As an artist and a huge nerd about character design, HoYoverse’s “Genshin Impact” is an interesting case study to me. While I don’t play the game myself, I have watched from afar as character after character after character has been revealed to the public. And I’ve gotta say, it gets really difficult to tell a lot of them apart. As I’m sure many active players do, I have my own gripes with the character designs of “Genshin Impact;” and really, of HoYoverse’s other games too, but we’ll stick with Genshin for now. 

First of all, I want to address what may be, to some of you, the elephant in the room; skin color. HoYoverse’s absolute refusal to go beyond two or three skin tones maximum is a massive meme at this point, and it’s well-deserved. Out of 104 total playable characters in “Genshin Impact,” nine of them are any color other than literal paper white. Of those nine, only four are any darker than lightly tanned. 

To put it in perspective, that is 8.7% of characters that are non-white, and 3.8% that are darker than lightly tan. This is despite several regions of the in-game world being heavily based on largely POC cultures. Of course, this is a massive issue and one of the most common critiques against HoYoverse’s character designs. Not only do they have so few non-white characters, but they have a long history of creating adaptations of figures from POC cultures, such as African or Middle Eastern religion and folklore, and making them white. This is, by far, the worst thing about their character designs. 

However, this, in my opinion, is just one part of the problem. Although it’s not the only thing wrong with their designs, I want to make it clear that it’s much worse than all of my other complaints that I will be detailing here. 

Additionally, on the same level as whitewashing, there’s the complaint of cultural appropriation and orientalism. While this is also an incredibly glaring issue with HoYoverse’s designs that far exceeds my other complaints in importance, I do not feel that it’s my place to speak on it in detail as a white person. However, I don’t want to let it go unaddressed, so I encourage readers to please read the accounts and criticisms of people who are a part of the affected cultures rather than hearing me talk about something that is not within my right to speak on.

Now, with that being said, what are some of my other issues with the character designs of “Genshin Impact?” Well, a big problem I have is that they all look so generic. I think this is partially due to how busy a lot of their designs look. Detailed character designs are fine, but when it’s done in such a repetitive way… they all blend together. 

Pretty much every Genshin character is covered in baubles and bangles that kind of feel like a lazy way to make the designs seem more elaborate. For comparison, look at some of the character designs from Square Enix’s “Kingdom Hearts” series. Through most of the games, the main cast is decked out in belts and zippers and all sorts of things in their incredibly 2000s getups, but it works. 

It doesn’t feel like those details were just slapped on there for the sake of it. It unifies the style, but still makes the characters feel individual. I understand that there are so many characters in “Genshin Impact” because it’s a gacha game and gacha games need a lot of characters, but surely there’s a way to make the designs feel less repetitive. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that almost every character has the exact same body.

I know it’s a lot to ask for more body diversity from a company that can’t even bear using more than 2 or 3 skin tones, but it’s certainly not helping their case.

Similarly to the point of the character designs all melting together, the designs also seldom tell me anything about the characters. A good design should give me a hint as to the kind of person the character is or what kind of role they play in their world, but I rarely get that from the Genshin cast.

For example, the character Xingqiu; upon reading his Fandom Wiki page, it says, “He is the second son of the Guild Manager of the Feiyun Commerce Guild, an influential group in Liyue … Also an avid reader, Xingqiu aims to be the embodiment of chivalry like the heroes from the books he reads; however, this belies his knack for mischief.” Maybe it’s just me, but personally, I got absolutely none of that from his design. I didn’t pick up that he was from a wealthy family, because his clothing looks just about as ornate and “fancy” as any other character’s, since so many of them wear the same capes and tights and boots with the same patterns and details. 

Also, why is he wearing those weird little shorts? They feel out of place and take away the little bit of distinct “nobility” vibes his design would otherwise have. Another example is Ororon, who supposedly farms vegetables and cares for animals, but dresses like a “Final Fantasy” closet cosplay. Is he sowing seeds and feeding the livestock in ripped jeans and combat boots? I sure hope not!

There’s also the characters I’ve looked at who seem bizarrely modern for the fantasy setting, like Mavuika, Varesa, Xilonen and Xinyan. My friends who play Genshin tell me that most of them are from a region that is meant to be more technologically advanced, but that’s hardly an excuse for giving them zip-up leather bodysuits and cardigans that look like they were pulled straight out of someone’s Pinterest board. If they wanted to give the impression that they’re from a more advanced culture, would a more steampunk look not be more appropriate? All it does is make them feel entirely out of place in the setting. 

On top of that, now, this part may be a bit of a hot take, but there’s also the art style. The anime art style that permeates every current HoYoverse title is just so… generic. So bland. Sure, they have pretty visuals sometimes, but it gives the characters across all games this horrific case of same face syndrome. I can immediately recognize a HoYoverse character because they all have largely the exact same face. 

Because of this, I often have trouble distinguishing which characters are from which game. HoYoverse’s three main games all have vastly different settings, and yet as I sit here browsing Genshin Impact’s roster of playable characters, I keep finding myself thinking, “Oh, I thought this one was from ‘Honkai Star Rail.’” Of course, this is likely just because I don’t play either game, but if I can’t tell the difference between characters from two completely different games, I do feel like there’s an issue there. 

I will say, I feel like the designs from “Zenless Zone Zero” are far more distinct, but when it comes to “Genshin Impact” and “Honkai Star Rail,” they might as well be the same game based on the casts. All of that is to say, the HoYoverse art style is painfully boring and makes their character designs look even more like anime gacha slop.

HoYoverse’s character designs are, at best, incredibly lacking, and if you lined up the cast of each game in a row, so very few of them would stick out to me. Except Komano Manato. He can get it.