Genshin Impact – Version Luna II continues the story of Rerir, diving into his past life in Khaenri’ah, his obsession with the moon, and what it means for Nod-Krai and its people. Despite his seeming madness brought forth by his incomplete resurrection, the man, the myth, the legend continued to hide, completely covering his tracks and further consuming Kuuvahki to restore some of his already tremendous power.
Before figuring out the problem of finding him, the Traveler and friends swiftly encounter another, much more pressing issue: how to keep him from killing the weakened Columbina who’d made her presence known by saving the Traveler, Flins and Sandrone in the previous Archon Quest, and thus attracted the Sinner’s ire.
To that end, already familiar faces from Luna I join forces with Grand Master Varka, and some unexpected allies: Arlecchino brought in by Columbina, as well as Durin & Albedo introduced to the group by Varka himself. Sandrone and Dori also played an important, although mostly background role, while Dainsleif turned up unexpectedly like he usually does.
Our cast split their responsibilities according to people’s talents and let the players experience multiple sides to this story at once, even without the Traveler being present. What it brought was one of the better Genshin Impact stories yet.
Gone are the days when Genshin goes around and about during the Archon Quest, dropping a bag of seemingly insignificant details that suddenly form a complete picture at the very end, with the worst probably being the Meropide Keep part during Fontaine.
Instead of acting like the International Persons of Mystery, characters actually laconically sum up important bits before delving into more personal stories and lively jabs at one another. In particular, Arlecchino catches the Travelers up on the story of the Iridescent’s Moon demise and the royal Crimson Moon dynasty of Khaenri’ah, which is important both for her, personally, and for the following Rerir story.
Meanwhile, Sandrone gives a very compressed overview of the Narzissenkreuz questchain, the undoubtedly longest series of quests in Genshin – rivalled only by the bulk of the Aranyaka – but one of the most interesting all the same.
However, while Arlecchino’s explanation felt entirely appropriate and was a good refresher, the random lore dump and heavy exposition from Sandrone felt a bit over the top, especially if you have not done the Narzissenkreuz Institute quests and have no idea who all these people are and what exactly they have done.
She also doesn’t seem to be the kind of person to randomly start dropping hints about her past to a local passerby she doesn’t really have a connection to, but let’s chalk it up to her being lonely due to the lack of the Harbinger tea parties.
With the Crimson Moon Marrow safely acquired and Rerir’s attention diverted by the efforts of the Traveler’s allies, the group delves into the Sinner’s past with the help of Nefer and her secret abilities.
This is the part that I was most pleasantly surprised with. Genshin Impact’s lore has plenty of darker themes and events – the Sun Children of Enkanomiya, the Tsurumi civilization that revered the Thunderbird with brutal human sacrifices, the Liloupar story & Jeht’s quest of getting revenge, and much, much more – but they were usually carefully tucked away into various readable objects and/or the unvoiced world quests.
So to have the game embrace its darker side and quite bluntly show King Irmin’s growing madness through Rerir’s list of assassinations is bold but welcome. Rächer of Solnari had been one of the king’s secret agents, ordered to purge the remains of the Crimson Moon dynasty – down to the children as young as six, with heavily diluted blood. And, until it came to his fiancee Tholindis, he was quite content with following orders to the letter and talking himself into accepting it as just a part of his life.
It also showed that it wasn’t a strength of his conviction or some kind of deep-seated desire that had moved him to welcome the Abyss power alongside the four other Sinners. It was weakness, the inability to accept his own role in the unfolding events, and a desperate gamble to undo his mistakes. But that is the thing with the Abyss, isn’t it? Despite promising so much, it often reaps the cost without giving what you wish for, and Rerir is just among the many who had been bought by the lie.
This is also what the difference between him and Nefer, another professional liar and secret agent, that the game asks without ever voicing. You can see Nefer’s growing pensive mood as you learn more about Rerir and his dealings, but unlike him, she’s never made excuses for herself, as demonstrated during the part exploring her past in Sumeru.
The quest ends with our entire party coming together and joining forces to trick Rerir, since actually defeating him is next to impossible between the Curse of Immortality and his Abyss powers. The quest chain results in an epic confrontation, with everyone opposing Rerir together – from Columbina to Albedo, shown in a stark contrast to his easy win in the beginning.
Much like Luna I, Luna II follows an ensemble-driven narrative which is not entirely new for Genshin. However, it does feel much better spaced and attributed to various characters than, for example, Natlan or Inazuma. Even the Traveler has played an important role while not being so mindlessly overpowered that the plot bends around them.
Aino, Ineffa, Sandrone and Dori mostly had a background involvement that saved on the screentime for the actual active party, but didn’t diminish their importance. We also see Columbina herself undergoing some changes as she grows closer to our group of misfits: in Luna I, she didn’t particularly care about the fate of Nod-Krai or her own followers, Frostmoon Scions.
In early Luna II, she offered to act as bait to allow others to escape Rerir’s wrath. Finally, by the time the battle plan started taking form, the Moon Maiden, now empowered by the light of the other two moons, admitted to wanting Rerir and his Wild Hunt gone from Nod-Krai, and had a few heart-to-hearts with her Harbinger ex-colleagues, Dainsleif, and others.
And, while the Rächer of Solnari is gone, the Traveler’s goal of finding their spaceship and figuring out what happened is nowhere near done. Which means that it’s time to look forward!
Now, let’s take a quick look ahead. With Rerir (temporarily) out of the way, what is it that we can do in the following versions, based on the hints dropped by Luna I & II and the previous regions?
One constant in every Genshin region that we’ve visited in the game is eventually moving to explore the local ancient civilization that no longer exists: Mondstadt -> Decarabian’s old Mondstadt and Sal Vindagnyr (Dragonspine); Liyue -> Guili Assembly, Sal Terrae & the unnamed ancient civilization in the Chasm; Inazuma -> Enkanomiya and Tsurumi Island-based civilizations (pre-Thunderbird and during Thunderbird worship); Sumeru -> the Desert ruled by King Deshret, including the ruins of the Gurabad city; Fontaine -> Remuria; Natlan -> Natlantea and Ochkanatlan.
Coincidence? I think not! So prepare to explore the civilization predating Nod-krai: Hyperborea, at some point in the future. With the Frostmoon Scions being the descendants of Hyperborea, Flins and the fae hailing from there, and the Frostmoon Scions’ weapons lore being all about it, it seems to be the next stop on our journey. Perhaps we’ll learn something about the first Cryo Archon, the White Tsar, or uncover more secrets about the Moon Sisters.
That brings us to the next point: the threat is currently gone. I refuse to believe that we’d gotten rid of him permanently, but bringing him back now to serve as the big bad, and the new weekly boss would be rather silly – we need to relax and stop thinking of him before Rerir makes his unexpected return.
Instead, there are plenty of hints that wink-wink and nudge-nudge the upcoming Dottore involvement.
Not only did Mavuika mention that his subordinates have a stronghold in Nod-Krai, researching the Moon Fragments and the region’s ancient power, but the Harbingers have been gossiping around and about him as well. We haven’t seen the man since Sumeru, so it might be the time for a rematch – at least, against a clone of his.
Then, our unseen ally – the one that protected Hiisi Island from the cannon blast in Luna I, helped find information about the Wild Hunt and Rerir, and dropped the vase at the very end of Luna II. With Durin around, chances are that the Hexenzirkel Witches will follow suit, Nicole Reeyn aka “N” among them.
She is said to help people when a change occurs in the world, previously aiding the Traveler when the Wanderer had removed “Scaramouche” from the Irminsul and when the Fontaine prophecy was rapidly approaching its completion.
The return of the ancient Moon power and the resurrection of one of the Five Great Sinners seems like a perfect reason for her to act again. Not to mention, the golden power we’ve seen perfectly matches her reveal in the trailer – with the golden wings sprouting behind her back.
Lastly, Columbina – between Wanderer, Albedo & Durin, and others like Arlecchino stressing the importance of choosing a new name to celebrate her new life, she will likely choose a name for herself in the upcoming patches. But making the decision in Luna III seems too soon, my bet would be on Luna IV.
The truly last (but not the least) are the improvements to the camera work – the cinematography, the angles and transitions, the screen effects – that make the scenes feel much more alive.
Despite the characters (with few notable exceptions of Dori and Jahoda) still using the same old 5 animations, that makes the picture on the screen much more interesting to follow, especially coupled with the more direct approach to the latest Archon Quests that keeps the dialogues from dragging on too much.
Where the game is notably suffering is lip sync, with Albedo in particular looking like he’s talking through some kind of mental connection, neither moving his lips nor blinking (which, admittedly, would probably be not that surprising from the homunculus student and creation of “Gold” Rhinedottir).
And since we started on the topic of Albedo, previously the characters would usually hang out with others from their region, which made it look organic. But with Albedo and the Traveler, both using Genshin’s year one models, being around Varka and Durin – year 5 – it becomes very noticeable that they both look like NPCs compared to the newest cast. Just look at the screenshot above!
Albedo has probably the worst case of it overall, especially if you compare his hair in-game to his hair in the art, and could use a bit of a lift. Itto, too, with his noodle arms when compared to Varka, Wriothesley or even Alhaitham!
