I actually finished all of Fontaine's main story a while ago, but it's taken me a bit to get to doing the write-up. Health problems and all that. Woo.
Anyway, as far as the writing goes, I have continued to thoroughly enjoy the story, worldbuilding and characters of Genshin. The game gets a bit of a bad reputation in a lot of circles because it's a gacha, but it's legitimately a fantastically written game with an incredibly in-depth world. Fontaine is no exception. Despite being the fifth nation of the game so far, the story has not gotten even remotely stale nor has it done anything particularly repetitive with its vibe or execution. While Sumeru was also largely built around mysteries - both surrounding characters and the world - Fontaine's mysteries feel more in line with crime or political thrillers. Which is fitting given how much of the story is built around the court house and legal battles. The Ace Attorney comparisons people have made with Fontaine are not unfounded. This made for another fresh experience both mechanically and narratively that I found genuinely quite engaging. Admittedly, compared to previous segments, the story did feel a little disjointed at times, but in the end they were all interlinking and it was interesting seeing how it all came together to reveal the big secrets of everything in the end. My only real complaint about the execution is that the pacing with the finale involving the Narwhal felt very abrupt without enough proper build-up or exploration beforehand. It still tied-in to the story fine, but it could have been better. A mostly small blip in the grand scheme of things though and it did come with some very intriguing lore stuff.
The big highlights of the story though were of course Furina's story which is engaging, mysterious and tragic in equal measure but not at all in the ways you might expect and the Fatui involvement. The Fatui are a really interesting presence in the story in a lot of ways. They're usually antagonists and most of them are clearly some flavour of evil, but sometimes they fall into a much more morally ambiguous place - the goals of the organisation itself and the Tsaritsa certainly do - and this time around they were straight up allies despite the reputation they have earned. It was quite interesting to see how they were portrayed this time around.
Mechanically, the game continues to be what it always is. The core mechanics of the combat and exploration systems are simple but very fun and very effective and even though some character's now are starting to have similar kits (Keqing, Alhaitham and Chiori, Hu Tao and Arlecchino as examples) they're generally not boring mechanically and still manage to have subtle differences that keep them interesting. Every new region always introduces some new stuff too though. Fontaine characters (and Hydro Traveller) being aspected in different ways (pneuma and ousia) and how that interacts with combat and the environment was an interesting development and the introduction of the underwater parts of the world is really well done. There's always so much you can do in Genshin and even if some parts aren't your favourite thing (I'm not big on exploration for example) there's always many more things that will be. It continues to be mechanically very satisfying for me.
Visually, the character design is always top tier and the world is always gorgeous. I don't have too much more to say on that. I'm particularly fond of Furina, Arlecchino, Neuvilette and Wriothesley's designs this time around. The overworld in Fontaine is pretty, but it does kind of feel like "Mondstadt but better" compared to how stand out parts of Liyue, Inazuma and Fontaine are. That being said though, it completely makes up for it with how gorgeous the underwater environments are.
As for the sound, the voice acting is solid at worst and great at best as well. Big props especially go to Furina's VA this time around. She absolutely nails her performance. Musically Fontaine doesn't have quite as many stand-outs tracks as Sumeru or Liyue do for me, but I really enjoy the character themes for Neuvilette, Wriothesly and Arlecchino and the Narwhal's boss music is excellent as well.
So, how is things overall? Genshin continues to be a great game. The gacha element always means it's got a bit of a bad reputation, but all the positives dramatically outweigh that somewhat-overstated negative. Fontaine, its characters and its gameplay have been a largely excellent addition to the game overall. Story-wise, Sumeru is still my favourite part of the game so far. That being said though, Fontaine was very good and probably edges out Inazuma for second.
Writing: 8/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Visuals: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Total: 32/40