The newest story act for one of the biggest video game titles ever made delivers brilliance and a scorching message against the modern world.
The year is 2020. Chinese video game developer Mihoyo (recently rebranded as Hoyoverse) released a four and a half minute video outlining the story progression for their brand-new and soon to be world-famous fantasy anime game, Genshin Impact. Story "Acts" were revealed and listed one by one, accompanied by ominous dialogue and an orchestra providing leitmotif themes in the background. While that video didn't gain immense traction until the game's popularity blew through the roof, it now provides the foundation for how all players view the progression of the game's story. One date that millions circled in anticipation was August 24, 2022: the release date of Act 3: Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana. Released in three intervals over the course of ten weeks, players were able to immerse themselves in the first true, main story since Act 2 in 2021.
Along with the next part of Genshin Impact's grand storyline that progresses over several years came the arrival of a brand new region to explore: the nation of Sumeru, a land inspired by the ancient Babylonian/Persian region, and the entire Middle East as a whole. A land of both lush jungles and barren desert, Sumeru was the stage for arguably the most lengthy and dramatic story arc Genshin Impact has ever seen. I myself played it on day one, but have waited until the final part of Act 3 to write my review of everything I've experienced with the game in the past few months. Let's dive in.
For starters, it's worth establishing one thing: regardless of Genshin Impact's physical gameplay or artistic design, the core of the game is its narrative. It is the one thing that all other aspects orbit around, without its storyline, it would not be what it is today: one of the largest, most popular, and most expensive video games ever made. From the very beginning back in 2020, this fact was made apparent, and Act 3, Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana, is no exception. From the first moment you step into Sumeru, the story begins, and doesn't let you go easy. Even if you complete the main story, dubbed "Archon Quests" you'll be hard-pressed to run out of other story quests and side missions anytime soon, which in themselves add to the lore of Sumeru.
For context, you, the player, are in a fantasy world known as Teyvat. Separated from your only sibling by an unknown divine being and cast into the surface world, you set out on a journey to find and reunite with them, and get revenge on the being who separated you. The only clue you have on this journey that takes a minimum of six years (real-world time) is that each of the seven nations of the world is ruled by a divine being known as Archons. Determined to figure out which one is responsible for what happened to you, you make your way to each nation, one by one (1 real-world year = one nation). Genshin Impact begins in the Germany-inspired nation of Mondstadt, continues on to Liyue and Inazuma (China and Japan, respectively) and now, Sumeru. Each nation and culture is associated with one of the seven elements of the world (Anemo, Geo, Electro, Dendro, Hydro, Pyro, and Cryo), and the Archon of that nation possesses immense power of their respective element.
Sumeru is ruled by the Dendro Archon, Dendro being the element of nature associated with dreams, knowledge, and wisdom. Titled Lesser Lord Kusanali, the Dendro Archon is whom you seek an audience with at the beginning of the story. What come after is about 12-14 straight hours of some of the most well-rounded, intense story I've ever witnessed in the fantasy genre. To sum it up in one word: Relentless. Whether you're a fan or not, it's the kind of storytelling that requires some extensive investment but rewards your close attention with heavy doses of emotion, a sense of awe at several turns, and lore so heavy it'll take you some time to digest and really think about the implications. There's so many things going all at once, but you can't find anywhere you can really poke a hole in it. Lore consistency and letting nothing slip through the cracks is a trademark of Mihoyo: they know exactly what they're doing, what they want to tell in the story, and it shows, from the beginning all the way to the very end.
For better or worse, Genshin Impact is one of those stories that is hard to break down and analyze, at least in simple terms, because there's always so much going on. I'm not talking about the events that occur in the plot, I'm talking about the meaning behind them. Genshin Impact is chock full of intricate symbolism and meaning at every turn, which is why it's at times time-consuming to digest. Nevertheless, it has to be admired how congruent it is. It's like building a 1000 piece puzzle: time consuming and hard to see what image it makes as the pieces lie in a pile, but once you complete it, it all fits together perfectly.
In lots of storytelling, especially the more modern ones, plots are very linear, taking you from point A to B. All storytelling does this to a degree, but its important to make a distinction here. Some stories put heavy emphasis on going from A to B, making sure the flow and pacing is logical above all else. This isn't bad by any means, but as time goes by, there is an argument to be made that this is the only aspect of storytelling many modern writers focus on. They leave out something very critical: the why. Why are you telling the story? Why do these plot events occur the way they do? Writers can either craft their A-to-B plot based on logic "what would people in real life do?" or structure it based on message. I'm sure that at some point, you've watched a movie or read a book where the plot makes perfect sense; there's no plotholes, no strange twists or plot convenient coincidences, but you still walked away feeling nothing at all. You call the book or movie good, but that doesn't sound right. Something is off, but you can't put your finger on it. That's a writer who knows how to make a story, but forgot to invest his mind and beliefs into it, which is why you can't identify what drove the writer to make the story he did.
In Genshin Impact, however, the why and the meaning comes before lining up events in a "logical" order. There's always something to pull from the story that's relatable or applicable to something in the real world you know about. In Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana, Genshin Impact puts this philosophy into overdrive, crafting for itself a massive toolbox of characters, locations, plot events, culture, that are given real-world symbolism and meaning.
So, at its core, what is the story about? What's its point? In Act 3, the entire thrust of the narrative is that human wisdom and knowledge is meaningless and worthless compared to divine wisdom. When humanity attempts to exert their power and wisdom over divinity, only disaster follows, on a massive scale. Thus, the 12-14 hours of storyline repeatedly showcases the folly of trusting in human knowledge over the power of a god (Archon), with each significant event carrying much more meaning beyond simple, logical story progression.
Beyond the main theme, there are several other themes that are all tied together and to the main point inextricably. If the condemning of human knowledge over divine wisdom is the sweeping idea that covers all, then the sub-themes focus on particular manifestations of human foolishness. These include, and are not limited to, racism, hypocrisy, religious persecution, governmental suppression and submission by brainwashing, and the idea that an individual has the right to, dare I say, "cancel" another based on opinion and level of "education". As a detailed example, there are situations in which the arts, specifically dancing, are banned by the authoritarian scholars who believe such forms of expression are worthless compared to the pursuit of "knowledge". If you worship the nation's Archon, you are restricted and suppressed. (This is part of a larger story element that the Sumeru school of knowledge, the Akademiya, stole control of the nation away from their divine Archon on the basis that their Archon was inferior to the wisdom in their law. Sound familiar?) An example of racism is the jungle-dwellers and scholars' treatment of the people of the desert regions, known as Eremites. Eremites are prohibited from being anything more than illiterate mercenaries who do the dirty work for the scholars to lord their "wisdom" over others.
The execution and synergy between all of these story elements and concepts is almost unrivaled in any modern story I can think of. Sure, there have been impressively constructed books, movies, and video games and that have used what's in their toolbox effectively, but its impressive that Genshin Impact's Act 3 can pack so much all into one story and never slip up nor skip a beat. It takes advantage of every moment it has to get the message across further,
It's decisive as well. Never do you get the impression that the team of writers don't know how to handle a certain situation, because they glide through each part in such a way that almost makes it look like it's easy to write. There's no concern for what the audience might think, because they're going to do it anyway, and heck, given all the firepower the storytelling has, they are sure you'll like it. To me, I value this aspect of writing more than almost anything else. I'll take an average plot with tremendous meaning and writer decisiveness any day over masterful plot crafting but a lack of author investment. Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana gets the best of both worlds, and oh yeah, it helps when you have things like a renowned composer and famous orchestra working for you, too, providing the musical emotion to enhance the story in perfect synchronization. Considering Sumeru is inspired by the Middle East part of the world, many themes are accompanied by instruments famous in those real-world nations, like the sitar.
It would be a very different story if the message the storyline told was incorrect in its observations about reality, but it's not, and thus, you can take in everything that you are being told without worrying about being deceived. It's remarkably genuine, stands for the right things, and doesn't worry about who it might offend. Taking a truthful stance is necessary for writers to make their story's message effective; otherwise, it can feel rather flat. Despite talking about rather deep subjects most of the time, it's still something parents can put in front of older kids that inspires a level of critical thinking and discernment, on top of the obvious ones like creativity. It informs intelligently, not mindlessly and aimlessly.
It's very important to stress that for all of the extensive lore and deep meanings and symbolism, Genshin Impact is careful about staying in the realm of simple fun. It's not anxiety-inducing to follow, and doesn't take a sociologist to understand what's happening. 10 year olds who care about little more than cool-looking characters and beating bad guys with fun elemental powers can still find it to be their favorite video game ever. And outside of the game's main storyline, almost all side quests are relatively low-key and basic. The side quests themselves prove average plots are still very good when paired with a decisive writer who means what he says. Character dialogue is very simple half the time, in the realm of what some might call "cringe", but given the target audience and ability of the writers to be honest in expressing thoughts through the characters, it's very good. The other half is the plethora of pretty memorable one-liners and more serious statements.
The engine that drives a lot of the narrative and is responsible for a lot of its significant lore introductions are the animated cutscenes. These cutscenes are no "additions" to make events easier to follow. By themselves, they are the kinds of things that'll give you goosebumps and really invest you in the storyline. Animated in a two-dimensional way with elegant motion added onto amazing imagery, they are my favorite moments in all the storyline. It's one of the reasons I play the game. It's a paradise for the mind of a creative world-builder and writer. Animation, writing, and musical talents join forces to produce these epic cutscenes.
As a whole, Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana is a pretty severe criticism and reproof of the modern world and the direction it is headed. While it's anything but a Christian game, it ironically pulls some of its characters and the majority of its story and themes from Christianity itself, and it influences it heavily. It would not be unreasonable to say that to a degree, Act 3 of Genshin Impact is essentially the four Gospels and the book of Revelation in a nutshell. We start with the memory of a divine ruler, loved and worshipped by her people as the Archon of Wisdom. Her reign is followed by a newly born Archon, but is rejected by the scholarly national leaders "Is this what Wisdom is supposed to look like?" and locked away for 500 years. 500 years later, scholars employ a former heretic they expelled to create a new god using human wisdom.
Yeah. It's not very subtle with these references, and for the sake of spoilers, I won't go into further detail. Let's just say that there's a character for every significant one that appears in these Bible books. However, it's balanced by your average well-written fantasy characters with cool backstories and powers, and it's tremendously fun to play. In the end, it still all boils down to beating up the bad guys and taking down the boss, and truly, you do look epic doing so.
Speaking of gameplay, it's time we recognize it exists. Apologies if the review so far made Genshin Impact sound like a movie franchise. In reality, it is an open-world anime video game, and when I say its a massive explorable world, I mean it. Nations are not small, and it will only double in size as the remainder of the Seven Nations are added over the years. Gameplay centers around you controlling a team with four characters of your choice, and you can switch them rather quickly and go back and forth. It's the science of how you utilize each one. Embracing its video game-ness, each character functions a certain way and has particular stats that you can level up with materials that you collect in the explorable world, from finding flowers to fighting a variety of bosses with strengths and weaknesses. Collect certain characters with good synergies to deal more overall damage and pull off unique series of attacks using your four active characters (we call these attack patterns "rotations" as you switch between the four characters to activate their buffs and abilities). Some characters heal, some do raw damage, others support and enhance. Each one has a different aesthetic, voice actor, and role in a team of your choosing. Each character also wields a particular element out of the seven that exist, combine abilities to trigger elemental reactions based on the elements combined. With the 50 characters that are currently in the roster, you can come up with practically any combination and set of reactions you can use against your foes.
The release of Act 3 and Sumeru meant the arrival of the final of Genshin Impact's seven elements, Dendro, which can synergize with Electro, Hydro, and Pyro to create anything from burning to quickening to explosive reactions. For the first two years of the game's existence, only six elements could be wielded, but with the nation of Dendro came Dendro-wielding characters which are already various in their abilites, and many characters from the storyline are being released now, with more coming over the course of the year. Entire communities have been built around these characters and players always look forward to see who the surprise new releases are. I'm personally enjoying using Dendro and Hydro together to create Dendro core explosions, but watch out! Bring a healer to avoid being killed by your own attacks. It's a lot of fun combining different characters, and there's always someone interesting that you want to collect. Character design, from a personality and aesthetic standpoint, are top notch and its easy to find favorites you can invest in from a story and gameplay level-up standpoint. Heck, they even have their own unique theme music you can rock out to.
The aesthetic and design of the world of Teyvat and all its regions is impressive too. There's a wide variety of enemies to fight in the open world, treasure chests to collect and various non-playable characters to assist in side quests. Biomes range from windy fields to mountainous peaks, forgotten islands, jungle valleys, dark cave systems, and Egyptian-style deserts, with tons more to be added as new regions keep being released. Genshin Impact itself is entirely free to download on a computer, console or phone and play, with the trick being that in order to accumulate characters at a fast rate, you'll be encouraged to spend money on the game's currency that will give you additional chances to collect them in the game's "wishing system" (spend tokens for chances at obtaining characters) but you're always guaranteed to get a supremely powerful one after 90 such attempts and slightly weaker ones every 10 attempts, though team combinations often make these generally weaker ones just as powerful as premium characters. You'll never truly waste money, and given you can earn currency just by playing towards these tokens (wishes) you gain a lot by spending nothing at all, but you have to be smart and not gamble it away. It's a fairly laidback system compared to similar ones in other ones, rewarding you for telling yourself "no" and having the patience to wait for characters to come around that you really want or will be helpful to you. However, as the game is immensely popular, many of its characters becoming entertainment and social media icons, most players tend to put a little money here and there to collect more.
Mihoyo's philosophy with Genshin Impact is different than a lot of games, even in how it makes money. Developers in the western world often try to penny-pinch their games, putting in as little effort as is possible while choking it for every last dollar its worth. Genshin Impact, on the other hand, starts by making a great game, putting massive investment into it, and then reaping even bigger profits because of it (the newest character has made over $22 million worldwide so far). It's refreshing to see this approach and gives you confidence the game will stick around for the long run and grow in popularity, which it is consistently.
Though the main storyline of this era of Genshin Impact has come to a close, over the course of the next year, the land of Sumeru will continue to receive updates that add new characters, new events, and new explorable regions that will hold players over until the next story act, Act 4: Masquerade of the Guilty, when the nation of Fontaine, inspired by Industrial Revolution Europe will be added. Until then, players have lots of exploring to have fun with, and if you're thinking about jumping into the game for the first time, you're in luck. You'll get to play from the Prologue Act all the way through Act 3 with no time-gated pauses in between. There's so much story to experience, and tons of ways to play the game.
Conclusion
If Lord of the Rings is the king of fantasy books, then Genshin Impact is the fantasy king of gaming. As people have come to expect from a developer that puts massive effort into their game, Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana delivers the storyline's most relevant and relatable act yet, balancing every aspect with decisive precision. Lessons from it can be applied to the real world, and open eyes by inspiring critical thinking. Its messages hit home because they are grounded in truth and reality, and thus, it's memorable, leaving a lasting impression. It rewards both the casual and intense story enjoyer alike, and even if you do not wish to immerse yourself in the storyline, there's a place for you if you just love the gameplay aspect of these kinds of epic, open-world fantasy video games. You don't even have to be a gamer to play Genshin Impact. With everything going for it and each development team working in perfect cohesion with one another, there was nothing that stood out as bad. My only complaint is perhaps the few times the dialogue dragged on a little needlessly, but one could argue these conversations helped with immersion. I'm looking forward to where this game seems to be going next, and it shows zero signs of slowing down anytime soon. For all of these reasons, I rate Act 3 of Genshin Impact a 9.5 out of 10.
Bonus: Story Overview Trailer
Comments