It's been some time since we did one of these, and we've got a bunch of updates since! The region of Inazuma came out! This 'reviewing monsters' segment is going to cover a couple of stragglers that I didn't put into the two other articles prior to this. I debated adding them stealthily into the 'part 2', but I decided to just hold off until Inazuma came out. And then just as I finished this, they did a livestream announcing version 2.1, which is Inazuma part 2. So, uh... you know what? I'll just publish this one first, and talk about any new additions in 2.1 later on.
EDIT: This was originally released in 28th August, literally two days before version 2.1 came out. The original version also had the Abyss Heralds and Azhdaha, but I moved them to 'part 2' where they fit better. Afterwards I also removed a bunch of mythological creatures other than the Bake-Danuki that's actually interactable in-game, because I feel like I can make a whole article in the future about the Chinese and Japanese mythological creatures that they used as inspiration for Liyue and Inazuma's mythical creatures.
I then re-released this in November to account for some new Inazuma-themed monsters released in the October update, so everything released in Inazuma is placed here.
Inazuma enemies now! And a little background for the lead-up to this region. Inazuma is essentially the world of Teyvat's counterpart to Japan. The in-universe reason for our main character to take some time to enter Inazuma is that there is a fantasy counterpart to the real-life Sakoku decree. Only because this is a land of magic, the almighty Raiden Shogun has also allowed her lightning powers to run wild and make it extremely difficult for outlanders to enter Inazuma.
The region itself is also breathtakingly beautiful, and suffice to say that it really invigorated me playing the game... and by the time the Inazuma update came around I was only at the cusp of completing all the prior content available to the game, so this game just keeps giving and giving and giving in terms of content. That's the good part of coming into a game like this a couple of updates late, I suppose. It's an amazing region filled with a lot of great environments, colourful characters and some of the game's most intricate side-quests, but most relevant to this article... new enemies!
Electro Repaint Enemies
As I alluded before in the first two parts of this review, there are a lot of 'common' enemies that is just carte blanche for the game-makers to make up alternate-elemental variants and just toss them into the game. And as we enter Inazuma, the primary element that infuses every part of the environmental design is Electro. so we've got a whole lot of brand-new enemies that use Electro! And... and for the most part, I really don't have much to say here. The Hilichurls in particular aren't super-interesting. We've got the Electro Hilichurl Grenadier (which just reuses the model for the Electro Shooter); the Crackling Axe Mitachurl and the Electro Samachurl (both just get new accessories). Out of the Hilichurls, the only one that's remotely interesting is the Thunderhelm Lawachurl -- it's clear that he still reuses assets from the other Lawachurls in the game. But between the glowing purple lightning crystals that jut out of his back and horns, and the skulls on his belt, Thunderhelm at least looks more like a completely different variant creature.
Other new electro enemies include the Electro Abyss Mage and Electro Whopperflower, which are... well, just the same designs that we've seen before, but purple and with some different markings. Again, I really don't mind it all that much. It is a mobile game, and it's interesting that these guys have one or two different attack patterns that at least make them feel different.
Nobushi
I'm going to start off, interestingly enough for me, with the humanoid enemies. I dismissed the Treasure Hunters so readily because they're all very boring and basic-looking. Frankly I'm surprised to open up the 'archive' segment of the game and find out that there are eleven variants of the Treasure Hunters, I thought there were like, four at best. But the Nobushi? It's clear that they put the same amount of care as designing the Fatui agents as they do designing these guys. Each Nobushi (and there are only three) look unique, and honestly, I wouldn't mind actually having these as playable characters. I feel like that's the mark of a good humanoid enemy design -- like the Fatui assassins and mages, I really wouldn't mind seeing these guys as playable characters.
The Nobushi (roughly translating to 'mountain brigand') are noted to be samurai who has fallen into banditry, and are basically just jackasses with chipped swords that collude with other evil humans to rob people blind. The 'Jintouban' has these badass folded straw hat and glowing red eyes under that and for someone that's basically just a swordsman, looks so much more menacing than he has any right to be. The 'Hitsukeban' has a rattier straw hat, and he tosses out weaponized firework grenades. The 'Kikouban' has a badass flattened, metal-rimmed hat that I almost expect them to toss around like Kung-Lao from Mortal Kombat, but he's basically just an electro-infused samurai. Frankly, I'm actually happy to have some human enemies that I actually spend time actually, earnestly talking about.
Kairagi
The Kairagi (roughly 'sea demon') are basically just... just evil samurai! A bit more straight-up and what you expect, with the full-face kabuto helms. I love everything about how they look, though. The badass helmet, the horns that are snapped off, the scalloped shoulder armour... these are basically what you expect a samurai enemy to look like, and I do like that there's a hierarchy between the more bandit-looking Nobushi and the more powerful Kairagi who presumably has better resources to even have these armour still intact. There are two variants of the Kairagi, the 'Fiery Might' and 'Dancing Thunder', and they use paper seals from the Kannagara art to infuse their blades with their respective elements of flame and lightning -- a way to still incorporate elemental powers into their fighting style without making the gifts of the 'Vision' that our main characters have feel less special.
Fatui Mirror Maiden
We already have a Electro Fatui enemy in from the earliest version of Genshin Impact in the Electro Cicin Mage, so it's interesting that they decided to include a Hydro Fatui Agent into this region. And, again, it's not just a reskin of the Cicin Mage model, which I wouldn't even minded (the Electro and Cryo variants really do feel different). No, the Fatui Mirror Maiden is a completely brand-new model that I actually thought was a new playable character when she briefly made a little cameo in the 2.0 trailer. And when I actually fought her in-game, her location and just how dignified and different she looks made me think that she's actually like, some sort of forest spirit or a youkai or something.
But no, it's just a member of the Fatui who uses a magical mirror to fight you. It's a pretty unexpected enemy type, reminding me of something like the character Haku from Naruto, as the Mirror Maiden has these mirror fragments constantly swirling around her form and she can hide inside them to avoid being hit by attacks, or summon them to make a cage and shoot energy beams at you. I'd prefer a ghost yokai, but Mirror Maiden here is pretty cool.
Ruin Cruiser
It's interesting that the next set of enemies are all members of the 'Ruin Guard' family, a quartet known in promotional materials as 'Ruin Sentinels'. I had expected a feudal-Japan inspired land to have oni or tengu enemies or the like... but honestly, I probably should've realized that, just like Liyue, these more iconic mythological creatures are actually relegated to being major characters or major NPC's. I definitely approve! Instead, we've got these ruin guardians, all of which aren't actually just giant humanoid robots but are, to quote the game, 'biomimetic' robots!
So in their dormant state, all four of these new ruin sentinels look pretty similar, folding up into identical-looking cubes. But they all unfurl in a completely different way, and fight differently! The Ruin Cruiser flies around and it has like these small little hovering versions of itself to help shoot lasers at you. The archive segment of the game notes that the Ruin Cruiser has mimicked honeybee colonies, which isn't what I thought this is inspired by, but I can't un-see it anymore now. I love this idea so much.
Ruin Destroyer
The Ruin Destroyer unfurls out in a different way, resembling some sort of cobra or worm about to strike at you, and it will burrow in and out of the ground. Interestingly, the archive notes that the Ruin Destroyer is actually mimicking a 'frightening plant', so I guess it's meant to be like mimicking those mighty Regisvines that we've met earlier in our journey? It definitely does look like a Piranha Plant for sure. One of its attack patterns has it actually split down the middle into four tendrils, which does feel a bit more plant-like than worm-like, in any case.
Ruin Defender
Probably the most basic-looking one out of the four is the Ruin Defender, who just unfolds into a four-legged spider-crab-robot monster. It's not that this is a bad design, though! It's just that I've seen this exact design show up in so many other sci-fi settings and games. It's still a very cool design, with the huge chunky lower legs, and the creepy glowing central eye. The Defender, as its name implies, is able to create tiny forcefields with its front legs.
Ruin Scout
And the final member of the new ruin sentinels is the Ruin Scout, which has little jellyfish tendrils and floats around in the sky, probably the most haunting and unexpected one out of the four. I do like that the archive segment of the game is actually baffled why this one copies the form of a deep-sea creature, probably a little handwave because 'the monster design team thought this would be cool'. I feel like individually, these little ruin minions would've been pretty cool to encounter but otherwise be forgettable.
The fact that they exist in a set, and sometimes they are all folded up and you don't really know which variant you're fighting until you meet them, is pretty cool! I wondered why the Japanese region got a bunch of ancient robotic animals, though, until someone pointed out to me that these are basically origami enemies. Interesting! I think I probably would've preferred it if they were actually made up of magical paper or something, but I do also appreciate the continuity with the Ruin Guards. Overall, extremely happy to see them, and it's neat to see a variation of an existing enemy that's not just something with a different element.
Specters
All those enemies were released in 2.0 with the three main islands of Inazuma. The rest of the islands were drip-fed through subsequent updates! 2.1 gave us two new islands, Watatsumi and Seirai, and we get the Specters, which are... well, they're basically flying slimes, if we're being honest. They have a singular eye, hover around, and a bunch of petals that make them resemble a mangosteen. They hover around like little balloons, and their gimmick is that they have a 'fury' meter and grow stronger and stronger as you hit them... but they eventually blow up. Okay? Currently, there are three types: Anemo, Geo and Hydro. They're noted to just be another kind of elemental creation like slimes, but the fact that they hover and glow make the locals think that they are wandering spirits. Which is why the term 'specter' is misattributed to them. I do like that. Their 'wings' are noted to be mimetic and resemble fruits of some sort, although the game also lampshades that the anemo one really didn't need these organs since they can already inherently float.
Neat to see new enemy models, at least, even if these aren't the most revolutionary-looking ones. I find it absolutely bizarre that we didn't get an Electro Specter, though.
Rifthound Whelps
That's much more like it. Such an unexpected but pretty welcome enemy type that was added with the final island in Inazuma, the creepy, time-displaced Tsurumi Island. These Rifthounds have actually been foreshadowed all the way since the very first version of Genshin Impact, all the way in Mondstadt in a quest with Razor, a boy raised by the sentient wolves of Wolvendom. They note of the evil dark wolves that are at war with them. This is what they look like! Can I just say that I'm so happy that one of the all-too-boring generic enemies in fantasy games -- wolves -- don't actually look like proper wolves, but are instead these... masses of floating bones? The Rifthound Whelps have a body structure kinda similar to the Pokemon Haunter, with two cool-looking disembodied, floating hands, and a tail that trails off -- the ghostly tail is made up of detached vertebrae!
In combat, to symbolize how unnatural and out-of-place they are, they inflict the damage-over-time status effect called 'Corrosion', which eats through basically any kind of shield you can put up.
Rifthounds
The 'adult' versions of the Rifthounds look a lot more traditionally lupine, but they still have all their limbs detached and they don't really have an equivalent to a torso or a ribcage. I like the little pups a lot better than the larger ones, but I do have to applaud how stylish a bunch of floating wolves that slash and rend through reality is. Pretty great-looking!
The lore for all the Rifthounds note that they aren't actually native to the world of Teyvat, but rather, come from the Abyss. They're the first Abyssal creatures we see that aren't humanoid or sentient, and are noted to be created by the mad alchemist Gold -- I could go on and on about the 'deep lore' of Genshin Impact, and I'm frankly kind of itching to do it.
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Inazuma Bosses:
Pyro Hypostasis: Ayin / Hydro Hypostasis: He
We're going into the 'daily' minibosses now, and I think I'll get these two, the most boring ones, out of the way. The Hypostases are always the most easy monsters to repaint, and I'm just waiting until all six elements get a representative. Still, while these Hypostases do look pretty mundane, they do have a pretty interesting set of animations that make them feel different. The Pyro Hypostasis is located in a location where it's just surrounded by the remnants of a forest it has burnt to cinders. The Hydro Hypostasis, introduced in 2.1 in the water-themed Watatsumi Island, hangs out in an underwater cave.
The Hydro Hypostasis is a bit more interesting, because unlike the other Hypostases, the hydro variant's "default" form is actually just one giant cube that's seamlessly merged together, instead of eight smaller cubes with visible seams. The flavour text notes that the liquid in the Hydro Hypostasis is actually quite unique, repelling regular, 'non-elemental' water.
I do commend the animations -- look them up in youtube! But otherwise, I don't have much to say.
Perpetual Mechanical Array: SI/Ald
And here we go with the boss of the ruin sentinels. It's kind of surprising that we've never gotten one of these as a proper boss, since the Ruin Guards, Hunters and Graders are just elite enemies. The Perpetual Machine Array is an interesting creature, in that it's a ruin automaton that mimics... a Hypostasis! It's such a clever take on a pre-existing enemy type, combining two of them into one. And while the Perpetual Machine Array does initially look like it would fight just like a Hypostasis would, I really do love the amount of care given to the animations of this boss to make him feel like a brand-new enemy type. It flies around on little steampunk engines, it transforms into giant buzzsaws and laser cannons and stuff... it feels so different and steampunk-y!
All the other Hypostases have a way to recover health as a last-ditch gimmick when you hit their HP to zero. The Perpetual Mechanical Array also has a pseudo-version of this, where the cubes that make up its body split up and transform into the lesser Ruin Sentinels. I really like it, since the Ruin Sentinels already turn into cubes -- it felt natural that a bunch of them end up becoming an artificial Hypostasis! Entirely unexpected, but surprisingly pretty dang cool.
Maguu Kenki
The Maguu Kenki (lit. 'magic puppet sword demon') is a boss that had an early appearance in the version 1.6 special area, the Golden Apple Archipelago, as a little preview of Inazuma. 1.6 is the first real big event that I experienced in Genshin, and I was surprised by the amount of voice-acting and the effort made into making the maps for the temporary area. There's a storyline in the archipelago, involving a group of people who were trapped there by the mysterious mists and stuff, and this mysterious Inazuman puppet-warrior protects the local people. So yeah, Maguu Kenki isn't just a samurai, it's a puppet samurai. If it isn't clear enough, during the boss fight he even has invisible strings reaching up and disappearing into the sky! In Inazuma proper, there's a different Maguu Kenki that hangs out in Yashiori Island -- new description for this Maguu Kenki note that it was made with 'the memories' of a particularly powerful sword-master. But as all robots are wont to, Maguu Kenki malfunctioned, killed everyone and went rogue and it's ambiguous whether it's just a mechanical malfunction or if there's some sort of spiritual possession going on. (Also, as of 2.2, there are some... interesting story implications about a puppet going rogue, considering what we learn about the main characters in Inazuma.)
I definitely would've been very dismissive about Maguu Kenki if not for the fact that it's a puppet. Because, yeah, the design is cool, and the puppet strings are cool, but it would otherwise just be a pretty generic samurai enemy that's not that much more impressive than a Kairagi up above. That extra oomph that makes Maguu memorable? Two giant halves you see in that second picture.
The Maguu Kenki is initially found curled up behind a giant horned oni mask, and the mask turns out to be part of the puppet, hovering around him and acting as shields or as boomerangs that the puppet samurai tosses around like weapons. Oh, it can also create shadow clones, which of course it can. Very cool boss -- I do really appreciate this extra layer that makes him so much more memorable than if he's just merely a puppet samurai robot.
Thunder Manifestation
Another one released in update 2.1, the Thunder Manifestation is the boss of Seirai Island, an island constantly plagued by thunderstorms -- moreso than other islands in Inazuma. In fact, there's a perpetually swirling mass of storm clouds above the island, with rocks that are magnetically/electrically levitating all around it. As our hero goes off to help curb the out-of-control elemental energy, all of the energy and the 'lingering hatred' of the battles of gods that are left in this island coalesced into a 'Thunder Manifestation'. It's interesting because, from a gameplay perspective, the Thunder Manifestation is just a reskin of the Oceanid... but the lore insists that, no, it just takes the form of an Oceanid and is not at all sentient.
The story of the Thunder Manifestation seems to just be 'oh, it's the cause of the strange weather phenomenon in Seirai Island', until, well, spoiler warnings for 2.2 -- we learn about the source of the 'lingering hatred'! Because the Thunder Manifestation is the remains of a mighty god-like being called the Thunderbird, whose remnants of the tragic aloof mistake she made would be explored in the ghostly Tsurumi Island. Without spoiling the entire story of the Thunderbird, I love how the questlines of these two islands would tie together this otherwise seemingly standalone-boss. These world quests and how they interconnect with each other are easily my favourite part of this constantly-evolving game, I believe.
While the Thunderbird seems to be some sort of raptorial bird or an owl by the looks of her murals in Tsurumi, interestingly, the Thunder Manifestation feels a bit more... bat-like? The shape of those ears are the most obvious ones, I think.
La Signora
There is a lot of story in Inazuma, I think more than the previous two regions combined, and I don't really want to spoil anyone with the particulars of the motivations and allegiances of the characters involved. But let's just say that it's not a spoiler to say that you fight against another Harbinger here, this time jumping straight to number eight, La Signora, who's menaced our heroes all the way back from the very first region, Mondstadt. There's a giant pile of item flavour text and in-game books that actually tell Signora's story as the Crimson Witch of Flames, and why she ended up joining the Fatui organization, but I'm not here to talk about that. And I'm also not here to talk about her default humanoid form, which is an ice witch instead. No, I'm talking about the second phase in her boss fight! After beating her weaker Cryo form, Signora covers herself in a giant chunk of ice before exploding in a heated blazing glory as... a flaming moth-woman. Unexpected!
Emerging from a frozen ice cube as a fire-based enemy such a great take on the ever-popular metamorphosis themes that anything involving bugs, and what a design, huh? Regular-flavour Signora is already a pretty neat design (if admittedly a bit too on-the-nose in terms of fanservice), but the flaming colours, the gigantic dress that trail off into blades, those parts of her regular human dress that expand into giant moth wings, and those two giant devil-horns reminiscent of moth antennae? The butterfly mask on her face?
Honestly, I don't think I really cared about Signora when she appeared in the previous two arcs, going 'oh, cool, an antagonist with a unique design', but damn. Damn, that fire moth form is really, really badass looking. It's a shame that just like her fellow Harbinger-turned-boss Childe, this monster form isn't actually playable. Very, very cool, and probably my favourite of the humanoid enemy designs by far.
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Bonus Enemies:
Okay, I generally don't do 'elite enemies' or quest-specific enemies for Genshin. And Inazuma has a lot of quest-specific reskins of the ronin enemies representing agents of the Shogunate, or samurai aligned with other factions, and the like... but they're just humans! I don't have anything interesting to say about them. Sure, it's neat to see them wearing something different, but they're just dudes.
But at least two versions of the story-specific enemy 'reskins' are interesting enough for me to talk about:
Ochimusha & Miasmic Tumour
The Ochimusha are part of a pretty long quest line and probably one of my favourite non-character related questlines in the game full stop. And unlike most other elite enemies, the Ochimusha are meant to be something different! In effect, they are just Kairagi that glow with an ethereal light, but the backstory given to them is so interesting and helps to build Inazuma as this mystical land a lot.
Your character is recruited by a shrine maiden to purify several shrines connected to the massive 'Thunder Sakura' plant whose roots coil all over Narukami Island, and this root system essentially functions as a way to collect and purge the 'filth' of the land... assuming someone does the requisite rituals. As you might probably guess, said ritual wasn't done, and the filth accumulates and manifests as these Ochimusha. Ochimusha in real-life Japan is a term that refers to a warrior that has dishonourably fled from battle instead of dying in battle or committing seppuku, and as we go through the quest, we learn that in the past, the 'filth' has taken the form of creatures like oni or inugami, and they just happen to transform into humanoid warriors because present-day Inazuma is wracked by war and that's what pops into people's head as a 'monster'.
Slight spoilers for this very long and fun quest, but ultimately after purifying five roots all over the island, you get to enter the roots of the main Thunder Sakura tree, and find that the filth of six decades has coalesced into a massive gigantic 'miasmic tumour' that you actually fight. Okay, it's mostly a puzzle boss that sometimes summons Ochimusha, but comparing this to the degree of one-off boss fights that this game used to have in Liyue and Mondstadt, it's honestly pretty damn great that we get such an intricate backstory attached to this!
Tatarigami
An interesting way to do a palette swap! The Tatarigami are basically just the the Nobushi, Kairagi and Treasure Hoarders with a bit of a black fog around them, and, as far as the game is concerned, they are identical to their common counterparts.
But there's a backstory to them! In real-life Shinto religion, Tatarigami (lit. "Curse God") are powerful gods or spirits that bring calamity, death and destruction to their victims. In Inazuma, they are reimagined as a palpable aura that hangs around Yashiori Island -- an island that's partially made up of the corpse of the great serpent god Orobashi-no-Mikoto. And it's this 'curse aura' of sorts that... infects the local bandits? Or do they manifest as bandits? Regardless, even though it's just a minor thing gameplay-wise, I do really like that they added just a couple of extra variations here and there. The game might be limited b the amount of enemy models that the video game platforms can support, but that doesn't mean they can't make additional flavourful enemies to make Inazuma feel so much more interesting.
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Not really a monster, but I'll talk about this one:
Bake-Danuki
Sometimes parsed as 'Bake-Tanuki', the Bake-Danuki are pretty fun! Anyone who's watched or read anything based on Japanese culture has probably seen these raccoon dogs. Again, IRL tanukis are just basically raccoons, but in Japanese mythology and popular culture, they are tricksters that are well-known to shapeshift and trick other people with leaf-based illusion magic. Easy examples that come to mind from popular culture are Mario and Link's Awakening -- the latter featuring a particularly jackass trickster tanuki that scarred me as a child.
The Bake-Danuki in Inazuma mostly show up as overworld creatures, dancing with the sound of drums as they teleport around where they spawn, usually leading your main character to a chest or some sort of reward (cabbages count as a reward, sort of). Sometimes they transform into torches or pretend to turn into fake chests, which gives you a bit of a headache but is ultimately non-malicious. The more powerful Bake-Danuki themselves actually show up in two side-quests, though, at least ones that I've encountered. One shows up to a pair of old parents in the guise of their daughter (who we met across the world in Liyue) as repayment for them taking care of it. Another one is part of the aforementioned Sacred Sakura questline, where the giant fat Tanuki statue in the middle of Chinju Forest is revealed to actually be Ioroi, a Bake-Danuki god-like being that was sealed into a stone statue due to a past misdeed. It's pretty cool, again, how much effort they put into world-building and making these beings feel like part of the Inazuman mythos -- not everything has to be out to murder you, and I really do appreciate that they adapted many of the more benevolent (or in this case, 'merely' mischievous) beings from mythology into something that still leaves a lasting impact to the audience while exploring their world.
The original version of this article talked a bit more about the Kitsune, Oni, Tengu, Nue and a bunch of other races that were noted to exist in Inazuma... but I removed references to all of them. I feel like between the Liyue and Inazuman characters, I could make a whole article about the real-life inspirations for these Eastern mythological creatures, though I would need some time to research about them.
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I think if we get a couple more enemies in Inazuma (and I highly doubt that, we'll probably get one or two extra bosses at the most) this would be the final version of this article. I thought about actually editing this and fixing stuff up, but as the updates piled up, the more I had to say, the more I edited, the more I moved stuff around, and I decided to basically revamp the whole thing and re-release it, well, now in November.
Since I'm not doing 'Lore of Hearthstone' segments anymore, I do wonder if I have the energy to do something similar for Genshin Impact -- about the interesting lore that are mostly told in books and unvoiced dialogue outside of the main quests? One thing at a time, I suppose -- my next Genshin article, assuming the region of Sumeru doesn't release in the next couple of months, is going to be the aforementioned mythological creatures one.
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