What Makes the Sumeru Archon Quest Great! 

Al Haitham is actually the biggest brain strategist we've had in the game so far. And seeing the different parts of his plan dynamically play out with parallel contingency plans actually felt so cool to experience. Each person introduced from the beginning of Sumeru Archon quest, including NPCs, had a role to play, and each stage of the plan was segmented so satisfyingly! Which makes me sad for Inazuma Archon quests. Kokomi was supposed to be 5head af, but all we got were "...Umm thanks for fixing the fence and pressing F for Teppei".

We didn't even ask Nahida about our sibling. She straight up is like, "You want to know about your sibling, right? Well let me tell you what I know and if I find out anything else at a later time you will be the first to know." That was surprising. And she's the first Archon to directly work with her people in her story quest without hiding her identity or using a puppet.

My biggest reason is it was not a fetch quest. The traveler is not the only hero. I feel like in other archon quests, we did all the heavy lifting and it felt like we were an errand boy. But in this one, it was actually a team effort and important characters were actively participating. It was a massive progress in the main storyline. Other archon quests felt like side chapters with little tidbits of the main plot. We finally have an actual lore drop of the twin which is the main reason why we're doing all of this in the first place.

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW GOOD SCARAMOUCHE’s VAs ARE??? THE EMOTION IN HIS VOICE… THE DESPERATION.. IT MADE ME TEAR UP

You know what's the stupid part with this 3.0 - 3.2 Archon quests is ? That trying to save Nahida and outwit the Akademya felt more like an war than whatever the heck Inazuma "real" war was XD . Just look on how pretty much everyone contribute to this cause, Sumeru NPCs the Dessert Mercenaries, all the Big name characters helped us, for once it didn't feel like we (The Traveler) had to fix everything by ourselves.

Venti: avoids questions Zhongli: bound by a contract Ei: wasn't there Nahida: wasn't there either but still learns everything we want to know and tells us and then some

I love how the people of Sumeru played a big part. Inazuma essentially came down to the traveler doing everything

My favourite part that, Isak, who was kind of an annoyance in the previous act did something to pay himself back, and him dressing as Nahida was hilarious, also, I like how, they make us feel in control, YET, make us clear that, one fail, we lose all that control

I have seen a lot of people complaining why MC and Nahida didn't catch Scara when he fell out of the robot. 1. They had no reasons to. The man tried to kill me and my friend moments ago. Not the time to get all friendly and cosy 2. The MC didn't understand Scaramouche that much. The player had the chance to read the Husk domain and its lore, the MC doesn't. They knew Scara was the divine puppet and was betrayed in the past, but that was it. No emotional connections whatsoever 3. Irminsul is in danger guys. Need to have priorities

the final chat with nahida was a lore bomb

It's honestly sad thinking about the fact that I was more invested with the story of talking vegetables than the entirety of the Inazuma archon quest.

We Genshin players always say: "This is the best archon quest ever", but this time is for real

It really lived up to its title of the nation of Wisdom. To be SHOWN a real brain (unlike Kokomi, Haitham is allowed to display his academic chops) and the unique specialties of each character really gave this story dimension. I learned a lot about Dottore, about Scara, about Nahida…

Also the underrate part about Sumeru's main story is the NPCs. Dunyarzard, Setaria, Rahman, and Isak all played important roles in the story and they were given resolution to their arc to. I was genuinely surprised when Setaria showed up in Aaru Village and decided to be a teacher there. If this was the Inazuma Archon Quest, she and the other NPCs would likely be forgotten about and only showed up for 2 seconds in a montage at the end. Like does anyone seriously remember the 3 NPCs whose Visions got taken away? Or the 2 Swordfish soldiers that the Traveler was supposed to have command over?

I love the desperation in scara’s voice when he is begging nahida not to take the gnosis away from him it really felt real and impactful but also you know he got what he deserved but you still feel a little bad for him props to the back for doing an amazing job

The part with Nilou and Isak is a nice addition. Inazuma could've been better if we played as Sayu with the wind trace mechanic when she steals the scroll

We're still in speculative territory, but I love the clearer indications as to "what" the archons are, species-wise, and how that relates to what the hell "dendro" might actually be: We learn that Nahida is actually the "avatar" of Irminsul. By that logic, her fellow archons must be "avatars" as well: Barbatos is the avatar of "anemo," Rex Lapis the avatar of "geo," etc. The same must go for all their friends they'd killed during the archon war - the God of Salt, the God of Stoves, the God of Flowers etc. In other words, the archon war was something set upon by the Heavenly Principles, with a lot of evidence pointing to control over Teyvat to some degree. Considering the elements come from the vishap realm, I assume the Heavenly Principles knew who would win this war. The war wasn't a contest, just disguised as that perhaps. And on Dendro, because this quest also finally revealed what, exactly, "dendro" is: For so long I'd been wondering, "Wait, what the hell even is dendro, and what does that make the dendro archon if there's a God of Flowers?" But the answer is obvious. I wasn't thinking and assumed dendro was just "plants." But that's not exactly the case, and Nahida's power displaying projections rather than actual plants hammers this home: Dendro isn't just "plants." It's the essence of life itself - which makes perfect sense once you complete the archon quest for Sumeru, because you find out Nahida, as the dendro archon, is the avatar of Irminsul. That is to say, she's the avatar of the "world tree," whose soul is that of the entire world and everything in it, ley lines and memories all, from the first moment to every waking one in the present. And I think that's such a unique and clever spin on a "nature god," especially with how Nahida's theme is more tech-themed than nature-themed. Plus it puts dendro's relationship with electro in a new light

Scaramouche reaching so desperately for the Electro Gnosis as Nahida claims it made me feel for the guy in a way that I was not expecting, but that was quickly replaced with snorting laughter as the puppet "Kratos'd" head first into the pavement after shutting down. This Archon Quest was a rollercoaster of emotion.

That infodrop by Nahida in the end was something nobody expected

Their experiment with story structure really paid off! The whole "heist" vibe of the rescue plan, and as you say, the character arc pacing was great.

My favorite thing is definitely the 'heist' nature of the plan to rescue Nahida, and how you jump to different perspectives, even physically moving around as Nilou. I also ADORE that Lumine (or Aether if you chose him instead) actually gets to talk again with Nahida aloud when you wake her up, which makes me really wish they talked more. It's more proof that Lumine is not a self insert, but her own person. I also really appreciate how much Nahida tells you at the end, and they're very important knowledge bombs at that, rather than not saying anything like the last 3 Archons, as well as reminding us the Heavenly Principles exist. It definitely helped to lengthen that last story arc so the ending didn't feel rushed and messy like Inazuma was. My only real question I don't think they addressed is if written text about Rukkadevata also vanished when she dissappeared, or if it's just assumed that ALL material, both physical and mental, is gone save for what you know. I like the tragic sacrifice they make, and it makes perfect sense so they don't just say "wow Irminsul is magically okay!". Overall just a really good story, and it gives me far more to gush about than i had with Inazuma, even if my opinions on Sumeru could change once i've had more time to absorb what's happened.

Alhaithams plan had me SHOCKED. i was truly convinced he betrayed us untill paimon told us in the scene after. i also love how we play from different perspectives, for example when we play as nilou.

I was waiting for this and i also feel like the Sumeru archon quest was the best. The NPCs feel more involved in the story than all the previous archon quests.

ive read somewhere that the writers for honkai's elysian realm arc were also the writers for this archon quest and i finally understand why its good! elysium everlasting had such great storytelling and them capitalizing on that beauty and putting it on genshin was such a great move.

One thing I've noticed from playing Hoyo's games (Honkai, Gesnhin, SR) is that Empathy rather than sympathy is what they focus on for telling their character's stories. I think a lot of people find it hard to process characters' motivations in relation to their actions, especially if they are an antagonist. So they put them in boxes of "misguided, but understandable", "unforgivable despite being self-justified", etc. They want to know who they can sympathize with and who they cant' when in reality things aren't that simple. Every character, even those that seem completely morally reprehensible has reasons for doing what they do and being what they are that are completely justifiable to themselves because that's just how people work. This is shown very well throughout the entirety of the 3.1 AQ where they showcase that despite the animosity between the desert dwellers and the forest dwellers, they have their own reasons and beliefs that they fight for. Even a character like Dottore who is literally called out for being an actual psychopath explains to Nahida that he does have his own code of conduct it just doesn't "fit her standards". People think that showing what drives a character to take the actions they do is equivalent to trying to justify them objectively when that's not the case at all. Hoyo's philosophy when writing characters is that it is always better to understand someone than to simply like or dislike them. When you understand this it starts to make a lot of sense as to why a lot of their stories revolve around the idea of Causality and fate and whether or not beings possessing a consciousness molded by experience can ever truly escape the cycle of fate/ causality. Things are never black and white in life, but that doesn't mean we are forced to forgive those that have wronged us. However, you can't hope to criticize or condemn something you don't attempt to understand, otherwise, you risk becoming a hypocrite yourself.

I like the part where big brain Alhaitham baited the whole big brain Grand Sage Azar. The scene was epic and it kinda blows my mind on how he use his Akasha and modified it to a certain extent so that his Akasha and his eyes turned red and went mad because of the "divine knowledge". He learns from the previous incident on how to act like "you went mad after consuming the divine knowledge". It showed great character development from his side.

Scara just dropping the Buer bomb was amazong. Second best moment for me

Hopefully Sumeru has set a precedent for the quality of future AQs. I've always been enraptured by Genshin's lore and world building but for the first 3 AQ's I could only tolerate the story. Sumeru took me by surprise and I've adored everything about it. The devs said in the preview that Sumeru's story is not finished when you complete the AQ and I am excited. Spoiler Just want to say that Nahida calling us the First Sage of Buer was equal parts endearing and awesome.

I 100% agree. The sabzeru samsara was just above and beyond expectations, i loved it so much. I loved that they really focused on the characters and this recent patch was amazing, not just because of scaramouche. You can really tell how much the writing has improved, i LOVED the way they dudn't tell us alhaitham's plan and simply let it unfold, the way they swiched perspectives, the focus on important characters like cyno alhaitham dehya and kusanali was so amazing and made me really fond of the characters, even alhaitham who i disliked at first. And i can't stress enough how good the sabzeru samsara writing was, every loop gave you new imformation. And i confess that i may or may not have cried during both scara's cutscene and what happened with kusanali and rukkedevata, and i liked that they made it logical why traveler (and by extention us) are the only ones who remember. Also i LOVE and can't get enough of traveler talking!! A full sentence too!! I wish they would do it more often, and maybe focus on traveler every once in a while. But overall definitely my fav archon quest

imo sumeru quest is currently the best archon quest because of the setup, build up, lore, characters and story they gave us. Based on my point above, mondstat is almost had all of it exept the build up because of 3 act only. While liyue and inazuma imo lacks build up, characters involvement and feel rushed. Props to hoyo ✊🏻

Let's not forget the parallel between Scaramouche (the fake god) and nahida (the abandoned god) throughout the whole story Scaramouche being "abandoned" by his mother and nahida abandoned by her people The relationship between the gods and their followers, scara watching over and protecting hypasia while nahidas followers come up with an elaborate scheme to rescue her Scaras seething rage the entire time and nahidas new found anger There are probably so many more parallels but these are just what I could remember off the top of my head

I like that you emphasized how it is Genshin’s stylistic choice of being a “team effort”-type story. I’d like to point out that that in itself ties into Genshin’s gameplay in its core. Like how we play as a team of four, how we invite members to that team at every character banner, and how combat is centered with how different elements interact with each other through reactions. I love that they decided that theme of ‘togetherness’ is integrated all throughout the game not only through its story but in its gameplay mechanics as well. It feels really smart and well thought-out.

What i loved the most about sumerus archon quest is how everything is balanced, and there's nothing that seems a "filler". Plus we learn a lot about Celestia, the Fatui and the siblings

Another thing I loved is that in the end noone was left out, in the way that they actually support you until the very end and don’t just leave after doing their job and shining for a bit. (Inazuma Rant v v v) The thing is, after doing the first part of the Inazuma Archon Quest, Ayaka, Yoimiya, and Thoma just… stop helping? Ayaka has the whole Shuumatsuban to constantly help Traveler, Yoimiya can actively move around freely as it’s hinted she gave her fake vision to the guards already, and Thoma has a good reason, but he does have connections in Ritou that could’ve been used as well, telling either Yoimiya or Ayaka to help him talk to the people in Ritou. Not to mention, Kokomi’s big brain is just gone for the quest. If Kokomi’s big brain is gone, Gorou’s usefulness is also gone for the quest as well. And Yae is so influential and powerful, yet she didn’t really help much, just said “oh yeah ur training does nothing just use the power of friendship later” And this is just generally a problem for character’s that release late, but even that could’ve been fixed since Alhaitham, Dehya, and Nilou were characters that were needed, but not going to be released in game yet. Basically Ayato should’ve been involved/shown more. What I mean is, the Sumeru Archon Quest has everyone using all their assets, or at least a lot of it, and it’s shown very well too. Everyone is shown helping, and it doesn’t feel like anyone made an empty promise

What Alhaitham did in this AQ was what I expected Kokomi to do in the Inazuma AQ

NAHIDA BEST ARCHON!!!!!! I don't know why but like the Traveler being named as "The First Sage of Buer" just feels different in a much better way. I mean being the honorary knight and friend of the Qixing and the Shogunate is good and all but traveler becoming Kusanali's First Sage just has better ring to it i guess

My memory might be faulty, but I *think* Childe (during the Inazuma paperdoll event) told us he was hunting down Scaramouche who had disappeared with the gnosis. I also want to say someone mentioned he'd gone to Sumeru, but that could be just me thinking that's where we'd see him again. So much lore dropped at the end--and so many new questions!

imagine if ayato was present in inazuma archon quest like haitham is, man, his presence alone would make it so much better

The fact that nahida was born after the cataclysm is probably the reason why we could even get information from her. She is the only one who didn’t sign the contract

This just shows the Mihoyo’s writing skills are getting better and better. If Sumeru is this good, can’t wait to see how Fontaine and the other lands would be like!!

the archon quest felt like a movie

I think the points about collei and fatui with God residue, scara journey to sumeru, doctor's motives, desert king and goddess of flower motives behind their actions are missing now in the game. Maybe with the future patches, they slowly fill the details. But the current AQ felt satisfying and curious too.

The conversation between Scara and the Traveler and Nahida and dottore were some of my favorite moments during the quest. though, that conversation at Pardis Dehyai should've been voiced, like, come on!

The part about Dottore and his segments are very interesting. Based somewhat of time,I get the feeling that not only to preserve his own life from different perspectives, in a way,it also combats erosion,no? Also RIP boattore and small Dottore) 😭

I’ve always thought the writing and storytelling in Genshin is a masterpiece, regardless of what criticisms I may have. I’ve been addicted to this game and the story since day 1, but since the Chasm’s release I feel like their storytelling has just completely gone through the roof and gotten way better than I ever could’ve imagined. I knew Sumeru was going to make or break Genshin story wise, and they did NOT disappoint. I’m obviously a hopeless Scaramouche simp so I loved this archon quest sooo much, and I’m counting the days until he comes home. The lore bombs dropped in this quest were insane and I can’t wait for more of it 😭😩especially what Nahida said at the end (iykyk)

This archon quest is basically Inazuma quest but actually paced well and not crammed in into two version update quest structure, we basically going through the motion in Inazuma. Even the final battle is basically the vision power up but it feel more earned because we spend time with the characters and the people of Sumeru.

Everyone talking about the main cast, but my boy Rahman did his best especially after being slapped by the truth. He tested Dehya, fought for the desert folks, convinced them to join the alliance, even agreed to being captured (along with his brave men), and supports education for his people. Additionally, I like how Haypasia, the first person we ever met in Sumeru, was a side character who has a certain importance to the story, brought back from time to time as needed. My peeve is I expected that during Nilou's distraction, Setaria would be more reluctant to clapping at first. Would be nice to see a slight reluctance into slow clapping into full clapping just to show that she was once with the Akademiya (to a certain extent) into someone who would think for herself.

Sumeru is the midpoint of the Traveller's journey through Teyvat so I was really glad they utilised the story structure midpoint and gave us some great lore payoff, while also keeping some things secret for the time being. Really excited for what comes next thanks to our best and wisest Archon Nahida!

One thing I loved was how they established that tighnari and cyno are very close friends before tighnaris flashback scene in part 5, through their voicelines, cynos story quest, and cynos comments in AQ parts 3 and 5. This made sure that it wasn't so much a bombshell moment, and more an 'oh, that makes sense' moment

I loved this archon quest!! Just like you said, the end when nahida gave us something for all the things we did was the best. For once we don't leave empty. However..... what she told us created even more questions! For me at least and I hope you make a video about it. Also I am pretty sad. For a moment, I thought that we did take the electro Gnosis from the fatui AND saved the dendro Gnosis. But no.....

i was so scared of how they gonna finish the final act cuz yeah inazuma war flashbacks lmao but sumeru archon quest was the craziest and the bestest we had until now so i'd give 9/10 and i agree with all the points you've pointed out 👍

the archon quest was definitely the best they've made so far, I'm glad they seem to be taking feedback about the players' misgivings from the last couple

I’ll admit, I feel both bad and sad seeing that we left him behind..

I like how much emphasis they put on how crazy powerful and skilled the Traveler is in direct combat. Like, in previous arcs it was said they were powerful and skilled, but you only get snippets of competence at the end of fights where you almost certainly weren't using the Traveler, with the rest of the combat cutscenes only being them reacting to other characters doing something badass. Now, you get to see things like their combat efficiency only improving by less than a tenth of a percent after having countless battles implanted into their brain and being able to hold their own against a full out (albeit newly forged) Archon and eventually defeat them without needing a physical power up to even land hits.

There were tons of things to love. Banger knowledge nuggets like descendants and the small things like seeing Al Haitham smile in the library towards the end of the quest. There were also more cut scenes :D

My only issue is that it's more and more obvious that Fatui Harbingers follow the same pattern time and time again: 1. Have cool introduction. 2. Laugh maniacally. 3. Effortlesly and instantly incapacitate Archon/Traveler in the cutscene. 4. Laugh maniacally. 5. Get into actual fight and be stomped into the mud. The end. Saturday morning cartoon villain writing.

I think if the character quests had moments like this archon quest where the traveler isn’t there that they would be more interesting because u are getting first hand experience

I swear this archon quest has a special place in my heart, all the other archon quests had been completed by the time I joined the fandom. But- seeing this beautifully written emotional roller coaster being written out and play before my eyes is just- so satisfying to watch. I actually cried more times than I can count for this archon quest.

I just love how the execution of the plot is so well done. It isnt perfect but by a mile better than the Inazuma Archon quest. The characters, the dialogue, the action, the drama are so effective and affective. Also, the Cinematic is just so good and how they wrap it up til the end is impressive.

the buildup in every arc to the last arc was insane and ngl i cried in the last part

Would really love to see the older three archon quests get a rewrite and a massive overhaul, but that's never gonna happen lol

2:53 "getting perfume from somewhere" nice call back to the rather shitty middlepoint of the liyue archon quest were we sang to flowers and went on the market fetch trinkets, it started well with us seeing the "death" of a god & running from the law and ended in a cool showdown and plot twist but everything in the middle was a snoozefest

🌸❤️I know not what made it so intriguing for me, thus I hope this video can help me reach a conclusion!❤️🌸

I actually like the narrative choice of having al haitham's plan take place first and then revealing what that particular segment of the plan was supposed to cover after. It really left that sense of anticipation as to what would happen next and was far more engaging than if they showed it first when it was taking place.

it feels so good finally playing through an archon quest where you actually feel like what you're doing matters plot-wise (yep, just like fetching perfume) also i think regarding scaramouche and dottore's lore, we're going to get more infos as soon as scaramouche becomes playable. after all, dottore all but left him behind, so he might just give us some gossips about his colleagues out of spite

Another thing i really liked aside from seeing other characters dialogues while we were somewhere else or unconscious is that we were controlling the REAL Nilou while we were in the prison . There wasnt any teleports nor any extensive information in the map . Just Nilou . Although we did see our "playable" chars when u press "C" but at the end we were controlling a character that wasn't us . And yes i agree i really loved how almost all the chars we knw so far were deeply involved in the story . Instead of "Ayaka : ohhh i want to help tabibito san waaa" "Ayato in the background : if thats what my sister wish" , we got controlling Nilou n she taking a huge risk by herself for us and Kusanali .

We might find out the details about how Scaramouche got to Sumeru when his character quest is available in the next patch (I hope so anyway). The other points you mentioned, that could do with being explored, could also be resolved in future patches too

I love your commitment to go from not doing any Sumeru story for months to finishing the archon in less than 24 hrs

I can honestly agree that the Sumeru Archon quest was the best it didn't drag the story out with fetch quest and it didn't overstay it's welcome overall, from getting to see the perspectives of all the characters (not just the traveler) it was a dynamic that worked extremely well; you got to see everyone on your team play a role in the story all the way up to the very ending, all In all I'm well pleased with how Hoyoverse did this Archon story and with the upcoming region I hope they implement that same process if not more. I give this update a 10/10 for real! 🔥 🔥🔥

One thing i really liked is that as we progressed with the plan and saw things, we also got flashbacks of them planning this entire thing back in the meeting at Aaru village, small addition but made it feel like a movie and i loved it

I love how they actually explained some things in this quest, for example, when the traveler was imprisoned I was wondering why his Akasha terminal wasn’t taken, and right after I thought that they explained it. After Nilous dance, I was also confused but they took the time to explain that too.

The Traveler actually SPOKE during one of the cut scenes! I LOVED that! I hope to see more of that.

This is the only archon quest that made my head like a huge mess after finishing it (the lore,the secrets,the plot and the plan to save the dendro archon) ! In a good way of course !

I just wanna commend Hoyoverse for the things that I particularly liked in this archon quest. Having the characters involved in the quest and interact with each other made the experience so much richer. It reminded me of the first Avengers movie where the heroes from their solo films finally got together for the first time. Please do more of this next time too. The villains were so diabolical. It felt like they always have the upper hand, in control of the situation at all times, constantly looming over and watching the heroes movements that it felt like the heroes wouldn't stand a chance against them. Hoyo made Nahida so convincingly helpless that everyone unanimously felt the urgency to save this adorable little archon as soon as possible too. The music is eargasm-inducing as always. Hoyo never really failed us in this department. Yu Peng Chen and his team, please continue blessing us with these heavenly tunes. Great job, Hoyo! Keep it up Fam!

The thing I loved about this is the fact that the conflict and the villains have sent chills down my spine at times. Like the part with the abandoned hospital and the fact there were scholars being LITERALY TORTURED made me have nightmares for weeks. I’m fucking terrified of dottore for this reason, and that’s why I fucking love this quest. If I, the reader, can be just as terrified of the villian or conflict at hand, then you have a damn good story right there. Hoyoverse just made a huge W here

NGL this is also the first time I've ever truly felt a threat coming from the fatui harbingers ( granted Dottore is no.2 ). Like in the past quests sure they were there, but there was always another bigger problem at hand ( the closest threat probably being Tartaglia, but the fact that the Archon and his adepti were on our side made it less threatening than it might've been ) , same for sumeru as well, but Dottore's character and the knowledge he holds was actually overwhelming and it was during his talk with Nahida where I realized how competent they could be; maybe not in sheer strength but in how much they know and are willing to sacrifice for their plan. I really love the roles of every character we saw in this quest, it really felt like there was a huge step taken in the progression of the story

overall the character writing was amazing in sumeru. one thing i loved was how they handled the main character group of cyno, al haitham and dehya. it was the most effective handling of an archon quest group yet because the group had tension, their own motivations, each individual was fleshed out but by the end everyone came together naturally. scaramouches story was amazing of course, and the characters relationships with the traveler felt really good (like their friendships with dunyarzad and nahida.) i think theres more we’re gonna see related to scaramouche in the future so all those questions will hopefully be addressed soon (and i am definitely pulling for him lol)

This AQ was SO MUCH like Honkai! I'm SO glad they're using a style similar to that game in storytelling now after so long. It was very much needed. If you're curious to know; When there are scenes that "go back for context", although Honkai does it differently, Genshin has also never done it. Honkai does it by having Chapter 1 which is the future events of the second chapter, Chapter 2 which is the past that gives us missing context and clues of Chapter 1, then Chapter 3 is the confrontation of both parties from 1 & 2. Genshin didn't really entirely do that, but did use some of that logic. They also used a picture as context to show how Alhaitham switched the Knowledge Capsules which is very Honkai styled. Finally, literally everyone related is involved one way or another, a playable character actually displayed being heavily injured, (in Honkai it just kinda happens all the time), strategizing to take down a God (or in Honkais case it'd be a Herrscher - which Inazuma could've been the same, but just... wasn't.) I've not even finished the AQ yet but I believe there will be a lot of "With the power of friendship!" in the last stages which, while it's a very normal and common plot point, it's just literally every single plot point of Honkai's stories. AND FOR ONCE! We finally get to experience the story OUTSIDE of the MC's point of view. We saw Cyno, Nilou and Dehya in action without us being there. There isn't even an MC in Honkai and I truly believed Genshin's worst storytelling feature is forcing everything to be played out in front of an MC. Think of an action movie but if the camera was literally always in front of The Rock & he had a very annoying talking buddy that did all the talking for him. Stakes are also very high, and the story is not rushed at all. I absolutely loved this AQ so far. (bonus points: The Balladeer teleported away in a similar way Herrscher of Thunder does lol)

When the traveler was called the "first sage of Buer" is when I felt most like I was witnessing and creating a legend that would be told throughout Teyvat for generations. I felt this a bit with previous archon quests but not nearly to the extent of this one

I mostly agree in general, this is easily the best archon quest! However for some reason i still find myself liking more Inazuma's ending. I think that is due to 1 reason. (Maybe 2 but the other is gameplay so i dont count it xD) 1.The erasing of the previous dendro archon. Nahida's arc was about leaving the inferiority complex and apreciate herself, she didn't need to be like her predecesor for people to like her. But without the previous dendro archon the people of sumeru didnt really learned to love Nahida, they just do since there was no other option. I don't know it feels sad to me but it's probably just a small weed from a whole field of flowers.

I am actually happy that they stay in the standard rpg cliché for the moment. That help showing how mutch they grow up. But now that they are good at it and with a good 9 month left until fontaine I hope they gonna take more liberty for now on.

All the va's did such a good job. I felt like I was watching a show that I could interact with. That was a nice twist, watching all the parts come together to try and free nahida. I was enthralled and stayed up way too late to get through this story.

I really loved this archon quest too. While the battles with Overlord of the Vortex in Liyue & Raiden Shogun in Inazuma were epic, very little of the quests leading up to the big battles were as engaging as they were in Sumeru.

One thing I like about this Archon Quest, especially in Act 2 is the Traveler's agency. In the other Chapters the Traveler is basically just along for the ride while the other parties are the ones to move the plot along. But in Act 2 WE are the only ones who can solve the issue. It's all our actions that resolve that conflict and going further it's because of us that the operation to save Nahida even happens.

at this point, the inazuma quest is there to just make future quests look better. mondstadt quest was pretty chill. in the liyue quest we were properly introduced to the fatui but then things went down hill with inazuma. dunno if its true, but some people say that the idea of rebellion didn't sit right with the ccp so they interfered in the story writing. well now that mihoyo has transferred to singapore, we don't need to worry about that anymore

Okok I think I haven't seen people mention the new gameplay elements. Of course there's the deduction thing but my favorite moment was suddenly playing as isak. I felt really immersed in the story. It just made you feel like an active player in the plan.

I loved how they utilised all the characters and even let us see the story from others pov. We got to see Dehya doing her part, Cyno confronting grand sage, Alhaitham actively being tactical through the entire thing. Even playing the kid. Taking Nilou for a dance. It was sooo good.

Nahida isn't just the archon of wisdom she's the Goddess of Giga Chads.

I think it still has plot hole. Katherine "death" was just explained as broken and replaced with a new one. To make it into perspective, Albedo, Scramouche, Raiden, Dottore "perspective". Has the same type of builds mechanic, yet they are so special and so extremely rare. To say something like Katherine is easy replaced, makes me wonder. Who? Where? And how many of homunculus in teyvat?

I really liked how Sumeru introduced us to new elements and really explored and played with them. My favorite example being the Akasha. How the Akasha was used against them and how they used it for their advantage.

The sumeru quest drops a lot of lore than the past archon quest and i think it make us curious in a lot of things. • Like who are the other Descenders and how tf our siblings isn't one of them. (alice came to my mind first when the word descenders was mentioned) • If the Traveller told Nahida about greater lord rukkhadevata will the forbidden knowledge return? (cuz' greater lord already said she herself became the embodiment of forbidden knowledge which is the reason the world needs to forget her) • It's confirmed that Paimon is from this world (since she forget greater lord) and that means her fate is predestined but what will happen since she's with the traveller all the time? does the traveller change her fate or she guide the traveller to a certain fate? Or maybe Paimon (the god of protection😂) protect the traveller from the entity that can obscure ones fate (like what happened to our siblings). • I can't remember it clearly, but when asked why Nahida can't fight she said that an archon's strength is based on "faith" and since there has a small number of people that has faith on her she isn't that strong but does that mean Venti lied? Since mondstadters has a very deep faith in their archon does that mean Venti is still strong? • And Fontaine is near! 3 more nation to go! What kind of archon was the Hydro Archon? I have a great feeling that we're gonna be put in trial once we entered Fontaine😭 poor traveller.

It is the best! From character interactions, story, lore implications and the flashing back to the meeting! I loved all of it

8.5 rating is solid. I'd actually use the Suberuz festival to show people how to do time loop stories. That was the best part but this conclusion was also excellent. And yes, thanks for having real info Nahida.

the Sumeru Archon quest is the best they ever done but it is sooo long

HOLY SHIT, i freakin like how they execute their plans, the one where Nilou danced, and the command from the Grand Sage got edited by the USB Al Haitham modified gave me goosebumps. the one i liked the best on the Archon Quest was the encounter of Nahida x Dottore where they try to gauge their opponent intellectually and bluff their opponent into agreeing with their conditions in their deal. man, the Descender reveal was also a shocker. Alice may know someone who is a Descender, since she knows things outside the teyvat world like Idols, Radio communication etc. We have the Heavenly Principles, the MC and probably Alice/someone who Alice knows as Descenders. the others are still a mystery. the plot thickens.

5:28 can you IMAGINEEE how awesome it would have been to see yae miko taunt and tease us out of scaramouche's grips of homicidal angst in the inazuma archon quest omg

this archon quest was a whole roller coaster of emotions

Sumeru is my favourite archon quest so far. And before people tell me "yeah, yall always day that", well- bold of you to assume I ever said that lol I never considered Mondstadt or Liyue as my favourite archon quests, though it was just a me-problem really. I had trouble understanding everything in Mondstadt's chapter as a newbie who didn't particularly took attention on important details, and Liyue was the moment where I just started to understand the world more, but was spoiled the entire archon quest. Inazuma was really the point where I was completely ready to be invested in the story, where I knew and understood most of the lore and our goals. Though just like you Aster, I had a big problem with the execution of this chapter; especially at the end (like, the last act). Everything happened way too quickly, which concluded in not giving enough focus on certain things, and Hoyoverse really tried to put way too much content at once. If only they have made this quest longer, I feel like it could have been a more enjoyable experience for me and a lot of people. So yes, I was disappointed in Inazuma's execution, because the concept is originally interesting at its core. But oh boy, was I surprised when I played the Sumeru archon quest. Everything just feels... right. It's not too long, not too short, focus and screentime is distributed maybe not equally, but smartly etc... basically, I agree with everything you've said lol It also helps that I was craving for more Scaramouche content, so having him as kind of one of the main antagonists/focus of the chapter was incredible; especially when knowing he's going to be playable next month- But anyway, I digress. This quest made me love, appreciate and made me gain interest in every character (Except the sages. Sorry mates you and me won't be possible.), and I also loved the amount of information we gained. I just hope we don't forget that for the next nations and only care about it in the end of the game lol I think 9/10 would be how I'd rate this story, though it's only my opinion ofc 🤷‍♀️

The best archon quest so far. Compared to the other archon quests from other regions, it felt like we did all the heavy lifting being an errand boy. This archon quest is different, all of us made huge contributions not just the traveller itself.

I just finished the archon quest yesterday, it really was great! Loved every bit of Alhaitham’s strategy from planning to preparation to execution to conclusion. Best set of archon quests so far. I love the concept of Sumeru. How it presents life and death loop is kind of healing for me. Oh my god, now that House of the Dragon and Rings of Power are in between seasons, this channel is what I’m marathoning. Your content is amazing!