Genshin Impact Sumeru teaser video is irresponsibly beautiful

A new Genshin Impact Sumer teaser video has arrived, walking us through the lush, arid, and irresponsibly beautiful region coming in update 3.0. 

Sumeru is split between rainforest and desert environments, and in this and other ways, Hoyoverse environment artist Jax Huang says it's "rather different from the major versions we've seen in the past." Sumeru's mountainous forests were built with a tropical theme in mind, Hoyoverse says, with ideas of "vividness, vitality, and humidity" guiding artists as they balanced fantasy and realistic elements.

"We have been experimenting with design boundaries," Huang says in the video. "We didn't want to come up with a very realistic design, but we didn't want to deviate too wildly either – to achieve a good balance between exoticism, fantasy, and realism." 

The desert, meanwhile, packs storms, oases, sparse but vibrant vegetation, and plenty of ruins with "historical elements." A few of those ruins are shown off in this video, and they're giving off the strongest Egyptian vibes of the region. The scale of both environments also speaks to the size of Sumeru, which looks to be at least as big as Inazuma and its many islands. 

Curiously, both the forest and desert areas of Sumeru are home to giant, dormant robots. They're similar to the Ruin Guards that players have already beaten a zillion times, but they're a bit more structurally complex and also the size of small mountains. The forest and desert robots are identical in many ways, and Hoyoverse is clearly hinting at a story connection between them. We can add these robots to the long list of sights to see when Sumeru launches. 

The previous Sumeru teaser introduced the elemental reactions tied to the new Dendro element, which seems like it could shake up the combat system in a big way. This video arrived on the heels of the big Fatui Harbinger reveal, leaving players hungry for Dendro and thirsty for bad guys.  

Genshin Impact 3.0 characters have been revealed, giving us our first Dendro fighters.