Why Are People Mad About The Skin Color Of Natlan Characters? - Genshin Impact

In this video, we dive into the controversy surrounding the skin color of Natlan characters in Genshin Impact. Many fans feel that these characters do not accurately represent the ethnic diversity that should be present in a region inspired by Latin American and West African cultures. Natlan draws from a rich blend of cultural influences, including the legendary land of the Aztecs, known as Aztlán. With skin tones in Latin America ranging from very light to very dark, and the majority of the population in West Africa having darker skin, we explore whether HoYoverse missed the mark in their character designs.

Join the discussion and share your thoughts in the comments! Do you think HoYoverse made a mistake? How important is accurate cultural representation in gaming?

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#genshinimpact #natlan #hoyocreators #RepresentationInGaming #hoyoverse #gamingcommunity

[Darkos]

Do you think HoYoverse made a mistake?

[Ender]

Melanin is a very rare resource in Teyvat. You need a heavy sacrifice to have a darker skin tone.

[kssvideoswarehouse]

They baited us with mentioning ‘murata’s children’ in the comics back in the start of Genshin brooo like there should at least have some ‘Murata’s children’ left as playable characters at least

+edit discussion 1:
From what I’ve seen from the comments, the conclusion you have is, playable characters with darker skin tones have been colonized to near extinction over the 1000 years gap?

[ReiiRei_]

They gave the enemies melanin but not the playable ones 🤦🏽

[gravity_mxk]

Even from a purely design perspective, in a game with so many characters, wouldn’t a greater range of skin colors make each one stand out a bit more?

[lyakiyomin]

Unsurprising judging by how hoyoverse did Sumeru.

[Shiyuuuuu]

As someonew who don't care about skin tones, even I also wonder why Hoyo choose this direction

[mizukihigeki]

I understand that there are lighter Latin people but it feels like mihoyo is using that as an excuse to not add darker skintones to the characters

[HH-pmmj]

To be honest I would love to see black characters in Genshin not just for representation but also because they can look absolutely awesome. Nessa from Pokémon comes to mind

[RacoonRack]

Tbh, I could use the Natlan trailer as a flashlight when going to the toliet at 3am

[rez-ye]

They basically Cherry Picked names and cultural design aspects from regions in the Ring of Fire. Problem is many of these names are of Deities and Holy Spirits that are depicted by their respective peoples as dark skinned. Logically speaking tho these characters hang out in a very hot and sunny region so they honestly should be darker.

[AkaiKnight]

It's saying "we like your clothes look....we just don't like how YOU in them".

[wickedwitchoftheweast]

Let’s just say the sun won’t be the only blinding white light in natlan

[Soul__soup]

It is not the only issue, they also did a character of a African God (Olorum) look like Sasuke

[ryoid]

I think this is really serious when even japan fans are complaining

[AverageUser]

Hoyoverse can create beautiful landscapes based off real life regions and cultures. However, skin colour diversity is where they draw the line. Make it make sense!

[grimsdol]

I think it is very suspicious that they took inspiration from every part of pre-Columbian latin america and Africa, from the names
fashion
environment
culture

but they decide not to take inspiration from the people's skin color

[pooted.]

Also, the characters are based on pre-existing dieties from many religions, many of which are depicted with dark skin.

[ohahmystical]

I feel like people have the reason to be mad right now about Genshin but I feel like it should also be mentioned that people are upset about not just the skin tones, Ororon is named after a Yoruba deity named Olorun (They only misspelt his name in English for some reason.) yet to quote some “They made him pale anime twink number 4”. If the people you’re taking inspiration from are upset, you should probably listen to them.

If i go back to skintones, why is genshin able to make enemies and NPCs have darker skin than the playable characters? Also some of the characters look like they were intended to have darker skin, the white haired girl’s tribal tattoos look more like tan lines than tattoos. You can’t even say they won’t sell in CN, CN players are also unhappy about it, JP fans are upset, I haven’t seen anything on KR side right now.

[Bgdaddy_]

One of the tweets I saw said "Hoyoverse is basically stating that 'Everything about your tradition and culture is beautiful except you'." And I totally agree with it. It's not that hard to make a dark skinned character. And even the VAs and CN fandom are complaining so you know Hoyoverse messed up badly this time.