I know Genshin Impact isn't the most popular game out there now. It's not even the most popular Hoyoverse gacha game nowadays... but open-world RPGs are where I'm at, and while I had needed to take a couple of breaks from the gave over the years, the main story that they're telling and the worldbuilding always drew me in. The nation of Natlan wasn't the most appealing to me when it was initially released, where the themes felt all over the place... but the juxtaposition between the cheerful festival-like culture and the fact that they are the nation closest to death in their war against the otherworldly forces of the Abyss is pretty well-done. I caught up with the end of the main story over the past couple of weeks, and despite its length, I do feel like Natlan might be my favourite Archon quest. And also, after five nations, I also feel like Natlan is finally moving the needle forwards in the three long-running storylines of the conspiracy around the nature of the realm; the war against the Abyss, and the mysteries of Snezhnaya.
But we're not here to talk about whether or not the game is doing well from a storytelling perspective. We're reviewing monsters, and here we go!
[This review covers Natlan patches 5.1 to 5.3]
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Qucusaurus Chick
So as a bit of a refresher, the Natlan region is made up of six tribes, each of them associated with a Saurian that also has an exploration gimmick tied to the theme of the tribe. As I mentioned in the first Natlan review, I thought this was a very smart way to make the tribes stand out in a way that the various sub-factions in previous regions did not do quite well. In this case, we're going to one of the two tribes introduced a bit later -- the Tlalocan, or the Flower-Feather Clan -- associated with the Qucusaurs.
Qucusaurs are probably the ones that resemble 'traditional' dinosaurs the least, though they are based on what people like to call nowadays as 'modern' dinosaurs... i.e., birds. They're based on ratite birds, and the Qucusaurus Chick really does look like an awkward ostrich chick with under-developed wings and long legs.
Qucusaurus
And the adult Anemo-element Qucusaurus just looks like an ostrich with particularly large wings. Now, if you remember your biology, ostriches are flightless birds. However, the Flower-Feather Clan and the Qucusaurus are all themed around their ability to fly around and master the use of specific natural phenomenon and glide around using 'gaseous phlogiston'. I do find it quite interesting that they're characterized more as creatures that can glide very well, and indeed most Qucusaurus need a bit of a running start or a leap up to really 'take off'.
An interesting bit of their behaviour is that many of the Qucusaurus you encounter in the wild stand on one leg and keep their entire body bunched up in a form that almost resembles a small tree or a large flower. It does fit with the name 'Flower Feather', although I don't think there's any particular tree in Natlan that resembles the camouflaged Qucusaurus... which is a bit of an odd oversight for a game that's normally quite good at it.
I would like to note that the previous boss encountered in the first Natlan patch, Holowaqa Ngoubou, is a corrupted Qucusaurus. Ngoubou actually looks like a more traditional 'monster pterosaur' or many of the fantasy wyverns/dragons that are common in this genre. The lore of these Saurians is that they are essentially originally dragons that have taken a completely different evolutionary route, meaning that the Qucusaurus that was 'mutated' into Ngoubou likely simply unlocked some latent genes or something through his corruption.
Iktomisaurus Chick
The Iktomisaurus are associated with the Mictlan, or the Children of the Night-Wind. This tribe play the part of soothsayers and shamans among the six tribes, able to use 'spirit sight' to look into the world of the spirits and communicate with the Night Kingdom, a parallel realm of the dead. Interestingly, their own Saurian companions are able to do something similar, and the designers have interpreted the dinosaurs able to commune with the other world as being... bats. Which is not quite something I expected considering all the other four Saurians we've seen have all been more reptilian or avian!
But look at these Iktomisaurus chicks. The idea that these chicks -- who we interact with a lot in the game's various side-quests and have been established as sentient -- are creatures we can kill and farm for materials is a bit of a surprising direction for the game to take. I think the Iktomisaurus Chicks are my favourite of the five chicks visually. Look at them! Look at their tiny little hands and their little undeveloped wings and their huge ears! I think the only ones that can match them for their cuteness are the Koholosaur chicks.
I wasn't sure about the idea of a 'bat dinosaur', but I think they did quite a great job at giving us a creature with the general silhouette of a bat, but looks distinct enough. It's not quite a 'dinosaur', and not quite humanoid either, but I really do like the Iktomisaurus! The huge cloak-like set of wings allows them only to fly upwards in huge bursts so as not to overlap with the Qucusaurs' flight, and a lot of the Iktomisaurus' gimmicks involve more in their ability to sense and use their psychic powers to bring objects from graffiti into reality.
I really do like the massive ears, and the inner body -- which has two tiny arms underneath that impressive, decorated cape. I also really like the way they move around as well, which is this strange hop-skip motion that really does give the impression of a species that don't really walk around a lot. The legend behind the Iktomisaurus is that they were originally completely spiritual and drift around like spirits between the two realms, which I am sure is a legend that's often ascribed to owls and bats. In the overworld, you can actually find a lot of these Iktomisaurus meditating and being unresponsive to the outside world until you actually poke them with an attack.
The Iktomisaurus are aligned with the Cryo element, though it doesn't really show a lot in its design. I do appreciate that the second wave of Saurians aren't fully tied to the elements that they represent.
Winged Warrior: Skysoarer, Feathershedder & Skymaster
As with the previous three tribes, all of the Natlan tribes come with additional human enemies. I really don't have much to say here since the Winged Warriors don't actually fly around. I would like to point out how utterly silly the attack animations of the Natlan warriors are, with many of the weaker ones having animations that involve dancing, or getting stuck when they try and add a flourish to their kicks.
I guess the only interesting thing is that the Flower-Feather warriors do primarily Pyro damage instead of Anemo, which is what their saurians are associated with.
Qucusaurus Warrior: Heartstar Hammer, Blazing Sky
I had a lot more to say about the first wave of these 'elite warriors', but the Heartstar Hammer is just a reskin of the 'big guy with big weapon' enemies, only with a hammer this time around. And Blazing Sky is just a reskin of the 'slingshot surfboard' ladies. A giant slingshot serving as both a weapon and a flying surfboard is weird, but then they give us Chasca as a playable character, who substitutes a Qucusaur mount with a giant magic revolver. This game's weird sometimes.
Spiritspeaker Warrior: Determinator, Psychokinetic, Contemplator
The Children of the Night-Wind's minions are fun because as the 'shaman' tribe, most of their tribe members actually utilize magical powers. Which manifest in psychic powers! The flavour text note that they utilize a specific form of body paint to channel these psychic powers. I like that they have unique animation that ties into the lore of their tribe!
Iktomisaurus Warrior: Icy Tidebearer, Cryocrystal Cannon
And the Night-Wind's elite warriors are, once more, remixes of other elite warriors we've seen before, only with a different mask and colours. Cryocrystal Cannon is the same with the ones we've seen from the People of the Springs. the Icy Tidebearer is the same with the ones holding giant buzzsaw-spears. It is a bit weird for the spiritual-aligned tribe to swing around giant construction equipment, but turns out they utilize their Spiritspeaking abilities to enhance their physical strength.
Burning-Aflame Wayob Manifestation; Biting-Cold Wayob Manifestation
Speaking of alternate-elemental reskins, we've got two more Wayob manifestations -- the Pyro one and the Cryo one. I find the Wayobs to be pretty cool enemies, but there's really not much I can say for these two that I haven't said for the other three. Three is some neat lore in their flavour text that note that the Wayob Manifestations have changed over time after they were recorded in scrolls and the Night-Wind spiritspeakers have communed with them in obsidian. Having their current physical forms be altered and influenced by the tribes as their culture evolved is a neat way to make them feel even more interconnected with the Natlan tribes.
Tenebrous Mimiflora
Our last non-boss enemy is another new one... and I like this one a fair bit from a flavour standpoint. The primary plot of the Natlan stories revolve a main plot that involves them fighting the Abyss, and having new Abyssal enemies makes complete sense! We can only fight Abyss Mages and Riftwolves for so long.
The idea of a 'mimic flower' is a nice, twisted take on the Whopperflowers, which themselves are also plants that mimic other living beings. Only being Abyssal, the Tenebrous Mimifloras straight-up copy the forms of other enemies. Mechanically this is kind of boring, since we've fought many Natlan tribal soldiers and ruin guards and saurians and hilichurls before, but flavour-wise it does make creepy thematic sense that these Mimifloras are taking the forms of beings that faced the Abyss in battle before and perished against them... and are utilizing their forms as a mockery. Or is it even malicious?
The 'base' form is a pretty simple RPG enemy. A glowing orb with a couple of leaf-like 'wings'. The flavour text even notes that the Mimiflora's reseblance to plants is, itself, a mimickry that it makes to get closer to the "tree-like world". So much of the world-building in Teyvat has been revolving around themes of giant holy tree called Irminsul; which acts as kind of a representation of the world as a whole, sort of like a spiritual database of everything that exists in the world. The flavour of why all of these Abyssal creatures mimic beings from our world is because they're extracting memories to manipulate and imitate from Irminsul, the spiritual world tree.
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Dragon of the City of Ash
A quick nod to this guy, the Dragon of the City of Ash. Most of the story quests have utilized either enemies or bosses straight-up taken from the game, and I don't think we've really had a unique enemy model as a quest encounter since... since the giant Marana's Avatar all the way back in Sumeru? But the quest in the ancient, abandoned city of Ochkanatlan features us being continually harassed by a monstrous dragon! It's technically just a reskinned version of the pterodactyl-themed boss Holowaqa Ngoubou, but there was clearly a lot more effort here into giving him a more lizard-like head, new colours and textures, and stuff.
I felt that this was particularly notable because Genshin has been quite hesitant on introducing 'proper' traditional Western-style dragons. We've had dinosaurs and vishaps, sure. And giant epic dragons with unique designs like Dvalin and Apep and Morax... but I would like to note this guy as being perhaps the most 'traditional' wyvern-dragon th8at we can fight in this game.
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BOSSES:
Secret Source Automaton: Configuration Device
We've seen the Secret Source Automatons in the original Natlan patch, and the quests in subsequent patches reveal that they were remnants of the ancient, super-advanced dragon civilization. A bit different compared to the other ruin golems (remnants of Khaen'riah war machines) or the Gardemeks in Fontaine (which are cutting-edge technology). I do find it still a bit hard to get excited over another robotic boss, especially since the Breguet was so much more memorable.
The Configuration Device is basically a cannon with three 'legs', and there's some fun bits where it can transform into slightly different configurations. Most of the time, it's just sending parts out to shoot lasers, and sometimes the three tripod legs form the facsimile of a dragon claw. It's, again, nothing too special. The lore notes that this was designed as a multi-purpose, transforming manufacturing machine, but can also serve as a security weapon if needed.
Tenebrous Papilla
The 'boss' of the Mimiflora flowers is the Tenebrous Papilla, which instead of copying regular enemies, have various attack strings where they briefly transform into shadowy purple versions of previous bosses to fight. Just like what I said forever ago when reviewing the Hypostases, it is a nice little cheat to add in another boss variation without loading up more elaborate animations. The Tenebrous Papilla can transform and utilize the abilities of the Regisvines, the Hypostases, the Geovishap, the Maguu Kenki, the Aeonblight Drake, the Terrorshroom, the Statue of Brass, the Seahorse and Kongamoto. A nice selection of beast, artificial constructs and elementals to make each attack feel a bit different.
Unlike the regular Mimifloras, the Tenebrous Papilla can freely switch between forms as it moves from one attack to the next, and even spends a fair amount of the battle in its 'default' state. Which... I suppose it could be called an 'alien plant' to a degree, but with the eyeballs on the wing-like petals, I wonder if the Papilla is mimicking the Wayobs of the region?
Wayward Hermetic Spiritspeaker
We haven't gotten a human boss before, I think -- at least not one that's not a major story character. The Wayward Hermetic Spiritspeaker was briefly foreshadowed when characters from the Children of the Night-Wind talked up a certain sealed cave and the powerful hermit that lived beyond it, before the cave opened up and the Wayward Spiritspeaker became a boss. Lore-wise, she's basically a stronger version of the tribal warriors, and her cloak and mask looks a lot more of the Iktomisaurus that her tribe members emulates. Not sure why the tips of her limbs are so bright-blue, almost like an infection of sorts?
The idea is that this Spiritspeaker is a particularly powerful hermit who spent most of her life in solitude, but the powers are so powerful that they could go out of control easily, hence the isolation. I like how she's sitting on a giant paintbrush (the Night-Wind children are also associated with body paint and graffiti) that acts like a witch's broom.
Lord of Eroded Primal Fire - Gosoythoth
And we're finally here on the 'weekly boss', as well as the primary antagonist of the Natlan storyline. This guy was initially introduced in the form you see above-- a giant whirling mass of darkness and abyssal power. An orb surrounded by geometric shapes, looking like a giant eyeball or a giant hole if you squint. And it's big, appearing at a break in the sky as the ultimate source of all the other Abyssal creatures that has been plaguing our heroes throughout the course of the main storyline.
And the way that Gosoythoth has been portrayed, it just seems like it's just going to be that -- a primal force of nature with no personality or independence, just here trying to encroach upon our world. Being an anagram of the Cthulhu mythos's Yog-Sothoth, that's kind of what you expect.
And then you go deep into the dark Night Kingdom realm, fight through hordes of Abyssal monsters (as you do in an RPG questline) and is about to fight against the giant orb... and then it reveals that it's actually sentient, starts to speak, and transforms into a dragon! I like this little surprise that Gosoythoth isn't only sentient, it's actually actively malevolent. Throughout the fight it's constantly shit-talking you and the nation of Natlan, and even has specific lines mocking Natlan characters that fall in battle against it. It even impersonates the voices of their previous Pyro Archons, their dead and fallen leaders, in an attempt to demoralize the heroes. The form it takes is even the form of one of the ancient dragons that once battled the nation, Xiuhcoatl. It's basically an ultimate boss version of the Abyss mimic plants that we've been fighting, only taken up to eleven!
Design-wise, the 'Lord of Eroded Primal Fire' is... it's a serviceable J-RPG-style ultra mega dragon boss fight. It's primarily a serpentine dragon with two arms and two wings, which keeps its anatomy relatively simple compared to a lot of other dragons I've seen in Hoyoverse's works (at some point I'll maybe do a Honkai Star Rail monster review). The dragon head and the row of spines are quite neat, but there's a lot of details on his wings -- which are of the same style as the Mimifloras -- and the two gigantic swords it's holding.
It's not my 'style' of favourite monsters, but I absolutely can get behind the presentation of this enemy both in the story it shows up in as well as during the boss fight.
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