Prior to the highly awaited arrival of Sumeru and version 3.0, Genshin Impact released update 2.8. This introduced the Summer Fantasia event, which centers around the stories of Kazuha, Xinyan, Fischl, and Mona. It also marked the return of the Golden Apple Archipelago, a time-bound location that was last seen in Genshin Impact 1.6.
Suffice to say, players are thoroughly enjoying update 2.8 and the stories of its central characters. Although, that brings up a discussion about whether such high-quality Genshin Impact events should come with a time limit.
Genshin Impact 2.8: The Summer Fantasia Event
Summer Fantasia transports the Traveler to Genshin Impact’s Golden Apple Archipelago, a set of islands separate from the main map of Teyvat. With it comes different quests and domains that delve into the characters of Kazuha, Xinyan, Fischl, and Mona. Each of them is even given an island in the archipelago, which is then shaped based on their stories and puzzles. For instance, Kazuha’s area is made up of two tall mountain islands that can be altered by interacting with the bonsai item. Meanwhile, Fischl’s area is a large island populated with castle-like structures and crows for NPCs.
Considering that this event lasts for just over one month, it’s remarkable how much thought HoYoverse has put into it. The character stories reveal more about their not-so-pleasant pasts, while the puzzles are varied and unique. The puzzles in Mona’s domain were particularly enjoyable for a large part of the community. And even though there were a few hang-ups (particularly, the unintuitive mechanics of Gaze of the Deep in Fischl’s Genshin Impact domain), the event quests are engaging with great payoff. In the end, the Dendro Archon Kusanali even calls out to the Traveler, foreshadowing Sumeru.
The Problem with Time-bound Events
All that said, it’s a shame that such great content like this is time-gated, especially since they offer plenty of great rewards and lore. But while there are other methods to acquire primogems and ascension resources, players won’t be able to experience the character stories in the game anymore. Granted, Story Quests and Hangout Events exist in Genshin Impact specifically to focus on particular character arcs. However, these often don’t come close to the quality of the time-bound event quests.
For example, Mona’s Story Quest in Genshin Impact has a few interesting dialogue lines, but it’s really not as compelling as what the player experiences in her Golden Apple Archipelago domain. The same can be said about Kazuha’s Story Quest. Even worse, Xinyan and Fischl don’t even have Hangout Events, meaning players only ever learn about them during time-bound events, like Summer Fantasia.
All in all, time-gating this kind of content seems like a missed opportunity on HoYoverse’s part. Story Quests like Mona’s might be better off as time-bound quests that add to her character without giving too much salient information away. Meanwhile, her complex domain on the Golden Apple Archipelago of Genshin Impact 2.8 seems much more fitting as a permanent fixture of the game, and that goes for the rest of the characters’ domains in the Summer Fantasia event.
It's also worth saying that locking lore behind time-bound quests means that players who join Genshin Impact much later miss out on salient details about the characters. The same thing happened with Scaramouche’s appearance all the way back in the Unreconciled Stars event, which took place in version 1.1. While these character appearances aren’t necessarily crucial to the main storyline, it seems a waste to make such quests available for a month or so before getting rid of them completely.
Whether such events will remain lost to history still remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: they’re an excellent avenue for building on the world of Teyvat and its inhabitants. Further, even if the Golden Apple Archipelago doesn’t come back for a long time after update 2.8, players might see some familiar elements — such as the mirage and the domain puzzles — crop up again in new regions of Genshin Impact.
Genshin Impact is now available on mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5. A Switch version is in development with no confirmed release date.
