"People are absolutely within their rights to demand better representation."
Genshin Impact's upcoming 5.0 update will introduce Natlan, a new region, in August later this year. But after dropping a surprise teaser out of nowhere, a few of the game's voice actors have come out against a new character that shares the name of an African deity, saying the design is disrespectful.
Valeria Rodríguez, the voice actor for Sucrose in Genshin Impact, made a lengthy post on X addressing the issue. "If you're going to use real-world deities, RESPECT them," Rodríguez says. "If you're basing off of real cultures RESPECT THAT. I'm fine with things being inspired by various cultures—that's awesome. Representation is dope. But bare minimum, do some research & show some cultural appreciation."
Rodríguez points out that one of the new characters is named after Ọlọrun, the supreme deity of the Yoruba people of West Africa, but clearly doesn't look the part. Other voice actors and players agree that the character doesn't in any way represent or celebrate the deity he is based on, with some labeling the Genshin character as "pale Sasuke".
"If a game draws so heavily from real-world cultures and bases a character on the supreme deity of Yoruba religion, and that character ends up looking like pale Sasuke Batman, people are absolutely within their rights to demand better representation," Khoi Dao, Genshin's Albedo voice actor tweeted. "Especially when said game has a clearly stated commitment to a global audience."
In 2022, miHoYo, the creators of Genshin Impact, announced that it would be rebranding itself to HoYoVerse amid restructuring to make room for the "metaverse" and a shift to accommodating a more global audience.
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/LbP3nuT3MKJuly 13, 2024
However, some players are unsure how well this pledge of being a "forward-thinking" global brand has gone, as even some of the game's oldest fans have been repeatedly asking for more representation. "If even your base audience, the Chinese fans, are asking for better representation/or characters with different shades of melanin, who are you making these characters for?" Zeno Robinson, voice actor for Sethos in Genshin, says.
This isn't the first time that 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 instances happened back in 2021 when a clip emerged of developers using Indigenous Americans as inspiration for an enemy class that was labeled unintelligent and uncultured.
There's still time before the new region releases, and many are hoping that some changes will be enacted before August. "I really hope that a video game company listens to its fanbase when valid criticism is made multiple years in a row about the execution of its research and inclusion of elements/aspects of other cultures," Anne Yatco, the voice of Raiden Shogun, says.
