Reviewing Monsters: Genshin Impact, Part 11: Chenyu Vale/Remuria

All's been rather quiet on the Genshin front, mostly because there aren't much new monsters after the end of the Fontaine patches. We got two new sub-areas -- whimsical, idyllic Chenyu Vale in Liyue and the ancient, time-trapped kingdom of Remuria in Fontaine. 

And... well, I actually really did enjoy exploring these locations, and figuring out both of the 'world quests' that go through the ancient histories of both Chenyu and Remuria. It's just that as a monster reviewing series standpoint, there really isn't much, but I figure I should get through whatever new content we have before Natlan comes out. 

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Xuanwen Beast

The Xuanwen Beasts here are the new enemies in Chenyu Vale, which was originally a rivaling territory of Liyue ruled by a group of Adepti (who, if you forget, are Genshin's equivalent of the xian immortals/enlightened ones from Chinese legends) until some of them decided they didn't want to see their humans suffer and switched sides to the god of Liyue. Which is a very simplified version of the story of the region, and... frankly I'm a bit disappointed that for how beautiful the region was, there really isn't much context to the Xuanwen Beasts. We assume that they are the servants of the Suanni race (which we'll talk about below) but there really isn't much context about these 'lesser' beasts beyond vague theories on whether they are lesser, inbred versions of the Suanni (below) or just a bunch of beasts that follow them around. 

With a name that roughly translates to 'mysterious arts', the Xuanwen Beasts are basically just kind of generic servants of one of the mighty Adepti, and just like many mythological creatures in Chinese lore, they take a combination of various different real-life animals... but the end result ends up just looking pretty underwhelming to me, just like a panther with several extra feathers. If we hadn't had so many different variations of a normal 'wild animal' in Sumeru, I probably wouldn't have complained, but... I don't know. I felt like they could've done a lot more. 

Solitary Suanni

The Suanni, named after the fifth of the Nine Sons of the Dragon in Chinese mythology, has a fairly more interesting design. The mythological Suanni is a lion/dragon hybrid, and they kind of try and do it here, but I also appreciate that they went for an extra twist by making the 'dragon' part be a lot more fish-like. The end result is an almost uncanny fusion of features, where the face isn't quite leonine but not quite reptilian either. It's not something I particularly like, but I get where they are trying to go for here and I appreciate it. The Suanni also ends up kind of looking a bit like a Vaporeon with this silhouette, which... I don't mind, really. 

Just like a lot of otherworldly creatures in Chinese mythology -- doubly so for dragons -- the Suanni is of course associated with weather, and when you fight him he'll utilize wind and water specifically; with a mechanic that rewards you if you freeze him. The Suanni is also mentioned to be the source of the lion dance equivalent in the setting, where the people of Chenyu pattern the dance patterns on the movements of the Suanni. 

The Solitary Suanni here is the 'overworld boss' of the region, and there's just one that hangs out in some random cave that gets pissed off when you enter and fights you. We actually meet two more Suanni throughout the journey -- the primary one is Lingyuan, the titular Adeptus that used to rule over Chenyu Vale, which is just a slightly recoloured version of this Suanni model. But more interestingly, we also have Man Chai the companion of a minor playable character... who looks nothing like either the Solitary Suanni or the Xuanwen Beasts, instead having a design based on the iconic lion dances of Chinese culture. It's a bit bizarre, but there's so little that they explain about the Suanni species in general that I don't really have much to say here. 

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Praetorian Golem

We jump from the idyllic Chenyu Vale to the ancient, ruined, sunken and time-trapped city of Petrichor. It's like Atlantis, but with a healthy dose of Cthulhu, music hive-minds and timey-wimey business shoved into it, which I thought was initially a bit messy but I ended up rather liking the story of Petrichor. 

Without really spoiling too much, these Praetorian Golems -- who we thought were just golems -- actually house the souls of the ancient warriors of the people in Petrichor. A simple enough concept and honestly not much to talk about, but, again, there's the whole time-travel/memory/dreams thing that goes on, but a as far as gameplay is concerned, it's a fun take on what's otherwise a pretty basic 'golem' enemy. 

Statue of Marble and Brass

And the 'normal boss' of the Remuria region, which is... a centaur golem. Which, again, isn't the most exciting thing out there. Being a centaur does give it a bit more of a fantasy 'oomph' compared to, say, just another big golem, but I really find this guy's musical theme and its two very musical-instrument inspired weaponry to be more interesting than the general design of the Statue of Marble and Brass. The picture here doesn't really show it, but the Statue's shield actually has magical violin strings running through it, making it look like the Statue is fighting you with music... and since music powers a lot of what's going on in Remuria, it fits the theme! The sword itself either functions like a conductor's baton or a violinist's bow. 

The title of the Statue is the "Legatus of Legion Athanatoi", which basically roughly translates to "Lieutenant of the Legion Undying". Over the course of the Remuria storyline, we also get to meet the true main villain that has cursed both the present-day humans and the trapped souls of the ancient civilization, and it inhabits the form of this centaur statue. 

Again, not a whole ton to say here, it's a pretty simple enemy. I do really like how it just... breaks apart halfway across the horse side when you defeat it, though. The crumbling animation is just so abrupt! 

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Arlecchino, The Knave "Cinder of Two Worlds' Flames"

Probably my favourite character and favourite antagonist in terms of writing, design and storytelling, Arlecchino is the fourth of the Fatui Harbingers we get to fight after Childe, Signora and Scaramouche... and we jump all the way to the upper echelons since Arlecchino here is ranked fourth among the Espada-esque Harbinger heirarchy. We get a whole lot of story about Arlecchino given to us over multiple patches, where we slowly deconstruct her reputation of a psychopath that takes in orphans and brainwashes them into child soldiers and spies... and turns out she's actually... still all that, but she's also a good Father to her men. There's a lot to go through and I don't want to talk about how I feel about the character... but Arlecchino's a pretty great design. She's also explicitly not quite human either, and if you play around with her in her playable form there are moments where she kind of glitches in and out of existence and there's some still (at the moment of writing) unexplained phenomena where she can briefly teleport you to a weird plane with a giant balemoon behind her. 

Design-wise, playable or first-phase Arlecchino is just super cool, even if it's just cool in the sense that a character design is cool. A tall woman in a black-and-white suit, and she swings around a spear that morphs into a giant scythe, and can sprout giant blood-red angelic wings? That's cool. 

And then of course, just like Childe and Signora, Arlecchino has a second form... and it's a badass one. Her primarily white outfit swaps colours and becomes black and gets a lot more accents to it, she shows a bit more skin (which, considering the genre, is actually done quite classily) and the tail end of her coat kind of explodes to resemble a bit of like, insectoid wings or something. That's in addition to her actual insect-themed wings, where her angelic wings split apart into six very explicitly spider-based claw-appendages. She even spends part of her second phase sitting on random thin red strings that's strewn all over the battlefield! The character herself is also compared many times to a spider (and had a spider pet as a child). It really is pretty cool.

Again, I don't have a whole ton to say more about her since I tend to not have too much to say about humanoid bosses without going too much into character analysis, but I really did think the fantastic backstory (and marketing, don't forget marketing) behind Arlecchino's release was pretty damn well-done.  

Mystifying Megachurl

And one final little buddy here is a 'special' enemy in the vein of Beisht from a couple years ago, an event-exclusive boss... and it's a Samachurl variant. A 'Mystifying Megachurl', who has a giant wacky stick topped with a half-skinned dead fish and a leek for some reason. It just looks goofy and unlike most of Genshin's other events, there inexplicably is no lore or story for this guy beyond 'mumble-mumble something domain power infusion'. He's also very big, like standing twice the tall of the player. Again, no real reason. His powers involve really wacky meme-y nonsense like summoning cabbages from the sky, and I'm honestly slightly disappointed that he's not included in a more permanent or at least repeatable fashion. 

I do want to include him because I think he's kinda goofy, and we've actually not had any variants for Hilichurls that... really could've been added by now. I know we had the elite 'Rogues', but I kind of wished we also had some goofier minions in the vein of Megachurl here. 

Gotta Review 'Em All - Shinies, Generation IV Families

Next up on my blitzing reviews of the shinies, we're talking about the fourth generation! Not really much to say on the opening, other than the fact that I'm arranging these Pokemon by their evolutionary families... Generation IV becomes much shorter with a lot of the evolved forms moving to previous generation lists, while Gen IV itself never really got too many 'expansions' from future generations. 

All three aren't bad, but I really like the teal on shiny Turtwig and Grotle. And out of the two, Turtwig looks the prettiest thanks to the nice contrast between the gren colours and the black-brown shell on his back. I never actually realized how wonderful shiny Turtwig looks until I caught one in Pokemon Go, actually. Very nice!

They're all pink. It's... it's all right, I suppose? Not my favourite shinies. The difference isn't as obvious on shiny Infernape, though. 

Uniformly disappointing, they just looked very washed-out and pale.

Not a fan of these guys either. Staraptor gets a pass because the emo lock of hair going from red to pale blue is a nice enough change to make him feel like a shiny, but the rest just look a bit paler than their usual selves. 

Eeeeh. A bit better than the Starly line, but I wished that they went a bit lighter and went fully yellow or orange for them.

Finally, a good shiny! Kricketot and Kricketune both look very fabulous in yellow, which honestly looks pretty natural on Kricketot in particular. The fact that the bright-red highlights remain red makes them stand out a bit better when the main bodies of these bugs are yellow instead of a different shade of red. 

Absolutely excellent shiny, and I actually like this colouration a bit better than the Shinx line's official colouration. I always thought that the contrast between the reular blue/black and the orange highlights were a bit off, but the orange highlights blending a bit better into the bright yellow works a lot better in this case! It's admittedly a bit of an obvious colour scheme, making the Electric lynx yellow-black, but it's still a very nice-looking palette.

I've got a shiny Luxray in Pokemon Go. He's pretty cool!

Oooh, pink! I like. It looks a bit better on shiny Cranidos, I feel, but shiny Rampardos looks fun too. It's just kinda cute how this rampaging monstrous pachycephalosaurus monster just has an adorable pink hide. 

Disappointing! Side-by-side with the original colour schemes they actually do look different enough, but show me a picture of shiny Shieldon or Bastiodon on their own and I can't tell you on gunpoint if they're definitively shiny or not. 

All the Burmy and Wormadam forms make for terrible shinies. I get that the 'inner' bug changes like one shade in the colour sliders, but actually changing the colour of the 'coats' would make so much more sense for specimens that gather their cloak from somewhere else.

Shiny Mothim, on the other hand, is a wonderful colour scheme, with the bright yellow and bright blue accents contrasting each other very well. 

Ehh, they're all right. The deeper-coloured reddish-orange definitely looks distinct and natural enough for a bee. I don't really like that shiny Vespiquen's facial features all end up blending into the mass of orange unless you squint. 

Oh, a cute! Shiny Pachirisu swapping his blue for a nice pink makes for a very adorable shiny squirrel! 

One of my earliest shinies, which I encountered in Pokemon Platinum! And... they're honestly slightly disappointing? Shiny Buizel and Floatzel looks very vividly different than their regular counterparts... but not by much? It's these guys in particular that kind of feel like a bit of a disappointment. 

Mmmm, not a fan of shiny Cherubi or shiny Cherrim's Sunshine Form, both of whom look just a bit paler than the original. Shiny Cherrim's Overcast Form, on the other hand, swap the purple petals for some nice neon-blue which feels a lot more distinct. 

All rather disappointing. You can tell with the pink Gastrodon and the blue Shellos that there's some alteration in colour and shaders, but it's not that obvious. You'd think they would've gone and swapped the colours?

One of my favourite shinies, and one that I encountered in Pokemon Sword! Drifblim holds a special place in my heart and in this blog due to him being the first Pokemon article I wrote.

Bright yellow with bright blue highlights make for a very fun combination of colours, too. This hits all the spots of a good shiny for me. The colours work well on their own, it looks distinct from the original, and they fit the design. Wonderfully fabulous!

Oh, actually quite cute. Frankly I'm surprised this wasn't used as their 'official' colouration. Shiny Buneary and Loppuny being a fluffy cotton candy pink is adorable. 

Another one that I've got a bit more of an appreciation thanks to owning one in Pokemon Go. A very pleasant shade of purple. Not the first colour I'd think of when assigning shiny colours to this line, but purple shiny Purugly looks so much more striking than gray Purugly. 

Bright magenta Stunky and Skuntank are... interesting. Not my favourite one, but this one at least looks visibly different. 

Oooh, pretty! The metallic green works a lot better on shiny Bronzor, but shiny Bronzong still looks pretty neat. 

Very pleasant! I actually prefer this colour to the original Chatot. The shiny version reduces the amount of colours that Chatot has by painting his belly in a shade of blue (that isn't identical but matches the head and tail), and turning the beak into the same shade of yellow as his chest and feet. And finally, the blue wings become red. The end result is a bit less colourful than regular Chatot, but it's actually a very nice colour scheme overall!

Oh hell yes. Dusty purple and sickly green already gets the idea of a ghoulish legion of spirits swirling together into a nightmare face well. And shiny Spiritomb not only swaps the colours, but also goes for a much brighter, more neon shade. As a result, the miasma-mist for shiny Spiritomb is a wonderful shade of striking neon blue-green, and the orbs and face are shocking pink. 

I met a shiny Gible in Pokemon Scarlet, and I'm never going to evolve it. Shiny Gible is wonderful with its amazing bright blue body and its yellow belly, which just looks so different and striking and is such a nice colour scheme on its own. 

Shiny Gabite just looks like a sunburnt Gabite, while shiny Garchomp doesn't even look different. Both are disappointments, and honestly, retaining the baby blue of shiny Gible or even the deep-blue of Gabite would've worked. 

Shiny Mega Garchomp is a rather hilarious shade of purple-pink that, while kind of ridiculous, at least marks shiny Mega Garchomp as something special! Honestly, if they retconned the Mega's shiny to the regular Garchomp I don't think anyone would've minded. 

They're all very pleasant. Like Spiritomb up above, they swapped around the blue and yellow for shiny Riolu and Lucario... but it's not the exact shade of yellow and blue that the regular colours have. Rather, they use a much brighter shade of yellow and a paler shade of blue. I've got one of these from distribution, and I didn't really care for it. 

Riolu just looks yellow, but the effect gives a very pleasant pastel colouration that doesn't clash with each other for shiny Lucario and Mega Lucario. Very nice.

Despite having four palettes to work with, since Hippopotas and Hippowdon have colour differences between male and females... they're all uniformly disappointingly not different at all! 

Shiny Skorupi is a very pretty shade of crimson... which it loses when it evolves into Drapion. Really? They could've very easily kept Skorupi's red. But shiny Drapion looks basically identical to the non-shiny version. A huge disappointment.

One of the best shinies in Generation IV! I like shiny Toxicroak a lot better, though shiny Croagunk deviates a lot more from its original incarnation. And I know I've been complaining about shinies that are 'one shade off', but shiny Croagunk and Toxicroak changing purple to teal and baby blue respectively, and the orange/red detailing turning into hot pink make for a very striking shiny. 

Quick, someone, water poor Carnivine! I don't mind the green leaf-hands and head being a bit paler, but I wished they had changed the colours for his vines and body. 

Shiny Finneon and Lumineon just look like they've gotten the blue washed away and turned into a pale yellow. It looks better on shiny Finneon, I think. They do look all right, the colour palettes being distinct and work well on their own, but I still feel like they could've gone a bit harder on this.

Hmmm, these guys actually have pretty obvious shinies with the blue gloves and toes, but... I felt like they could've done a bit more different. I'm not sure what colour could replace Abomasnow's white and still get the point of a snow-tree-yeti monster across, though. Maybe swap the green and white? 

 

Not my favourite shinies, but all the shiny Rotom forms get a more monochromic look with the bright pink of the main body and the pale orange-pink of the lightning 'limbs' blending together a lot better than regular Rotom's orange body. I also like that all the lightning 'limbs' are all the same colour across forms for the shiny versions. 

I originally listed these three separately, but I've combined other 'related' Pokemon like Plusle/Minun and Sorlock/Lunatone. I normally talk about the legendary sets separately... but the legendary birds, beasts, Latis and Regis all have something for me to talk about. 

My opinion about Uxie, Mespirit and Azelf are more or less the same. It's actually pretty clear that they're shiny, with their yellow bodies and the fact that their primary head colours (yellow, pink, blue) actually change shades enough for them to be visibly different. That said... they don't feel that different, so I can't bring myself to like them. 

Yeah, sorry, shiny Dialga, you just look kinda mossy. At least you still look very prominently different from your original incarnation. They could've done something with Origin Forme Dialga, but they just kept the rather disappointing green. 

At least Dialga looks different as a shiny, though! Shiny Palkia is... uh... it's like you put a Palkia plushie through the washing machine and the purple paint from all of Palkia's lines kind of stain the white parts? But it's not that different so you don't realize until months down the line? Both Palkia and Origin Palkia are disappointments. 

Shiny Heatran is also a huge disappointment that's barely different.

Finally, a good Sinnoh legendary shiny! Actually, the good legendary shinies in Generation IV really pop off, and shiny Regigigas just changes a simple detail -- yellow to this purplish gray. And it just makes for such a striking change. It has the feel of a completely different feel of a golem. I honestly wished that they did something with the primary white body too, but this is okay. 

Oh, OH! LOOK AT SHINY GIRATINA! Look at how beautiful it is. The silver horns and bony pieces, the bright baby-blue stripes and wingtips, and they somehow made the creamy yellow work as the main body. It's not a colour scheme that I think I could take seriously if regular Giratina looked like this, but as a super-special awesome secret colour version, this works amazingly!

 

Shiny Cresselia also is another extremely beautiful design. She looks like a combination of a bunch of neon shop signs, and I mean that in the most compliment-y way that I can. The main body goes from pale blue to a nice deep shade of purple, while the gems on her forehead and the ring-wing things go into a wondrous shade of neon blue. Amazingly done. I actually think I like this better than the original Cresselia. 

Yeah, I actually can't tell if these are the shiny sprites or not. Sorry, iPhone and Manaphy, you guys were given pretty bad shinies. 

Not very obvious, and kind of disappointing. So... of course I have one. Thanks, Pokemon Go. I mean, I'm not even mad, because I really, really like Darkrai, but with just a slightly off-colour black, I really wished they had done anything. Even the obvious swapping of the black, red and white would've gone a long way in making shiny Darkrai actually look good. 

Oh, very pleasant! Both of Shaymin's forms look pretty great with this shade of bluish-green teal. I actually think I might just really like this colour. 

All the shiny Arceus forms just change the central body, leaving the rings appropriately coloured according to the type. I can respect that, it makes the forms not confusing. But must they colour the Creator-God of the Pokemon world with piss-yellow? Sorry, Arceus, you deserved better. Gold, silver or even the obvious black would've worked so much better than this yellowed-plastic.