Windblume’s Breath Festival in Genshin Impact Started Strong

The Windblume’s Breath event, or the Windblume Festival, is back in town in Genshin Impact. Like most Mondstadt events, it is a very feel-good time all around. This is obviously a great thing, especially after the most recent Archon Quest. This Windblume Festival is special too, since is focuses mostly on Sumeru characters rather than Mondstadt ones. Not only does it conclude Collei’s personal story in a satisfying manner, but it also introduces new additions to the greater lore of Genshin Impact.

The Windblume’s Breath event in Genshin Impact centers around Collei. The Traveler and the others watch as she struggles to become her ideal self. Her anxieties around her social skills and what kind of person she is felt really relatable. It’s sweet of Sucrose, who suffers from very similar issues, to be the one to reach out to Collei. However, I found it unfortunate that despite Collei’s history with Amber, they didn’t really interact with each other. Even so, Collei’s development as she comes into her own person was very nice to watch. Rather than continuing to emulate Amber, she grows into a better version of herself, committing herself to helping others the way that Tighnari, Cyno, and the people of Mondstadt have helped her. This is a great event for Collei fans! I’m sure that there are some people who became fans of her because of this event, too.

Collei was awesome, but what was important to me personally was getting to know Cyno. This event is our first time really seeing Cyno in his natural habitat and it does not disappoint. Give this man his own show on the Comedy Channel. His jokes are terrible, of course, but everyone’s reactions to them and Cyno remaining blissfully oblivious to their exasperation was what made them work. He doesn’t even seem to realize how cringy he is. It makes the whole thing feel like it’s an episode of The Office. The various localization teams did an amazing job coming up with (terrible) puns to get close to what the original Chinese jokes were.

Of course, these sorts of major Genshin Impact events usually have their fair share of mini-games. The Windblume Festival was no different. None of the mini-games were ones that made me want to play them after I finished getting the rewards, unfortunately. My least favorite was Floral Chess. But I think that’s because it’s just Pac-Man and I’m not really a fan of that. I hear it’s difficult on consoles, but the rhythm game on PC felt really great! HoYoVerse’s beat maps are really one-note (ha!) so I recommend looking through ones that the community shared if you want to play an actual rhythm game.

What I enjoyed the most from this year’s Windblume Festival was seeing the scene of just Collei and Sucrose talking. It’s always great to see characters interacting with each other organically without the Traveler acting a buffer. If you’ve read my preview for Honkai Star Rail, then you might know that I personally dislike voiceless player avatar characters. While the Traveler has become endearing over time, much like how a kidnapper might become sympathetic as an effect of Stockholm Syndrome, it’s still unfortunate that we seldom see character interactions without them being physically there. Collei and Sucrose’s conversation was so sweet without Paimon or the Traveler’s interjections. We’ll finally be able to see different sides to each character if this trend continues. Some characters definitely put up a facade around the Traveler versus when they’re with their closer friends.

The Windblume Festival this year started on a strong note and then ended on a bit of a whimper. It introduced us to the existence of the Hexenzirkel, which is an organization of powerful witches. They will likely appear in the story proper some time in the future. Perhaps some members will even be playable. But the ending cinematic being a lore drop rather than the usual “Where’s everyone now?” was a tad disappointing. It wasn’t even so major of a reveal that it deserved to usurp the spotlight from the actual festival. These region-specific festival events always feel so character-focused that I wish it ended with people we know and love rather than faceless entities.

Genshin Impact is readily available on the PS4, PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices.