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War, war never changes. Many novels, shows, and games try to portray war in stories, and Genshin Impact is among them. Although the lore of Teyvat is filled with wars, we only encountered them during our journey twice so far. First in Inazuma and the second time in Natlan. Frankly, the latter is better than the former. Now, HoYoverse’s storytelling can be a hit or miss sometimes, but the way these two arcs portray war shows how disappointing some parts of Inazuma’s arc were.
Inazuma Was Pulling Punches
When the story trailer for Inazuma was released, I had high hopes for this third region in Genshin Impact. It promised a gripping tale of a country trapped in a civil war and an unwinnable fight against a god. Yet, it failed to deliver many of them. I’m not saying that the Inazuma arc is very bad, but it’s just not that good.
There are several issues with this part of the game, but one of them is the lackluster civil war. I’m not someone who enjoys seeing people suffering or watching blood being spilled, but when the game promises to show a war, then I expect to see that dark side of conflicts. However, HoYoverse seemed hesitant to go all in.
Perhaps they were trying to make Raiden Shogun seem not that terrible. After all, they were planning on making her a playable character so she had to be likable somewhat. Unfortunately, this made the war arc in Inazuma disappointing. Oh, there was a big cutscene with the characters fighting each other, and some NPCs got shot down, but it didn’t make me feel a thing.
The game also made the Traveler into the Swordfish II Captain but they didn’t do much about that. They just told you to go train some soldiers or something. Frankly, I can’t remember much about this section since it was so uninteresting. The only point where I felt a bit of dread was connected to Teppei, but that bad event occurred because of the Fatui.
Genshin Impact Redeems Itself
After the failure of Inazuma, I didn’t have much expectation regarding the Nation of War, Natlan. I fully believed that HoYoverse wouldn’t show any dark stuff because they wanted to keep their games child-friendly. Thankfully, my assumption was wrong. All the hype that the game built up about the battle against the Abyss is fully paid up in this arc.
Genshin Impact certainly doesn’t show any true gruesome stuff, but they were able to capture the terribleness of war. Instead of just giving us pretty cutscenes, we have to actively fight in this war. Using a hot air balloon, you must go to various hot spots and fend off endless waves of monsters.
Everyone was very positive and confident at first, but things quickly got dark. At one point, they even force us to see how pointless our struggle has been by showing the people we have saved dying. One scene I particularly liked was when the hot air balloon didn’t even stop as you passed through the Scions of the Canopy home. Everyone was dead, and only the Abyss monsters remained.
The game also drives this point home further by applying debuffs on your units. Genshin Impact has never been that difficult, but this chain of battles certainly made my characters die many times. It was tough, and this war shows why the Abyss is so dangerous. The level of corruption and darkness it brings is not something one can defeat alone.
Of course, Genshin Impact is still a story about hope and friendship, and we eventually win the war in Natlan, just like in Inazuma. Nevertheless, that struggle we must endure makes us understand the horrors of war. It’s not fair or pretty. There is nothing glorious about it. War is always about survival. You either die as the loser, or you survive as the winner.
