Welcome to Sumeru, travelers!
On Tuesday, Aug. 23, popular role-playing game Genshin Impact launched its brand new 3.0 update nearly two years after its release.
Genshin Impact, developed by Mihoyo, was released in 2020. The game features an open-world environment, with a battle system based on elemental magic and profits off of a gacha system in which players can obtain new characters and weapons.
Already, the update has garnered a massive positive reception, with many players feeling that the storyline is improving and their concerns about the game are finally being heard.
Similar to the huge 2.0 update a year ago, the massive 3.0 update introduced a new region to Genshin’s in-game map, Sumeru, as well as a new element, the Dendro element. New characters such as Tighnari and Collei are released and more artifacts (which will be explained later in the article) were added to the artifact strongbox, hoping to address complaints from the games’ users.
The first major update to Genshin Impact is the addition of a new continent in the in-game map, Sumeru. Sumeru marks the fourth continent out of the seven planned continents released in the current world of Genshin Impact. Based on a mix of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures, the world of Sumeru offers a breathtaking, lush green scenery, dense with forestry and lurking with secrets and dangers, while also being contrasted with fiery deserts. I am always taken aback by how well Genshin keeps one-upping themselves with beautifully designed terrains in-game. Accompanying the region is a brand new soundtrack unique to only Sumeru. The soundtrack will be performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and will include Arabian, Persian and Indian instruments, fully immersing players into this world.
The release of the update also marks the beginning of a new archon quest, the main storyline of Genshin Impact. In this archon quest, the traveler will be able to explore Sumeru, and meet the new Dendro archon (god in Genshin Impact), and learn information about what happened to their twin. In addition, the new quest marks the return of Collei, a major, long-awaited character in the Genshin Impact storyline.
Many players are hopeful and excited that this new archon quest will be exciting and breathtaking as the trailers looked. Quite a lot of players felt that the last archon quest was underwhelming and underdeveloped, feeling that some characters were tossed aside, me being one of those players. The last story quest had a decent build-up in the beginning but felt entirely rushed in its last act, especially the character’s development. So far, there seems to be quite an overwhelmingly positive reception to the new story quest and as a Genshin player myself, I am excited to dive into the story and experience a new chapter in the game.
The second major update is the addition of new artifacts into the artifact strongbox. Artifacts, in Genshin Impact, are items that can be equipped on a character in order to increase their stats and overall power and can be four-star or five-star. They are obtained by completing Domains, or challenges that give artifacts as a reward. The artifact strongbox is a feature in the game that allows players to exchange three five-star artifacts for another five-star artifact from certain artifact sets. Before the 3.0 update, there were only four sets of artifacts available in the strongbox.
Obtaining a “good” artifact is already hard enough, as artifacts have a random number generator system, and due to the randomization, there is no guarantee that players will get the best artifacts for their characters. Such a system has resulted in many players, me included, being frustrated at the game for not giving users higher opportunities to get these coveted goods. It does not help that some domains, which contain some pretty powerful artifacts, have the worst randomization in the game.
With the addition of new artifacts in the strongbox, however, players are able to have a chance to trade weaker artifacts for new ones from new sets. Although the randomization still exists, this new addition will be extremely beneficial and efficient for many players as they will now be given a chance to obtain artifacts from the right sets directly, instead of having to fight domains and face the possibility that they will either obtain an artifact from the set they want, or an artifact from a set they do not want.
Many fans are feeling very satisfied with version 3.0, finally feeling like their concerns are finally being heard and addressed, leaving a positive “impact” on them and their experience playing the game.
