Genshin Impact has been under fire for whitewashing people of color before, but the backlash over such accusations has never before reached the level it has now, as the release of the new Natlan nation grows ever more imminent. The nation is based primarily on Latin America, but also includes characters based on African deities. Despite this, the characters have all been portrayed as white, leading to some fans calling for a boycott unless developer Hoyoverse changes course. The campaign has grown to the point where voice actors who work on Genshin Impact and Hoyoverse’s other games are starting to speak out, asking for the studio to update the characters with darker skin, as per their real-world inspirations.
The promotional trailer Hoyoverse has put out for Genshin Impact’s Natlan update includes characters such as Ororon, seemingly based on Ọlọrun, a deity in the African Yoruba religion; Mavuika, likely based on Māori fire deity Mahuika; and Kinich, which is the same name as the Maya sun god Kinich Ahau. Each of these characters and others introduced in Natlan are depicted as white or with light skin in Genshin Impact, and while fans were excited to see the RPG representing these cultures, portraying them with light-skinned characters was met with immediate pushback.
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1812119873553859048
Fans have put together a petition asking Hoyoverse to stop whitewashing its characters and engaging in cultural appropriation, started a #BoycottHYV hashtag on social media, and are encouraging players to make their grievances heard through customer service channels. Several fan artists have started making mockups of characters with darker skin tones in case Hoyoverse needs a reference.
minus the egregious ads on alight motion, this took me only a MINUTE. do better hyv.#BoycottHYV pic.twitter.com/2jlyyzOJ70
— 𐔌 silver ! ໒꒱ (@doublemoonbi) July 14, 2024
#Mualani HOYO, YOU’RE FAST BUT IM FASTER. pic.twitter.com/6BtOo6kWaa
— crimson (@sanestlyneyfan) July 15, 2024
i love them so much..#Natlan #BoycottHYV pic.twitter.com/MyW8wzwG2E
— ً (@toruivsm) July 15, 2024
While fans have been speaking out, Genshin Impact voice actors have also started weighing in, including Sucrose actor Valeria Rodríguez, Yomiya actor Jenny Yokobori, Cyno actor Alejandro Saab, and Sethos actor Zeno Robinson, among several others.
Ọlọrun Is the supreme Yoruba deity. You could find that with a quick Google search, even.
This is unforgivable. Look at what a sick job SMITE did with their own interpretation!!! IT’S NOT HARD!!! pic.twitter.com/LbP3nuT3MK— Valeria Rodriguez (@ElvisBadger) July 13, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1811966018018767309
if even your base audience, the Chinese fans, are asking for better representation/or character with different shades of melanin, who are you making these characters for?
— zeno – jabber wonger (@childishgamzeno) July 13, 2024
It shouldn’t be a radical desire to want to see yourself reflected in the media you consume.
— Jenny Yokobori (@JennyYokobori) July 13, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1812228515678613946
We’ve reached out to Hoyoverse for comment and will update this story if we hear back. With Natlan’s release being so imminent it’s unlikely the studio will make any changes before launch, but we’ll see if the outcry results in edits in a future update. This isn’t the first time Genshin Impact has dealt with this kind of controversy, as fans are still upset about how the game portrayed characters in the nation of Sumeru, which is based on South Asian and Middle Eastern cultures but also had characters fans accused of being whitewashed
