Genshin Impact has revealed a whole host of new characters as the game moves toward its next major version update 5.0, which will take players to the sixth nation in the game: Natlan. Natlan will apparently be based on Latin American and African nations, and even some countries in Oceania. However, some fans have some very valid criticisms for the design team based on the characters revealed in the trailer.
Of the seven nations of Teyvat, two are based on areas outside of Europe or China and Japan. These nations are Sumeru, the fourth region visited in version 3.0, and Natlan, the new region coming soon to the game. Sumeru was based on the SWANASA region with specific characters picking out more detailed research from the different countries and cultures within this rather large region. That being said, a major criticism that arose prior to the region’s in-game launch was that most of the characters appeared extremely pale, with only two characters from the entire 3.0-3.8 timeline being tan.
The ensuing discourse was definitely a scandal within the community, especially with Hoyoverse dropping a trailer that revealed the design of all the Fatui Harbingers just days later. The Fatui Harbingers were extremely hyped characters, and the reveal of their designs took center stage in terms of focus up till the release of Sumeru. Since then, players have been very appreciative of the level of research apparent in character designs, with long threads on Twitter, or videos on Youtube. This appreciation of the research of the development team does not dismiss the criticisms of the lack of dark skinned characters appearing from these regions. In fact it even led to theories that characters were initially designed with darker skin tones in mind before being changed, possibly due to calls from executives. This theory has resurfaced with the release of the Natlan designs to some degree.
As previously stated Natlan is based on a multitude of regions, drawing from Latin America, African, Hawaiian and Maori tradition, yet all characters in the teaser trailer released last night are pale. The characters’ designs also tend to have tattoos on their skin in different colors except for the fire archon, who is wearing what appears to be a black, full body jumpsuit with cut outs. She also seems to share design similarities with Himeko from Honkai Impact 3rd and Honkai: Star Rail. What that might mean for her character, only time will tell.
Overall, the criticism of Hoyoverse is valid, with an extremely small pool of their characters being dark skinned, or even tan. While Genshin, which bases its nations off of real world nations and regions of the world, seems unwilling to represent people from those places who have darker skin tones, thereby failing to represent the totality of that region. How this scandal or how any player renegotiates their relationship to Genshin is completely up to them, and players can still engage with the game while holding it accountable for its failings. Players who are looking forward to what comes next for Genshin have Version 4.8 going live on July 17th, which makes most players speculate that the version 5.0 livestream will happen on August 16th.