Genshin Impact’s upcoming 5.0 update will introduce Natlan, a new region, this August. But after a surprise teaser appeared out of nowhere, some of the game’s voice actors have spoken out against a new character bearing the name of an African deity, saying the design is disrespectful.
Valeria Rodríguez, the voice actress for Sucrose in Genshin Impact, wrote a long post on X addressing this topic. “If you’re going to use real-world deities, RESPECT them,” Rodríguez says. “If you’re going to take inspiration from real-world cultures, RESPECT THAT. I have no problem with things being inspired by different cultures – that’s great. Representation is great. But the bare minimum is that you do some research and show some cultural appreciation.”
Rodríguez points out that one of the new characters is named after Ọlọrun, the supreme deity of the West African Yoruba people, but clearly doesn’t look like it. Other voice actors and players agree that the character in no way represents or celebrates the deity he is based on, with some referring to the Genshin character as “pale Sasuke.”
“When a game is so heavily inspired by real-world cultures and a character is based on the supreme deity of the Yoruba religion and that character ends up looking like a pale Sasuke Batman, people are absolutely entitled to demand better representation,” tweeted Khoi Dao, Genshin’s voice actor for Albedo. “Especially when said game is clearly committed to a global audience.”
In 2022, miHoYo, the creators of Genshin Impact, announced that they would rename themselves HoYoVerse as part of a restructuring to make room for the “metaverse” and appeal to a more global audience.
Ọlọrun is the supreme deity of the Yoruba. You could even find that out with a quick google search. This is unforgivable. Look at what an insane job SMITE did with its own interpretation!!! IT’S NOT HARD!!! pic.twitter.com/LbP3nuT3MKJuly 13, 2024
However, some players aren’t sure how well that promise of being a “forward-thinking” global brand has been received, as even some of the game’s oldest fans have repeatedly asked for more representation. “If even your core audience, the Chinese fans, are asking for better representation or for characters with different tones of melanin, who are you making these characters for?” says Zeno Robinson, voice actor for Sethos in Genshin.
This isn’t the first time players have spoken out against the lack of representation in Genshin. Phrases like “Boycott Genshin Impact” regularly grace X’s trending screen. One of the said cases occurred in 2021, when a clip surfaced in which developers used indigenous Americans as inspiration for an enemy class that was described as unintelligent and uncultured.
There’s still time before the new region is released, and many are hoping some changes will come into effect before August. “I really hope that a video game company listens to its fans when there are legitimate criticisms several years in a row about how it conducts its research and includes elements/aspects of other cultures,” says Anne Yatco, the voice of Raiden Shogun.
