I've been really enjoying Genshin Impact on the sidelines -- they put so much thought into the world-building and the lore of the game that I'm absolutely just continually impressed at the amount of hidden stories and sidequests that build upon the world. It's just such a shame that so much of my favourite stories fall under the unvoiced 'world quests' and feature what's essentially just generic one-off NPC's... but man, these past couple of updates have been continually giving us small little subsections of the Inazuma islands (which I've mostly updated in the Inazuma monster review page) until the most recent update, which gave us a whole new area -- Enkanomiya!
Long story short (and it's a very long story), Enkanomiya is a strange underground/underwater... realm? It's originally framed as something similar to a series of underwater caverns, but it's later made more clear that it's a bit more similar to the Hadean underworld of Greek myths... something I wouldn't expect from an 'add-on' to an area based on Japan! The region of Enkanomiya itself takes the form of a bunch of ruins and islands floating in this strange void, and the simple mood of everything that's going on here is so damn cool.
But while I could write a whole essay about Enkanomiya and the stories within (which I won't -- there are a lot of people who pay much closer attention to the game that do it better in reddit and youtube), I'm just here to talk about the new monsters! With a new area, we have a bunch of new monsters, of course. And while I originally was going to shunt all of these into the Inazuma segment, I feel that when I add in the monsters from the events in-between the Inazuma updates and the Enkanomiya updates, I could actually make a full article. In addition, the little sub-area 'The Chasm' came out in-between this update and the next region, Sumeru, and I've decided to add the handful of new enemies introduced in that here.
[this was originally released as just Enkanomiya's monsters, but have been updated to include the Chasm and some ersatz event bossess]
Primordial Bathysmal Vishap
The primary enemy type introduced in Enkanomiya are a variant of the 'Vishaps' -- or rather, a variation of the Geovishaps that prowl the land of Liyue. I did find it rather interesting that they specified those creatures as Geovishaps, alluding to the existence of other types of Vishaps. Turns out that, according to Enkanomiya's lore, there's a whole realm of Vishaps running around in the past -- they used to rule over Teyvat before humanity (and maybe some divine aid) pushed them back into the dark realms. The Vishaps of Enkanomiya aren't exactly the original types, since there's a fair amount of experimentation that the ancient Enkanomiyans did to the Vishaps' ancestors, but they still look pretty cool! The original stills that I saw of these creatures weren't super-impressive, but in motion, and in better angles? The Bathysmal Vishaps are basically shark-dragons with your typical amount of anime-monster-dragon grooves and spines, but they do really look super-cool. It's nothing that we realistically haven't seen in other games before, but it is pretty new to Genshin and I do like that the game seems to be trying to diversify how its dragons look. Besides... they're shark dinosaur dragons! How can you not like them?
I also love the adjective 'bathysmal' -- it comes from 'bathypelagic', which is a depth of 1,000 to 4,000 kilometers below the ocean!
Bolteater Bathysmal Vishap & Rimebiter Bathysmal Vishap
'Primordial' up there, channeling the element of Hydro, seems to be the 'default' state of the Vishaps. Two others show up in Enkanomiya -- the Electro-element Bolteater and the Cryo-element Rimebiter. In game terms, all of these guys come in two sizes, the 'hatchling' and the regular sized ones, but the archives only really recognize all variants as types of a single entity. Through exploration in Enkanomiya, you'll eventually stumble across an abandoned experimentation lab where the ancient Enkanomiyans realized that Vishaps are essentially super-adaptible monsters. They did some questionable experimentation to stress-test these guys, and learned that they keep developing features to survive against whatever their parent is exposed to -- so a Vishap exposed to the cold would develop resistance against the cold or something along those lines. There's also a lot of great background lore about how the reincarnation of the 'Seven Sovereigns' of the Vishaps, but I feel like that's not really super relevant to our discussion about the monster designs. That's not to say that I don't appreciate them, though -- I absolutely love that there's in-universe lore revolving around the myths of these beings that, as an evolving game, Genshin Impact might actually build upon in future versions.
I guess selective evolution in the subterranean realms of Enkanomiya have caused most of the Vishaps to default to either Hydro, Electro and Cryo. The Electro one has a pretty cool tail but otherwise is just mostly the same thing. The Cryo one has some typical ice-shard features common to a lot of ice-themed video game monsters, but I appreciate the very sharky noise this one has.
Bathysmal Vishap Herd: Coral Defenders
Interestingly, unlike most other overworld bosses, instead of having a brand-new model they decided to just have two giant versions of the regular Bolteater and Rimebiter Vishaps as a dual boss. It's different, if nothing else, and they do have a bunch of pretty cool animations and attacks to differentiate themselves from the regular mooks. Other than to mention that these Bathysmal Vishaps are all but outright stated to be sentient and trapped in a system to be harvested every couple hundred years by the humans above, though, there's not much for me to say.
Cryo Specter, Electro Specter, Pyro Specter
I feel like the team is just obligated to do other-element variations of the Specters? I really don't have too much to say about them, since they don't even do anything different, unlike their Slime or Hypostasis counterparts. They just swapped the colours and some markings and called it a day -- hell, I didn't even meet a single Pyro Specter when I 100%-ed Enkanomiya and had to go out of my way to look for where they are! Even the Archives seem to be aware of this, with every single one of their entries talking about some origin theory that honestly doesn't sound too far off the course for these fantasy-setting creatures, only for them to be kicked out by academia.
Abyss Lector: Fathomless Flames
Otherwise known to the Genshin fandom as 'Enjou'. I absolutely love the fact that this variant of the Abyss Lector is actually a recurring NPC throughout the Enkanomiya world quests. Enkanomiya also marks the first overworld where the two previous versions of the Abyss Lectors actually show up in the overworld, which I appreciate. The Fathomless Flames version is basically a fire-themed reskin of a design we've seen before... there's a bit more to his mechanic where he uses a catalyst instead of a book, and summons a furnace that we must beat up on. But... but I'll forever remember him as the snarky, friendly jackass Enjou. Enjou does show us why these enemies are called 'Lectors' (or 'Exegetes') -- they actually go around looking for specific hidden knowledge!
Shadowy Husks: Standard Bearer; Linebreaker; Defender
These guys first showed up in an Enkanomiya-themed event, where they were event enemies that mysteriously show up. Interestingly, all their archive entries note how these guys seem to not be "human", but they behave so similarly to humans. It turns out that it's just a preview for the 'Chasm' area and the major plot points told in the main story quest that involves that area. It's pretty heartbreaking and well-done lore bombs, which revealed that the Hilichurls are the cursed denizens of the lost citizens of Khaen'riah, while these Husks are what remained of the royal guard meant to defend them. As we see a lot of old ruins and civilizations in the Chasm, these husks go around protecting the Hilichurls and say ominous things from what little sanity remained in them over the past 500 years. It does a great job at making you feel like an asshole in killing them, although there's also something to be said about mercy-killing these husks and laying them to rest. I also think that the game does a pretty good job at making these guys show up in limited amounts in the overworld, making them actually feel special.
Design-wise, they sure are Dark Souls suits of armour, and... they're cool. I'll give you that. But I just don't have a whole ton to say about them without dissecting the actual lore and story and we're not here to do that. My favourite part about them is that their accessories are actually transforming weapons. The Standard Bearer is able to cause the glowing energy 'flag' to dissolve and turn into fireballs, and the general vibe of his weapon ends up looking like some sort of Cloud Strife-esque giant sword. The Defender is featured here with what looks like a bow, but it's actually a giant shield that can collapse and transform into a bow -- by far the coolest one.
("Linebreaker", in contrast, is just a chump with merely a giant lance that sometimes glows with water.)
Black Serpent Knight: Windcutter
The 'boss' of the Husks is the Black Serpent Knight "Windcutter", which... is another Dark Souls knight guy. He sure has a cool big sword and he sure shoots wind blades, but just like the Pyro Abyss Lector above, the game does a great job at giving a specific Black Serpent Knight a story by making him into an actual character called Halfdan. We're not here to discuss the story, though, just the enemies, and as an enemy... it sure is a giant knight guy. His sword is actually segmented and at some point in fighting him he'll turn it into a whip-sword like something out of Bleach. It adds just that extra bit of coolness to what's otherwise just a cool anime knight guy
Floating Hydro Fungus
Oh, OH! This is adorable. Mechanically, this guy is just a 'reskin' of the Spectres, but whereas the Spectres are just floating versions of the Slimes, this is different! This is a watery flying mushroom! And just look at that adorable set of eyeballs. They look so much less of a jackass compared to the Spectres! So a segment of the underground Chasm area is actually an area overgrown with a whole ton of fungi. A common trope in underground caverns in fantasy. But of course, some of them actually become sentient and start attacking you. The Floating Hydro Fungus is currently the only variant there, and it's noted that it both has 'intelligence' and 'can be used as an emergency water source'. Now the Hydro Fungus actually looks like it's made up of some pure water in its cap, but you just know that anything involved with fungi would be damp as all hell.
I feel like this is a very smart way to introduce an enemy with such a fresh flavour even though it realistically is just a quick remodeling of the already-existing Spectre enemy. The fact that it has a whole brand-new 'flavour' as something completely different is pretty neat.
One of the more memorable side-quests in the Chasm actually has you talk to the giant, sentient mushroom called Xamaran. Xamaran's friendly and all, but I don't think it's a coincidence that these sentient mushrooms actually show up around Xamaran's domain.
The obligatory area boss in the Chasm area is the Ruin Serpent, a giant creature made in the same style as the other Ruin monsters. We actually see a couple of long, winding tunnels that are noted to be created by this giant Steelix-wannabe while we explore the surprisingly large Chasm area, which I felt was pretty damn well-done to foreshadow this otherwise unremarkable boss. The Ruin Serpent is cool, I suppose -- it's neat to see another robot enemy that's not just an origami cube or a humanoid robot. And I definitely appreciate that the serpent's face is actually a giant spinning 'gear' meant to represent teeth. Not very apparent in this picture, but it's got a drill-tail and a bunch of glowing cores in its 'spine' that's reminiscent of the Inazuman origami-cube Ruin enemies.
It's just that... the fight against the Ruin Serpent is kind of underwhelming. And while I do like the design, the fight against the Ruin Serpent basically amounts to it spitting out a bunch of corrupted black goop-mucus which we break and it somehow paralyzes the Ruin Serpent? It's a bit odd for a robotic excavation machine to have that be its central gimmick. I don't know. It's a cool-looking enemy for sure, but I can't help but feel somewhat underwhelmed by it. I guess I was expecting something related to the Abyss, or the Treasure Hoarders, or even the fungi -- all of which were pretty prominent in the Chasm? A neat addition anyway, and at least it's a unique monster.
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New Inazuma Monsters:
Golden Wolflord
We do get a couple of additional bosses in Inazuma, and... and it's always kind of telling that some areas already kind of look like they were meant to be boss arenas. The Golden Wolflord is the 'boss' of Tsurumi Island, which is already kind of a fucked-up island infested with the Rifthounds. I absolutely love the way the Wolflord manifests, by the way, because its appears in our reality by tearing apart a rift like one of those giant Hollows from Bleach. The Golden Wolflord itself is kind of busy, and fighting it is an absolute nightmare since it requires you to have Geo-element characters specifically, but I love the fluid animations of this giant skeletal skeleton stone-wolf that undulates in the air like a giant monster eel. There's really not much else to say without going specifically into the in-game mechanics, but I find it super creative that the team was given the concept of 'extradimensional wolves' and their idea is to make them swim through the air like fishes.
Magatsu Mitake Narukami no Mikoto
No one ever calls her that, yeah? Magatsu Mitake Narukami no Mikoto, or "The Almighty Warlord Thunder God, Calamity Bringer", is the boss version of the Raiden Shogun puppet -- and trying to explain that would take like an entire page. Raiden Ei is basically my favourite character in this game bar none, and I absolutely loved that a patch centered all around her story, expanding and I think concluding it. I'll try not to rave or spoil too much of it, but suffice to say that at some point, the puppet Raiden Shogun ends up becoming an enemy we have to fight. I tend not to be super-impressed with humanoid enemies, but... but god damn the Shogun is cool. I love the exposed puppet joints and the change in wardrobe, but I think it's the hands that really make this one work -- and the fact that they don't go overboard with it. Or, well, too overboard. The asymmetry also helps -- the Susano'o-esque giant aura behind the Shogun is cool, but having one giant hand with a sword and three smaller detached hands gives her a pretty unique silhouette. ______________________________________________________
Event Bosses:
Over the past couple of version updates, we've had a couple of mini-bosses or story-related bosses. These don't show up in the archive, but what the hell, let me talk about them regardless!
Beisht, Avenger of the Vortex
She's technically a story-mode boss that we fight once, but during the Lunar New Year event, the Beisht boss fight ends up becoming a temporary repeatable content. It's interesting because the giant water serpent Osial is just a cutscene boss. Beisht isn't, though! We actually fight her in an underwater arena. Now she's just a three-headed sea serpent with honestly pretty basic attacks -- especially compared to the rest of Genshin Impact's boss bestiary -- but I appreciate the variety in enemies nonetheless.
Fellflower
One of the antagonists of the "Shadows Amidst Snowstorms" event story, the Fellflower is the true identity of a fake Albedo who transformed and impersonated our good buddy Albedo. There's a lot more intrigue to the story than just that and the Fellflower here is revealed to be not the actual mastermind of the events of the event story, but we actually do get to fight him! It's interesting -- and everyone points this out -- that the Fellflower is actually mimicking a human person (well, a homunculus) that walks and talks instead of just mimicking a flower. It's transformed because it absorbed the blood of a dead dragon god, and according to the real Albedo, just like how real Whopperflowers attempt to 'imitate and replace' real plants, the Fellflower attempted to do the same with Albedo. A very interesting concept, even if I'm sure no one expected the true identity of the impostor to be this giant onion-faced flower.
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...that's it for now! The Chasm is coming soon, and I think if there's not too many enemies in that one since we covered the Husks here, I'll just toss in the new boss into this article. Hopefully Sumeru shows up soon. I'll try to post a bit more regularly, but real life has been pretty busy.
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