoyed Sumeru.
Roast her! Roast her!
What I liked most about Sumeru
The archon
Nahida is cute! And super useful in battle too. I run her with Zhongli, Xingqiu and Fischl. Damage is not too crazy, but it’s very safe and efficient, which I how I like my parties. I also experimented with a high-damage Bloom team (Nilou, Xingqiu, Nahida and Yaoyao). A whoosh and a splash and then everything dies. But it needs too much healing and I actually have to try and dodge stuff, like seriously, in 2023? So I went back to Zhongli, haha.
Yah anyway, Nahida is cute and strong and didn’t abandon her ‘son’ or totally ignore her country for centuries, so we’re cool. If anything she’s too soft on everybody: literal heads should have rolled at the Akademiya for their perfidy, and Scaramouche shouldn’t have gotten away with a slap on the wrist. But her country, her way, so whatevs.
There aren’t as many in Sumeru, another plus.
The area in general
I also liked the desert more than the jungle, though the underground parts of both were/are a bit confusing. Going in, I thought it would be the opposite and I would prefer the lush greens areas more, but IDK, they’re a bit overwhelming. The desert is much easier for me to navigate, and exploring the temples makes me feel all Indiana Jones-ish. Favorite area so far: Vourukasha Oasis. I like the music, the colors, the atmosphere, the NPCs except Sorush, having all the puzzles in one compact location, etc.
The gameplay
That reminds me: I really like the puzzles in Sumeru because they’re so easy!! The time provided for the overworld challenges is super-generous so you can make a mistake or two and still pass. I occasionally return to Inazuma for daily commissions and see all the puzzles I left undone and I’m like “Yeah nah, that ain’t happening.” But I make a beeline whenever I encounter one in Sumeru. This is the way! I understand the people who want to rack their brains and test their reflexes, and there are games I play specifically for that, but Genshin Impact isn’t one of them.
Finally admitted it, did you?
The abundant loot
Treasure chests, treasure chests, treasure chests! Chests everywhere you look! Especially in the desert where you turn left, treasure, turn right, treasure! My eyes are all big and sparkly whenever I explore that place. I’ve been making good progress on the turnip thing in Varanara too, going up levels regularly. And I completed the Amrita pool without difficulty because after a while the game shows you where to find the remaining plumes of light. This is honestly my current style of gaming: low risk, high reward, and lots and lots of freedom.
Where to go from here
Fontaine… I guess. Not looking forward to it because the NPCs from Fontaine have all been weird and annoying e.g. Julien, Xavier, the various NPCs that run events. And somehow I hate their clothing. It’s so… dorky. A steampunk vibe with those dorky outfits, it just doesn’t work. And you just know there will be water puzzles of all kinds, and gear puzzles too. Ewwwww~~~ …is what I say now, but you know I’ll be all over it when it comes out.
You don’t have to convince me. I already know Paimon is scum.
In the meantime I’ll be finishing up quests and hangouts like I said. I’m facing a little problem in Nahida’s first story quest, though. The game lags at the point where I’m supposed to jump down and grab something before the area fills with water. I know it’s my computer’s fault even after lowering the graphical settings, but I’m not prepared to buy another computer for one game quest. So that’s going to remain undone for now. Which means I can’t do her second story quest, which means I can’t unlock the Apep weekly boss to farm talent mats for Kaveh. Sorry Kaveh. I’ll try to leech it in other worlds for you.
The other quests are under control though. Just have Baizhu and Yoimiya’s story quests to do, then the Enkanomiya book collection thing. I need to explore the whole of Enkanomiya more thoroughly, actually. Also the Liyue thing with the offerings. Gotta finish Jarjar’s last challenge. And then I have thoroughly ignored all the hangouts so I’ll start tackling them little by little.
On the non-gacha front, Picross S9 came out recently 💗💗💗. But I haven’t bought it yet. I want to tackle the other games on the Switch first, like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (IDK what went wrong with me and that game), Triangle Strategy, Great Ace Attorney (too much talking!) and the Square-Enix games I bought the other time. May 17th was the first anniversary of my buying a Switch, and to date I’ve only finished… umm… I… haven’t finished anything! Of course, as per my policy, “it is enough to play a little bit of a game,” but I haven’t even given most things a chance so I’ll need to work on that going forward.
