An academic in the Genshin Impact community shared their humorous thoughts on the academia-focused storyline and themes in the Sumeru region. The newest region in HoYoVerse's massively popular RPG has played heavily into the themes of knowledge and wisdom both in its storyline and its characters. The inhabitants of Sumeru refer to their deity as the "God of Wisdom" and the Sumeru Akademiya places a strong emphasis on the pursuit of knowledge through the use of the Akasha Terminals. This heavy focus on information has led to some amusing reactions from those currently studying.
Reddit user achaete_scute shared their thoughts on Genshin Impact's newest storyline from their own position spending years enrolled in university studies. The user cites their extensive academic experience between "undergrad, grad school, and post-doc," taking amusement at Genshin Impact's portrayal of academics. The user revealed they have sent several quotes to their academic friends with particularly brutal lines about studying and praised Genshin's depiction of the struggles of being a student/researcher. Many others in the comments agreed with Genshin's scarily accurate representation of researchers.
The story of Genshin Impact's newest region plays into the themes of academia with both its major questline and sub-quests. The main story of Genshin Impact's Version 3.0 revolves around the Akademiya's meddling with the Akasha throughout Sumeru City. Version 3.1 even suggests the Akademia is working with Genshin's primary antagonists, the Fatui. Several subquests also involve the Traveler helping different Akademiya students and professors with their research, delving into ancient ruins and temples for the sake of academia.
The Sumeru region as a whole has brought plenty of elements to Genshin Impact between new locations and new ways to play the game. Version 3.0 finally introduced the game's seventh element, Dendro, bringing a new element to team-building in Genshin Impact with its elemental reactions. Sumeru's introduction have brought wholly unique terrain to Genshin Impact with its rainforests and deserts, with the desert featuring several pyramids with underground dungeons to explore. Several other smaller quality-of-life updates have also been added to Genshin since Sumeru's release, including more artifacts available to reroll.
With plenty of new features and gameplay mechanics coming to the game since Version 3.0's release, Genshin Impact looks to have plenty more coming to change up the game in the future. HoYoVerse has already revealed a TCG mini-game set to be a permanent addition to Genshin Impact in Version 3.3 and more regions of Sumeru are rumored to be coming in future patches. The expansion of Sumeru and continuation of its story will likely continue its themes rooted in academia and the pursuit of knowledge.
Genshin Impact is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, and mobile devices. A Switch version is in development.