But as usual, we're mostly concerned about monsters in this blog and this review series. With the 5.4 to 5.7 patches of Genshin, we get introduced to our last tribe in Natlan, the Electro-element, wrestler-themed Collective of Plenty who hang out in their own little island away from the mainland of Natlan, thus completing our six Natlan tribes. Without further ado, we're going with the monsters!
[This covers 5.4 to 5.7]
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Regular Enemies:
Tatankasaurus
Our new tribe's Saurian companion are the Tatankasaurus, or (Rhino-ryuu/rhinosaurus in Japanese), who are based on Ceratopsian dinosaurs from real life. As with the other five tribes we've seen, they come in baby and adult forms, and the games very freely have them be adorable and valued pets and companions for all the Teteocan tribe members we meet... and we also are expected to slaughter them for materials. Just like all the other Saurians, you can 'indwell' adult Tatankasaurus to solve the environmental puzzles. The gimmick with the Tatantaksaurus is that they can get into a jog and then a battering run, allowing them to smash through volcanic rock and run up certain ramps.
I do like the design of the Tatankasaurus, with the legs and head having a somewhat furry (or maybe downy feather?) consistency. They do still have a beak, but not the nose-horns that the common Triceratops would have. Their head crests splay out into two nice growths that look rather impressive as an adult, with the in-game descriptions noting that they have multiple layers of horn-crests. There's also some green growths, and I wonder if those are meant to be moss growing on the creature? Not the biggest fan of the weird purple-gemstone growths it has as an adult, though.
I think this is one of my favourite ones where it's not just a slightly more anime-ified version of a real-life animal like the Qucusaur or Iktomisaur, but also not feel like a bit over-the-top 'Pokemon/Digimon mascot' the way the Yumkasaur and Tepetlisaur feel like. I like this one a fair bit.
Collective of Plenty Warriors
Our tribe, the Collective of Plenty (or Teteocan) are purple and wield Electro. The tribe is themed around farming and... bodybuilding, for some reason? Some of the main characters and unique NPCs are specifically themed around wrestlers, which is certainly a strange choice to make, but not an unwelcome one. This leads to all the Teteocan warriors posing like they're flexing, are given names like 'Wrestler' and 'Grappler' although sadly they don't actually have wrestling moves in their animations. I get it, all the human enemies are just reskins of each other, but I did feel like it's a bit of a wasted opportunity.
Otherwise, I don't have much to say about them. As usual, the more powerful versions wear masks fashioned after their tribal dinosaur.
Thundering Wayob Manifestation
Another new Natlan tribe, and we get another new Wayob Manifestation. All of these are honestly quite similar to each other... I like the general 'weird angel' vibe of the Wayobs, but other than acknowledging the coolness of the wing-eyes, I don't think I have much to say here. The lore does note that the Thundering Wayob used to wrestle with the Collective of Plenty's tribal warriors, but sadlty that doesn't actually translate to them having any wrestling themed moves.
Furnace Shell Mountain Weasel
Another brand-new enemy is a fire-themed enemy called a 'Furnace Shell Mountain Weasel'. Whew, that's a bit of a mouthful! Weasels have been showing up in Genshin since the very first version of the game, running around as little critters that drop meat. Well, this guy is a full-blown monster, looking more like a demonic fox monster more than an actual weasel. Apparently the energies of the volcano that the Teteocan tribe live around has mutated the local weasels... but they also have attached to them parts of the Source Mechanisms -- the ancient ceramic-looking robots that are unique to Natlan. All Furnace Shell Weasels have one of these rings around their necks, so I think that's not so much a hypothesis as an explanation.
More interesting than the ring is that all of these Furnace Shell Weasels have tails that expand into a massive demonic claw holding one of the robotic cores of these Source Mechanisms. The archive notes that the weasel goes around consuming other creatures rich in Phlogiston (the local magic energy) and accumulates power in that 'shell'. This allows it to unleash powerful fire attacks, and even burrow underground and become a mechanical turret as part of its attack. Honestly, a relatively refreshing new enemy model.
Except it's not a happy situation for the weasel, however, and one of the adventure book descriptions make it very clear that it's not a symbiosis, and the Source Mechanism is using the energies to control the weasel as a host. That's so interesting, but there's not a single quest or NPC in the entire game that mentions this. But this little tidbit that goes against the other explanation for the creature makes it so much more infinitely interesting to me.
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Bosses:
Lava Dragon Statue
Each new patch comes with a new overworld boss, and we've got a rather expected enemy in the Lava Dragon Statue. Essentially the 'boss' version of the lava elementals we saw at the release of Natlan, the Lava Dragon Statue was first shown to us in trailers and promotional material as the picture on the right. It's a giant serpentine dragon head made up of molten lava and rock. Pretty standard stuff, isn't it? Impressive, but it's not exactly anything to write home about. We've seen fire elementals in other fantasy media before.
But then you walk up to the arena where it is, and instead of a giant lava dragon, you see a pudgy little rock-golem guy with stubby arms and legs. It almost looks like a goofier version of Breath of the Wild's Talus monsters. And when you fight the Lava Dragon Statue, it actually runs around in its awkward stubby-leg rock golem mode for a majority of the fight, even getting stuck in the ground and flailing its legs uselessly. That giant serpent-lava-mode is its super mode that it doesn't access until it takes a certain amount of specific elemental damage, and it constantly pops in and out of its shell. That makes it a fair bit more charming than just being a big angry lava demon.
There is some lore about how the Lava Dragon Statue is actually the result of a failed experiment by the ancient dragon civilization that ruled Natlan, the same civilization that made all these Source Mechanism robots. The dragons had been trying to use magical flame to create a new race of humans... but all that was created were 'hollow shells whose nominal lifeforce granted them no more consciousness than a stone'. So these aren't exactly lava elementals or sentient magma, but empty dolls that were originally meant to be a new human race! ...and you'd think that they would have a quest around this, but nope, we don't get that, either. Come on, Natlan!
Secret Source Automaton: Overseer Device
This one actually debuted in an earlier patch as a quest-exclusive boss. One of the first bosses in Natlan is the Configuration Device, which goes from being a weird mass of ancient-punk mechanical pieces into a giant dragon claw. This Overseer Device, meanwhile, takes the rough form of a dragon head, although it mostly just spins around shooting lasers.
It's mostly an annoying gimmick boss, where you need to use Cryo attacks to cool down its overheating reactor to stun it. The lore notes that this is apparently the overseer of the many other Secret Source mechas we've been seeing all throughout Natlan with artificial, phlogiston-engineered intelligence. Which, surprisingly enough, did not go full Skynet on their creators.
Instead, they just hang out in their ruins and guard ancient dragon technology. As mentioned above, we actually get to see the full form of the Overseer and Configuration Device bosses in a quest-exclusive boss fight, called the Primeval Source Dragon Mech where the dragon head and dragon arms make like the rough shape of a disconnected mass of dragon pieces. That's actually quite cool, and even though it appears only for the quest I do like that they made the head into a 'proper' boss later on.
The Game Before the Gate
One of the patches brings us back to Mondstadt, where through one thing or other, we get into a bit of a test with the local mysterious witch guild, the Hexenzirkel. To prove our worth in that quest, one of the members tosses us into a chessboard, Alice in Wonderland style, and have us fight a giant, ornate chess king piece. And that's the first phase of the fight. 'The Game Before the Gate' (a mouthful name) initially has us just wailing on the king piece while it summons its minions all around it, many of whom attack similarly to chess patterns... and some that don't, leading to comical scenes like the King standing on a rook and using it as a little roller-blade throughout the board. As a fan of chess, I do appreciate this boss.
As you beat down the King piece's HP, the Queen shows up and it becomes a dual boss, with the Queen of course having a whole bag of tricks and missiles, like detonating all the chess pieces that a Queen could legally step on; or summoning blades and storms of fiery daggers. It's typical video-game-boss stuff, but the chess motif is fun enough for me.
This is a weekly boss, though, which means we get a second phase. At which point we're thrown off the chess board and into a generic boss fight chamber. Like something from Persona 3 or something, the two King and Queen pieces transform into quite neat-looking mecha-knights. And they speak and ham things up quite a bit, too, which I do appreciate. There are still some chess motifs here and there, although not exactly as much or as faithful to the chess game as the original.
In this fight, the King is characterized as a Pyro-wielding warrior with a giant greatblade, while the Queen is like a wizard that summons Electro and Hydro attacks... and even does a one-hit-kill gimmick where she summons giant tidal waves from all sides around you. Which has nothing to do with chess, but it's neat. They both have different health bars, and depending on the amount of health the other piece has, they will either resurrect their spouse or go into a berserk state.
Anyway, it's a bit of an unexpected boss fight. I do like chess motifs, there's a story reason for them (even if that story reason is 'witches having fun') and they put in a fair amount of effort for their animations. I like them!
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