Genshin Impact 4.0 is out, adding new sunken kingdom area, water mechanics, distracting tophats
Time for another dip
MiHoYo have released Genshin Impact 4.0's update, adding a new area, story elements, characters, domains and equipment to the gacha-driven free-to-play action RPG, which I remember having a lot of fun with last year. I've since inhaled a vast amount of shonen anime, and have accordingly been looking for a moment to reconnect with Genshin, one of the better anime games on the shop - perhaps this is it.
As Rebecca (RPS in peace, sob) wrote last week, Genshin Impact 4.0's big new feature is the the sunken kingdom of Fontaine, which you can dive into after completing prologue mission Act III and unlocking the associated teleport waypoint in Sumeru. That's literally dive into: Fontaine - not to be confused with the nice man from the Bronx you encounter in Bioshock - is water-themed, and there's a new mechanic, Fontaine's Blessing, which allows you to navigate local lakes, together with a Lucin Fountain system that can be levelled up for certain items.
Here's the blurb for the new area:
"A story that has never been heard, a legend that has been forgotten, like a lost kingdom sunken beneath the waves, yearning for a bard to sing its drowned songs. Following the direction of pure currents, crossing wilderness, the depths of the forests and vastness of the sea of sand, arriving at the origin of all the waters of the continent."
On the new characters front, there's 5-star Pyro Hero Liney, an extra-theatrical magician who can turn into a cat and summon a talking hat to berate opponents, the shadowy 4-Star Anemo Hero Lynette, who also gets a feline power in the shape of a summonable Bogglecat Box that absorbs elements and spits out bolts of magic, and 4-Star Cryo Hero Freminé, who can whip himself up into a Pers Timer state so as to unleash waves of frost.
They'll throw down with such new enemies as Emperor of Fire and Iron, a giant armoured crab with twin Pyro-aligned horns, and the dancing, two-piece clockwork abomination Icewind Suite, plus a species of Primus lifeform "that share nothing in common with any other land-dwelling creature", and have a habit of getting stressed and going berserk under pressure, though you can break their shields to paralyse them.
All this plus new recipes, Domains, bugfixes, Traveller gear and the addition of global illumination for PCs with graphics cards that have 4GB of VRAM. It's a pretty exhaustive update - you can read more on the official site.