One criticism I have with the exploration of Sumeru is that exploring half of the map requires you to complete the Aranara sidequests. I like exploring before doing story stuff so I found many places I couldn’t enter, and many of them I discovered later that I needed to do the quests. 

My problem with that is that when I found a new zone that had a barrier or something, I didn’t know if I had to wait for a sidequest or if that was something I had to do by myself. Sometimes I found myself wasting time exploring things I couldn’t unlock yet, or leaving behind puzzles I could solve but thought that it had to be done in a quest.

I wish it was more clear which things were unlockable without quests and which were not. The Aranara quest line is incredibly long and it has a lot of underground areas you can only explore by doing it. That’s one aspect that I haven’t enjoyed in Sumeru so far.

Another one is how difficult getting Reputation Points is. I still haven’t reached level 2 and I’ve done the majority of sidequests, but only a few of them give you points. And given how big Sumeru is, you can reach 20% but I don’t know if you’re able to reach 40% yet. So it’s going to take you a looong time to be able to unlock the Reputation things. I only need one more sidequest done to unlock level 2, and I hope the one I’m doing right now gives me the points.

Sumeru Act II (spoilers)

Well.... damn (I feel like I always say this)

Sumeru first impressions II

It’s been almost a week and I finally completed Act I!

It was long but it was interesting, I took my time with it because I also wanted to explore. This region is sooo big, there are so many different areas and things to do. But it all connects really well, and there are so many unique locations. The first time I saw those giant guardians was so cool!

I also like that the main event of this update is about exploring the region as well. It makes you focus on the animals and the different plants and effects you can do, so it encourages you to take a better look at your surroundings, that’s very clever.

So far, I think this is my favourite region exploration-wise. I love those vine things, makes it much easier to traverse. And the yellow flowers that give you a little stamina when you’re climbing, very useful. They’re finally learning how to make exploration more enjoyable. The puzzles aren’t too difficult either so far, they’re easy to understand and feel natural.

As for the story, it’s a good set up for now. The Sumeru story will be longer than usual, since it’s gonna have more Acts than previous regions. But that’s exciting because it means we’re gonna have better pacing and more time to dedicate to the overarching story. I like how we’re not forgetting about the main objective and the characters’ inclusions feel connected to the plot. It’s also interesting how characters like Alhaitham have their own agenda.

Overall I’m excited for this story, it has more potential than previous ones, the lore is pretty interesting. They seem to have learned to connect the story better and to take their time and make it interesting. Also thank god I can jump straight to Act II, I didn’t like that Inazuma made us do two whole character quests before progressing...

Sumeru first impressions

I’m enjoying it. I like that since the Dendro element is about nature, the puzzles are well implemented in the overworld. They feel more appropiate and natural than the puzzles in Inazuma.

I did a little bit of the story and I like that it seems we’re gonna focus more on the Traveler, I didn’t like how in Inazuma we barely ever mentioned why we were there and we focused on the problems of the region. I’m sure there will be some of that here as well, but I don’t want to lose focus on the main story which is the Traveler looking for their sibling and information about Khaenri’ah. So I hope we don’t deviate from that too much this time.

I really feel like the problem with Inazuma is how much their story issues affected gameplay, like how you couldn’t walk there because you had to go on boat and how many things you needed to do to go to the main city in the story. Here I feel like just with Liyue you’re able to explore from the beginning, it feels nice being able to get here with your own feet.

It’s gonna take some time to adjust to Dendro in combat. What I hate is that it doesn’t have a Cryo reaction so it doesn’t work really well with my main team lol. I’m using Lumine for now but I wanna get Collei asap.

Sumeru here we go!

The Dendro artifact domain is actually right next to the Chasm so I’m guessing new players will be able to access it too which is cool

Just a few hours left and we will get not only Sumeru, but also the long awaited Dendro element. Seriously I remember when the game came out almost 2 years ago and I was always saying “I don’t think it’ll take that long to add Dendro, we even have a Dendro character in the story!”, little did I know...

I’m excited but I’m going to play at my own pace, lately I’ve been with other things and haven’t had that much time for Genshin. I still have to play Kazuha and Heizou’s quest and hangout lol. But I prefer playing them when I’m motivated and not out of obligation.

We’ve seen a lot of the cast already, which characters do you wanna get? Personally I won’t be pulling in this update. Now that Cyno’s been revealed for 3.1 I’m going to save up for him. I also wanna get the Archon, Scara and the silver-haired man (I don’t know if the official names have been revealed so I’m not saying them lol), so I really need not to spend it on other characters.

Luckily they’re gonna give us a Collei, so at least I will have some Dendro characters between her and Lumine lol. I want to try the new effects at least. I’m excited to see the changes that we’re gonna get in the game, and I hope the story is interesting.

I can’t believe Sumeru is just about a week away. While it’s true that I look at some leaks I’m mainly interested in knowing what the future banners are gonna be so that I can save primogems when I need to. I haven’t actually seen the Sumeru trailers because I want to explore and discover everything about it myself.

I did read some interesting info, like Tighnari being added to the standard in the 3.1 update. That’s great but I’m wondering if that means beginners will be able to acquire Dendro materials at the beginning of the game. Imagine if you start playing during 3.0 and you get Tighnari and/or Collei, or any Dendro character after that, how are you supposed to level them up or get them Dendro artifacts if you can’t get to Sumeru? There has to be some way right? We’ll see I guess.

There’s also the fact that 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 will be a week shorter. I’m happy about this because it means we’re gonna get back into the intended schedule after 2.7 got delayed. I understand some people may have wanted those 3 extra weeks to save more primogems, but I’m more interested in getting the characters I want ASAP lol

While we now have a more clear understanding about Kaeya and Diluc’s current relationship, it’s not like they don’t still need to reconcile. After all, they still don’t acknowledge that they’re brothers. Just look at that scene between Adelinde and Kaeya, she was gonna happily call him “Master Kaeya” until she realized she can’t do that publicly, which is quite sad. Also when Varka sent Kaeya to question Diluc, Kaeya promised to treat it formally instead of talking as family.

So yeah, they may be on friendly terms, but Diluc still doesn’t trust the others and doesn’t acknowledges what happened or that Kaeya is his family. And Kaeya still has his own conflict that will be important later on. While we have a clearer picture of his Clan we still don’t know everything about them, or about him like the reason he pretends to be blind on his right eye.

There’s still a lot to be told about them and I’m excited for more future updates! I’m glad to see that Hoyo knows how much we wanted lore for them and took the opportunity to include a lot of context of the past and hints for the future.

Well damn, I finally reached it. AR 60! I wanted to get there before Sumeru.

I really wonder when they’re gonna add more ranks, I know some people reached it a long time ago. They really should consider extending it, hopefully sooner than later.

But at least I’m finished for now. IIRC my points are gonna become Mora now. Well... I guess it’s something useful in the long run.

So basically, this is what the event has confirmed about our boys:

Diluc is still a very sweet guy. But after being betrayed by the people he trusted the most, he just doesn’t seem to want to work with them again if possible. Maybe because he’s scared he’s gonna get hurt again. Still, even if Diluc is mostly alone and seems cold in person, he shows that he cares when he writes.

 If he still hated them, he wouldn’t have replied to them. Especially in Kaeya’s case not only did he kept the letters Kaeya send him after their fight, but he also replied to some of them thanking him for the information, for his concern and not saying anything aggresive to him. If anything his letters to Kaeya seemed the most... casually written. The way Diluc writes to him is like if they’re face to face, sounding more natural than in the other letters.

As for Kaeya, this has confirmed even more how sentimentalist he actually is. After all, in the hidden box where he most likely has his most precious possessions, he has the only remaining memento from his Clan and birth family, an old eyepatch (from when he was a kid probably), Diluc’s letters and some seashells that they picked up as kids. 

They’re objects related to family and childhood, it’s what he treasures the most. We also get confirmation that he misses the Dawn Winery a lot and likes going there once in a while, again related to family and childhood. This shows how much Kaeya cherishes them, and makes us understand even more how painful his situation is.

Things that we’ve learned about Kaeya and Diluc from HS