I’ve posted a number of screenshots from #GenshinImpact because it’s a beautiful game. But I’m going all-text in this post, because it’s not just a visually stunning game, but also features some excellent and moving stories.

Early this morning I completed a quest that started out as observation of a child who seemed to be playing with an invisible friend, and ended up focusing on a man wracked with overwhelming guilt and feelings of worthlessness, trapped by a lie he couldn’t let go.

I’m trying to avoid spoiling anything, but he did find some relief, and the story ended with a beautifully-animated reminiscence by a character who isn’t what they seem to be.

My middle-school daughter has her favorite stories, one of which involves a character who survives childhood trauma but struggles to see herself as a person worth valuing many years later. That one closes with a Chinese opera, again beautifully animated.

Okay, maybe just one screenshot, from the closing poem of reminiscence.