Genshin Impact Accused Of Colourism With New Natlan Region
New characters revealed for Genshin Impact have come under fire, as fans accuse the developer of whitewashing the game's new Latin American-inspired region, Natlan. This comes after developer MiHoYo revealed some of the new characters coming to the game as part of the Natlan area, confirming that most of them are light-skinned.
This has prompted fans to accuse MiHoYo of colourism, as well as whitewashing the Latin American influences behind Natlan. Some fans are even redesigning the new characters, giving them darker skin and trying to better represent their influences.
Genshin Impact Devs Accused Of Whitewashing Latin American-Inspired Region
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As many Genshin Impact fans have highlighted online, the lack of diversity in this new lineup of characters is made more egregious by some of them seemingly being inspired by real-life deities. These deities are often depicted with darker skin tones, whereas the Genshin Impact designs are not.
Fan redesigns of these new characters are already being shared online, with many already agreeing on new looks for characters like Ororon. In this case, many feel that his design is in particularly poor taste, as he is most likely named after the West African deity, Olorun.
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MiHoYo is yet to publicly respond to this backlash, and it remains to be seen if it does at all. However, this is not the first time that the studio has come under fire, with Genshin Impact players long taking issue with the lack of dark-skinned characters in the game.
Whether or not character redesigns are possible so close to their release in-game remains to be seen. Natlan is expected to be included in a Genshin Impact update later this year.
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