Genshin Impact frankly has no business making me remember, look up, and then re-read short stories that decade-old literature classes have embedded in my brain like philosophical sleeper agents. But here I am, hung up on Ursula K. Le Guin's 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' after clearing the new, final act of this open-world RPG's Fontaine Archon quest.
Both stories are harrowing works of forced sacrifice, but the main reason Genshin Impact's take has completely consumed my thoughts is that it's the best and latest in the RPG's many fascinating lessons in theology, which I increasingly hope other games take a page from. (By the way, I'm about to spoil the shit out of Genshin's Fontaine Archon quests, so put a bucket on your head if you don't want to see that.)
