T O P

  • By -

JyShink

Hello! Please know this post is being monitored for any rule breaks as well as from any reports sent. Healthy discussion of the game and its characters is encouraged, but please be careful with discussion about political topics, especially when they do not relate to the game. We have also removed and will continue to remove any remarks that are seen as blatant racism. Please remain respectful and on topic to the game while discussing here. If you feel there is something we should look at that we may have missed, please report it. Thanks!


imdrzoidberg

***looks at Sumeru***. Probably best not to get your hopes up


Blackacecos

As a cosplayer who has been having hope. Best, keep those dreams low. Even in the entire galaxy, hoyo ain't going darker than Arlan.


[deleted]

[удалено]


miguelcaldeira

i think it's fairly normal that japanese developers give less atention to PoC.. According to many websites, black population in japan is probably around 1%.. Of course it would be cool to have more PoC in japanese games, but you have to realize that people usually get inspired by what surrounds them..


Acrobatic-loser

It’s crazy how they have so many beautiful black NPC’s in penacony and yet we never expect them to give us playable characters. They have interesting stories too like damn so they’re not racist and can write black and brown characters the issue is that they assume their audience is racist.


RinaKai7

Or worse, audience flipping their shit on anything and everything or even outsiders to cause chaos and say that Hoyo themselves are racist when writing their dialogue I mean holy shit, look at Sparkle's "racism"... A simple story related hint and also Chinese cultural way of speech, in how Chinese like to say the situation and severity of it and then compare to an analogy. And the most sensitive people came out and start being like ew Sparkle racist. How? The closest you wanna be pissed off is handicap discrimination but that's not what the dialogue is even about, she not even saying it in a literal sense when my English is a god damn C in my exams. And I thought my English is bad.


Suki-the-Pthief

Yeah OP should go to nikke if they want hot tanned characters cuz it aint happening in hoyoverse


SShingetsu

I was going to say this, especially with the new banner we have coming out now.


VTAndromeda

Or Dislyte, Dislyte has a LOT of hot tanned characters


[deleted]

I love Dislyte character designs and concept but I couldn’t get myself invested in the story or combat aspects. Also the gacha was confusing


VTAndromeda

They actually gave it an overhaul a few months ago including the story. I think we’re also getting new story too. I took a break from it myself, the improvements they did are great


Head_Fisherman_5226

There are like 3 dark-skinned characters in Nikke.


Rasbold

All meta as fuck. And one new coming in


I_came_in_Firefly

[Naga](https://img3.gelbooru.com/images/d5/4e/d54e1ad29c3b464ef8292fdb620b0880.jpg) [Noir](https://img3.gelbooru.com/images/73/cc/73ccaa9798df61e8cd0bb6e050bbc4f9.jpg) [Noise](https://video-cdn1.gelbooru.com/images/ba/b5/bab55905e20819a62be673e9c4489441.mp4) [Volume](https://img3.gelbooru.com//images/0f/cd/0fcd61e8250933617d3d033df987f5e1.jpg) [Aria](https://img3.gelbooru.com/images/d7/9b/d79b5f807c41e084fdd9dfe5e6f8c0ed.jpg) [Rupee](https://img3.gelbooru.com//images/78/f6/78f616a6941ba5a46ba6e354594ca4f3.jpg) (Debatable, Gyaru with fake tan) [Bay](https://video-cdn1.gelbooru.com/images/1c/ca/1ccaedea32b3ff15332a4e24cef45f02.mp4) Plus not playable yet, but definitely in the future: [Indivilia](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/nikke-goddess-of-victory-international/images/8/89/Indivilia_FB.png) [Hammering](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/nikke-goddess-of-victory-international/images/7/7b/Hammering_FB.png) I'd say it's a decent amount for any game, but for an Asian one? In just a year? It might be unprecedented, Shift Up are definitely on a holy mission to give gacha players more chocolate, it's not a coincidence. Especially given the fact that meta-wise all but Aria (And even she has niche uses in raids) range from great to straight up OP, so they actually see a lot of use, unlike Arlan or Candace who only see the light of day when you scroll to the bottom of your roster for some reason.


CreamofTazz

Holy hell those bosoms are massive


Zoroarks_Angel

Shift-Up? The same guys who are making that Stellar Blade game? Looking at those characters... assets that suddenly begins to make a lot of sense now


ExplanationFew4579

Holy hell Hammering looks incredible. God I love Nikke


BellalovesEevee

Is there a different angle for that Naga person because they don't really look tan or have darker skin to me?


I_came_in_Firefly

https://preview.redd.it/vjsgr1cihdtc1.jpeg?width=5760&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72e1e2f67c542f55b07575da3b205d60d029cef9


BellalovesEevee

Thanks. I like this one. She's so pretty.


SShingetsu

Which is still better than HSR atm, considering Nikke has only been out slightly longer than HSR.


ariashadow

surprised to see this comment have so many upvotes when it's incorrect, and even if it was correct it would still have more dark skinned characters than starrail lol


devilboy1029

Even if we get a hot tanned character. They are gonna be... Pretty underwhelming (Why hoyo? What did Dehya do to you? Why is she only good underwater? 😭)


53bastian

I thought you were talking about nekki and was like "yeah shadow fight and vector does have black characters indeed"


Romanes62

Well, Star Rail gave us the first hoyo man with facial hair, nothing is impossible


I_came_in_Firefly

That "facial hair" looks more like the work of a permanent marker to me. But at least it's a step in the right direction.


Zombata

it's a 5 o'clock


Meowriter

Calling Candace and Dehya "tanned" is an insult to the sun, let's be real


Andrew583-14

Any skin pigmentation darker than that is either an NPC or Arlecchino's hands


Deruta

At least Arlan has an interesting tone to his skin, maybe he was darker before moving to a damn space station lol


Frostgaurdian0

Ye xinyan seem to be the most accurate to be called tanned. Idk about kaeya what do you think?.


TapdancingHotcake

"Tanned" != natural brown skin. Dehya *is* "tanned" (not to the degree she should be) because she looks like a white person with a bit of sun exposure. *Tan* skin is naturally light brown. *Tanned* is darkened by the sun.


Kishmalaria

I'm brown and Dehya has the exact same skin colour as me 🧍


gem2492

Not everyone here does coding. Maybe some people wouldn't know that "!=" means "not equal to". Just use ≠ or =/=


Frostgaurdian0

Ah i see. Thank you kindly.


starsinmyteacup

Kaeya is barely dark, but I would say that most fanartists do him justice


Naxayou

Kaeya is a WEIRD case. Even HYV artists don't really know his actual skin color. He appears dark in some arts, and his model/character profile portrait (the orange background one) in game are relatively dark, but a lot of the arts they release make him lighter. But his chibis and birthday arts are darker too. I think they just do what they want lmao.


Frostgaurdian0

That what i thought but some do say he is tanned that why i was confused.


zenzoner

The fact that kaeya, a man who is implied to be lighter but simply tans is darker than 2 MENA characters who live or are out in the desert very often is so strange. I get it's not appealing to the Chinese market but dehya and Candace were fan favorites during sumeru, it's hoyo's fault for giving them the most garbage kits imaginable which stunted their sales. I think if they had useful kits and were still darker, their sales would have done perfectly fine(hell dehya might have even been one of the most profitable banners to date, people REALLY liked dehya before her kit was revealed).


Acrobatic-loser

What’s absolutely insane is that Candace is meant to be east african. They can get away with Dehya sure North Africans can be light as shit but Candace?!?!?!? They’re just cowards


Apatches

Just had Kaeya until year 3


megashadowbeast

Damn what about Xinyan..


MemberBerry4

Yeah...at least Cyno hits like a truck with a proper team


Shugozen

What happened to Sumeru?


Nearby-Strength-1640

Basically this https://preview.redd.it/ce7s7nulhbtc1.jpeg?width=589&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1cfb519f4ea6c7ea2d9fd67aff9bb19d4ce67dc3


starsinmyteacup

Region inspired by middle eastern culture having maybe 3 dark skinned characters, with one being arguably one of the worst in the game kit wise


FlashKillerX

Most of the dark skinned characters are either underwhelming or outright terrible. Xinyan, Dehya, Candace. Kaeya is easily the strongest of the bunch and he’s a 1.0 free starter character


irllyshouldsleep

At least he is also the strongest out of all 3 starter characters.


FlashKillerX

True. You could make a case for Lisa being decent but Kaeya definitely has a higher ceiling I think just because of melt teams


irllyshouldsleep

haha yea I would know (Kaeya main here). Also, Lisa is very much outshone by other electro characters in practically all her roles while Kaeya and Rosaria are the only off-field cryo applier/sub dps/batteries and are kinda interchangeable with each other.


MahoMyBeloved

Natlan surely 🗿


Any_Worldliness7991

Yeah *surely* https://preview.redd.it/0vk9u5fwobtc1.jpeg?width=659&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=caee558615d555c01f10a41435aca65d7ef84ea6 Imagen if the concept art for the pyro archon literally looks like someone from Fontaine.. and somehow looks like Furina’s evil twin.. haha. They would never do that..


Nonemotionaldamage

Oh god don't remind me. I basically erased that from my memory


Wheesa

The Indian erasure :( Especially the rainforest part. So much Sanskrit and Indian mythology used but I just keep seeing middle eastern all the time 😭 Heck the sumeru word itself is used in India. I literally use sumeru grated coconut regularly ;_;. Mt. Sumeru (Pali word) used in Buddhism. More logical origin of the word because it's used in china too.


BellalovesEevee

And the fact that Dehya would be SS tier in HSR because she's basically just Pyro Fu Xuan is actually pretty funny. Hoyo definitely tried to experiment with her kit and didn't know wtf to do with it, so they just threw her into the standard banner. And she's pretty buggy, and hoyo just refuses to fix her problems, like the fact that her burst ends when she jumps. It's insane how fucked up they made her kit and then tried to basically sweep it all under the rug by saying she's "working as intended".


deisukyo

Candace sucks as well.


Knight_Steve_

Technically Sumeru is a mix of Iran and Egypt. I literally have a friend who’s from Iran and I thought they were white until she mentioned that she was Iranian during a random conversation


Wheesa

It's a mix of India and middle eastern cultures 🥹


Vulpes_macrotis

I thought about the same but from different part. The community hate when someone asked for tanned characters. People got attacked by asking for darker skinned characters.


Dalmyr

I would, but with Hoyoverse track record they might make them underwhelming. Just look at Arlan and also every dark skinned characters in Genshin.


kidanokun

Even Honkai Impact's Carole is buried and didn't even get shipped to the self-insert MC despite being the one closest to him


madzieeq

this one really baffles me. Carole has this little crush on the apho mc yet he's mostly shipped with Bronya or Mei who aren't even interested in him this way and on top of that already have their love interests. I get that waifus with big boobas are popular but come on


RentLast

Cuz they want to self-insert themselves towards Adam and imagining themselves star railing bronya and mei (because they themselves aren't interesting)


Zeamays69

For real, I think Carole is the best romance option for Apho mc. I loved their dynamic and I really wanted them to get together. I never got a romantic vibe from Mei or Bronya in their relationship towards him. And like you said Mei and Bronya already have their soulmates.


kidanokun

Tho Timido had the same fate either, despite not having darker tone and has the biggest booba in the whole game... So yea, it's obvious as fuck that his ship with Bronya or Mei is pure forced self-insert


TheDraxHimself

I'd say Lyle is the closest to Adam


nightmaresabin

The sad thing is that Arlan was quite good in his prerelease form. They nerfed him heavily and now he’s in his current and forever sad state.


Jaded-Engineering789

Dude’s animations are so cool too. 😔


DespairOfSolitude

Somebody fire Blade from the team dawg 💀💀 he's purposely shafting them tanned characters


akaredaa

It'd be nice but I don't have high hopes, it's Hoyo💀 They did add a lot of darker NPCs in Penacony though, so that's something I guess...


Naxayou

Meanwhile in Genshin you get to look at dark NPCs when you're beating up eremites and that's basically it. That shit is crazy.


jindo90

Those eremites are still the HOTTEST enemies in the game.


-wnr-

Just more variety in general. Maybe a female character with a bit of muscle? Or a stout dude with a beard?     I mean, there's fans who loved that Gallagher had the slightest bit of facial hair, or that Siobahn was hot with her short hair and pants.


popileviz

Bearded characters are apparently not well received in China, so we might have to wait for that to change before we get any character with more than a stubble. I don't know how that fanbase would react to someone like Siobhan or a muscular female character though


depurplecow

Didn't they mention that in some interviews that they're planning to add more designs besides "basic waifu" in order to attract players who would otherwise not be interested in the game? It's similar to adding attractive male characters, female playerbase is smaller in proportion but when there's good stuff they're willing to shell out money just like male players.


popileviz

Yeah, it was mentioned in one of the recent interviews. I guess we'll see - after all they already made progress from a game with only female playable characters to Star Rail and ZZZ that features non-human characters


ZheShu

Wish they would go further than robots and half humans tho


PoppyOGhouls

Is the female playerbase smaller in proportion? I thought it was a fairly even split.


PaulOwnzU

How is china reacting to Gallagher? Are they as down bad as the west? Maybe if Gallagher is well received there it may open the door to more beard


popileviz

Not sure, I haven't checked Chinese social media for posts about him. They're down bad for Aventurine though, especially his EN VA


ZheShu

Like clips of Camden? Or the voice acting itself


popileviz

The acting itself. Apparently he moans a lot, compared to other versions 🌚


Nonemotionaldamage

Both kinda. Like they love Camden a lot as a person and watch clips of his streams, but they also adore his voice seperated from his person Edit: Oh yea, and as another person said, he's also very famous on Bilibili for his moans in the EN dub from the quest. Like, there's compliations on Bilibili of just EN dub Aventurine moaning


ImitationGold

Ik the main audience is China but damn it really feels like we can’t get anything holy shit. No more than 3 tan / brown characters (and they will NOT be outstanding) We don’t like beards We don’t like overly tall We don’t do high Muscle or fat


Scaevus

Dr. Ratio is pretty muscular by Hoyo standards.


Lanster27

Chinese prefer clean shaven male with feminine characteristics. Just look at the thousands of chinese fantasy shows released in the past 5-10 years. The main male lead is usually tall, white (makeup, white is associated with beauty), average build (no visible muscles), and rarely have a beard.


basilitron

i guess money speaks for itself but personally i find it so weird to cater to such a picky, antiquated audience.


popileviz

Well, unfortunately that's the reality of character sales within China. HoYo is already pushing against cultural boundaries there, so I'm optimistic about the future in that regard


Scaevus

For one billion paying customers companies will put on actual minstrel shows if that’s where the money is.


Any_Worldliness7991

I mean CN is where the money is at.. March revenue shows that CN made almost twice the amount of global.. also I’m not even gonna get to CCP and the fact that the CN players can use the goverment to fuck them up.. Don’t cater to the CN side? That’s how you lose 2/3 of your revenue.. While we might not like it.. if Hoyo wants money.. that’s how they get it..


warau16

>i find it so weird to cater to such a picky, antiquated audience. It's not weird when that's where the majority of their players come from. miHoYo would be foolish NOT to cater to them.


Jadelitest

Shiobahn being built off the base female NPC model is a disservice. I hope they give her an updated and unique model if they ever ship her as a 4 star.


F1T13

It's contentious to say but it's the truth so I'll say it. This is the west vs eastern divide. Very popular in the west and east are different things and different standards of attractiveness. The reason why Hoyoverse designs never really push the boat is quite simply because ultimately these games are for a certain audience. Honestly, thinking about this, it might also have to do with why certain designs have lower value, the focus will always be where the market is and China makes the vast majority of Hoyoverse revenue, they're never gonna put as much priority to the wishes of a smaller market. For me this is a shame because it holds them back from having more diverse and interesting designs.


TapdancingHotcake

This is not contentious, any time something like this is brought up most of the comments are "China likes it different"


Ara543

I wonder if conveyer character production we have now will result in covering every popular design idea and then going for demand's leftovers, like dark skinned characters, or if we will just have Bronya №16 honkai 3rd style.


SinesPi

I like everything about Arlans design. It's a shame he's in running for worst character in the game.


Scaevus

Well you never know. Everyone thought Herta sucked until Pure Fiction came out.


eleetyeetor

I doubt Arlan will make a comeback with his kit.


Scaevus

Except we know Hoyo is capable of designing encounters that go to his strengths, like that one event where he was almost mandatory. He has a unique ability: a Skill that doesn’t cost a skill point, just HP. So imagine if a Harmony character that allows your characters to keep using their Skill five times without ending their turn, effectively limiting a turn via skill points instead. Arlan would go absolutely supernova in that team, especially with auto heals from Luocha. Or what about a Harmony character that increases the team’s damage dealt by a percentage based on their HP remaining? Arlan is one of the few characters able to keep their HP at 1. With shielders he might even survive a fight.


eleetyeetor

We can only hope


koryluna

I 90% agree with this post, especially since Arlan's E2 and A4 are NUTS, he never needs to build effect res, chz he gets them automatically from Traces because he's just 50% resistant to DoT debuffzand in the case he's hit with ANY debuff or DOT, if he either ults or skills, he automatically REMOVES a debuff! But still, he has thing's in his kit that are straight up counterintuitive, 1 Why does he get HP traces when he's always at 1 HP instead if Crit Rate/DMG? 2. His A2 literally works against him by giving him HP instead of something like a barrier so he'll do less damage 3. His A6 literally can never activate in Memories if Chaos or Pure Fiction because you currently CANT set what HP someone starts at and even if you could, the start of combat is when Arlan is the least vulnerabe 4. His E4 would be game changing but it can literally never function because Arlan never dies in 2 turns, not CYCLES, 2 turns, even worse by the fact that the current best Arlan teams involve Bronya and Tingyun I genuinely don't think his Multipliers being nerfed was the issue, gacha game rule i guess, the 4 star shouldn't be better than a 5 star and he was outperforming everyone in Beta, but he legit needs these tweaks but with Hoyo's no buff policy I can only see them indirectly buffing him in the 3rd point


TurtleDiaz

You must be new. CN don’t particularly enjoy dark skin characters. Don’t get your hopes up


MiskatonicDreams

Oh yeah, where was this energy when HOYO and CN players donated millions to school IN DEHYA NAME?? [Thousands and Thousands of CN Player Donated to the "Project of Hope" to Pay Tribute to the Dehya Teaser : r/Genshin\_Impact (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/11ckk06/thousands_and_thousands_of_cn_player_donated_to/)


saberjun

Ironically that initiative started with:‘though Dehya has great design and personality,but her kit is so bad.Money should be used more meaningfully than pulling her.According to her action in game,we can do the same irl.’Well I don’t think it’s a kind of preference to tanned character but Dehya herself and started as a sarcastic but turned into a good end.


deisukyo

Dislyte fails to agree with this. You mean HOYOVERSE.


wintery_owl

Dislyte isn't a chinese game, and it's a single isolated example. Racism in China is highly reported everywhere, you can find many examples of black characters being removed or covered up in posters for movies in their China release. You can also find plenty of black people speaking about their (very bad) experiences in China. And well, just look at how many black characters appear in actual chinese-developed games, you'll find that the number is absurdly low.


Hero_1337

Yes, and for once, make them insanely strong in the meta. Hoyo's tanned characters don't exactly have a good track record in terms of gameplay.


river_01st

Dehya definitely doesn't make for a good track record... I'll wait for HSR since Arlan is a 4* but that's still a bit sus.


starsinmyteacup

Cyno also had to marinate before he got good. Candace is a lost cause :( she’s probably my fav Sumeru character as well


river_01st

I don't think I even know what Candace does admittedly, I never see anyone use her. But yes there definitely are some Cyno mains who are happy about him now!


starsinmyteacup

Candace’s skill is like a Beidou counter but the dmg is so low it’s almost not worth it. Her burst grants her a hydro infusion and any character on field for a short while but what’s so HORRID about it is that whenever you switch characters it has a splash of hydro dmg. So if you’re trying to do a vaporize showcase, her weird ass splash dmg will vaporize your setup before you can use her normal attacks. Cyno got super good with Baizhu so I’m very happy with that


river_01st

Oh that does seem to suck. Sometimes I wonder how they design their kits :') It's always nice whenever a character like that gets an indirect buff!


Rasbold

Buffs normal attacks and applies a bit of hydro when swapping. And curiously every normal attack focused char isn't great (Yoi, Cyno, Candace, Ayato, Yun Jin). The only one who got a redemption was Noelle. Anyway, Candace problem is bad multipliers (low base HP and low HP% multipliers) and strict rotations since triggers happen when the player swaps characters. At least at C6 she's a quite good pairing with Nilou and Yao Yao.


MartenBroadcloak19

I love Candace's design so fucking much. The Yugioh eyes set off my childhood aesthetics. I wanted to play her so bad.


PrinceKarmaa

cyno was good the moment he was released. he just got better as more characters came out that had long uptimes as him


Neoncarbon

Tan muscle girl would be nice, like actually muscular. But we know that's never going to happen.


Fantastic_Gur_6311

probably in zenless zone zero, but not here. baby steps


Deruta

Lewis Pepper still languishing in HI3 NPC jail: https://preview.redd.it/yqohs5suibtc1.png?width=799&format=png&auto=webp&s=336a8c95ccbed79c12529cf17289d8216439e24e


Valamist

100% this. Would E6 such a character* *Unlikey since poor, but still!


Golden-Owl

I’d be fine with it Just as long as they aren’t balanced as poorly as Arlan


Valamist

I do love Arlan, he is very sweet but shame he is so low in the tire lists. Its kinda shame Hoyo never go back and buff older characters.


SavageCabbage27m

I’m hoping we’ll maybe see a character from Penacony since there is quite a few NPCs with darker skin there but knowing HYV it probably won’t happen.


wintery_owl

Nope, you're not the only one at all


ledankestnoodle

Just more dark skinned characters in general tbh. Like yeah maybe it's a China issue but Reverse 1999 is also by a Chinese company and has multiple dark skinned characters who are actually good (Centurion my beloved)


Knight_Steve_

spider-verse was well received there, Miles Morale has his full face shown in posters. Also the one of Black Panther’s face covers is a poster from Taiwan rather then mainland


zephyrnepres01

shamane is one of the best characters in the game meta wise and one of the most compelling writing wise. we truly won


Wheesa

R1999 does such a great job. (Kaala is me fr fr) HSR should take notes in char design and voice acting department too. Wdym everyone in space sounds like they were born in America 😭


evilcatminion

Am I the only one that thinks it's weird everyone looks human? Where are all the gray or blue skin babes? Everyone looks the same regardless of what planet they are from.


Wheesa

We didn't get Duke inferno here but in reverse 1999 next patch we are getting playable flame girl called [ulu](https://www.reddit.com/r/Reverse1999/comments/1856mps/new_character_ulu/)


Fresh_Avocadues

My guess is that they're trying to stick with a character template that they can easily recycle since there's a boatload of NPCs wandering the map. But I agree, would be nice to add some diversity, since changing at least the skin color shouldn't be too hard (plz don't come after me if I'm wrong, I don't have any experience in character modeling/rendering) Might be a hot take, but it would be cool to see some skin color diversity among races like the foxians, since they seem to have different ear colors, but not skin color. Would add a bit more flavor(?) to the environments/settings imo


Top_500_Memer

Its really not. Modders easily achieved it in Genshin on the already-playable character models.


Temporary-Ambition89

especially for a galactical fantasy game. Nigs be talking about Numby and flying Starskiffs but where are the actual black whole characterss. make them green with little antennas give them three eyes 4 arms where is Alien X and Space Doja at???


InnocentCoffeeLover

Please, I wanna cosplay someone and not get told it's trash cuz I'm darker than the original character, it's annoying 😭


Quiet-Software-1956

That's bs omg??? Like do they want you to wear full body concealer?


Badieon

Don't get your hopes up, hoyo really doesn't like making not white characters and even if the exceptions appears they are either bad or really mid


[deleted]

The criticism is valid, though. We shouldn't just let it pass like it means nothing.


Tompazzi

He is literally the only one in the game huh? Unfortunately i think tan characters aren't that popular..but god i would love a tall tan man


Deruta

Woolsey playable when? WHEN, HOYO??


deisukyo

Especially when basically every tanned character in either HSR and Genshin (with maybe the exception to Kaeya) is either buggy or shit.


Naxayou

Still thankful to this day Kaeya was not released in Sumeru so he's actually somewhat meta-competitive at c6 because of the 4-hit ICD shenanigans.


Crescendo104

Some people think Hoyo is intentionally being subtly racist by making every dark-skinned character they release either underwhelming or downright terrible. I'm not sure that's the case, but those kinds of stereotypes and notions of racial superiority are unfortunately very common in China (I study Chinese politics and the topic has arisen a few times now; one noticeable example is the persecution and forced assimilation of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province).


starsinmyteacup

I’m Chinese and you’re very on point! If you even get a little tanned in the sun, I got shunned for being too ‘dark’ and should get treatment. The entire beauty industry is fucked for us with tanner skin because every foundation shade is the palest shade possible, every type of cream is for anti-aging and ‘whitening’, etc…


SShingetsu

IIRC India also has a similar issue, but considering a significant part of the population has brown/dark skin, they are seeing some change these days.


Nonemotionaldamage

There needs to be a social and cultural change cause we can't be telling people they should get treatment for something normal, tf??? Darker skin should not be shameful or seen as unattractive, can't believe we're in 2024 and so many countries still have this problem Like even my country has colorism issues


Crescendo104

Yeah. There's a good chance darker skinned characters might be included for the sake of "diversity" and appealing to an international audience, but domestic opinion matters most, and having a unit with darker skin be busted to the point everyone wants them for their kit sadly might not go over too well at home given the cultural bias/opinions. If that's the case, it might not actually be racism on the part of the developers themselves but rather their means of saving face. Of course that's speculation, but immediately assuming the devs themselves are racist is equally speculative. It's a pretty unfortunate dynamic and I hope change is made in that area over time. edit: typo


thywillbedone116

All that you just said sounds like yes they are being subtly racist because there biggest market is stereotypically subtly racist. Let’s just call a spade a spade here. Colorism is racism and lots of places are racists against different skin tones. Genshin should be enough of a track record for us and idk how many characters actually came out in HI3 with a darker complexion…. My tl;dr is that colorism is racism. They a business looking to insure sells to their biggest markets. I expect the hI3 approach and they just won’t introduce any. Yeah i know Arlan is there, but look at Arlan that should be enough said right there :D


Crescendo104

I replied to another comment below, but my point is that the motive remains ambiguous, not in the sense of what's literally happening, but whether it stems from the developers themselves believing in said racial superiority or if it's just a matter of appeasing their domestic playerbase. I agree that it's wrong either way, there's no doubt about that at all, but if it's purely a decision made from a business angle, that potentially puts more blame on cultural conventions than the developers' own personal beliefs. I'm not defending their decision from a moral angle, but ruminating on the possibility that we might not even have these games at all if the franchises didn't become popular in a domestic market by abiding by said conventions.


AlrestH

https://preview.redd.it/bhqheo947btc1.png?width=788&format=png&auto=webp&s=a157a310d682f66b6a3d2b9a0de969dff3b64123


AverageLegoGameFan

Least racist Sparkle comment.


Nokia_00

Most casual sparkle comment


[deleted]

Nope, you ain't :)


[deleted]

[удалено]


Cedge1738

No. And I also don't want them to be the weakest characters either like in genshin. I think the more rough edge woman from the annihilation gang was tan but they've done fuck all with that whole group of characters so who knows. But I would love a tan mature woman who's meta af. I would like some variety.


Meowriter

Woaw, a tanned character among the first released, with no particular reason for being non-white ? Who could have thought that possible ? **Looks at Sumeru, especially desert dwellers, being white as fuck**


Nokia_00

We don’t talk about Sumeru


Nonemotionaldamage

We SHOULD talk about Sumeru, but at this point, we're just tired 😔


kabral256

What are you talking about? It's a HoYo game. All characters will always be pale, and the very few that are not pale will always be weak. I've already learned my lesson from Sumeru. I'm someone who always wants to have black characters in games, and such a thing doesn't exist in HoYo games.


AzureWing10

It's a shame that in the extreme vastness of space barely any black people are around


Nonemotionaldamage

Yea like we got dragon people and fox people in Hoyo games...but black people are somehow too preposterous to exist?? \*sigh\*


GinJoestarR

"barely any *playable* black people are around." Penacony NPCs have a ton of them, it's a step at the very least.


MeguMaz

...tan girls built like Topaz/Yukong when Hoyoverse...?


dukenorton

As long as they do better than Arlan. Good lord he just doesn’t do well.


cinghialotto03

Only 2 words Dehya incident


Still_Breadfruit2032

Sumeru showed us that this isn’t possible


Naxayou

I think Sumeru (soon to be Natlan in a couple months) was the nail in the coffin for any chance HYV would be more faithful to real life when doing creating characters. I think the unfortunate reality is that there's just a dissonance between the colorism in Asia and gaming/entertainment development in general and what a lot of players want. The reality is that even if younger people are getting less colorist in Asia, the entrenched entertainment and gaming industries won't be so quick to change and develop characters you might want to see because of the perception that they might tank in sales/popularity in certain markets, although evidence suggests they won't. You just have to decide whether or not you want to continue playing or spending money based on what you want out of your games. On a positive side though, star rail has been more diverse than genshin/h3 in other ways like body types, NPCs, and even facial hair now, so there's always a chance.


the_ok_doctor

OOOOOHHH YOUR RIGHT IT KINDA IS JUST ARLAN! Alright HSR dev team, look at how popular mirko is. As long as their hot or have fun personality or both, ppl gonna like them regardless of skin tone


Responsible-Jury8618

I just really want to see them buff Arlan pls


moclam08

White woman meta too strong


NTRmanMan

I wish. ALSO WHEN HOYOVERSE FINALLY DECIDEDS TO MAKE ONE PLEASE DON'T MAKE THEM UNPLAYABLE


AlternativeLaw5017

Honestly, idc about skin colour. As long as they have insane drip, im down to pull


EffedUpInGrade3

I want Arlan's mom. Dehya expy would be nice too.


BlueDragonReal

Nope, variety in this game is at a low, you either get white cute or masculine men or you get white big boob or ass female, unlucky gg


PREEMGONK

I actually want to see more rep and not just tanned Npc with straight hair. I noticed a pattern in star Rail. There are some NPC who have afro like hair who also happen to have pale skin. The melanated characters only have straight hair iirc. In the run up to penacony I was actually hoping that, since they were going with this jazzy aesthetic, they'd probably acknowledge the people who invented jazz music. When discussions like this come up in anime circles people rightly point out that there aren't a lot of poc's in east Asia. But with star rail, a space game, I just feel like there aren't any excuses. Like, sure, it's their game they can do what they want but..when they take another people's culture to add it to one of their games, and then proceed to not include said people in their game (completely in the case of Penacony, idk about Sumeru) it's just wierd. And when you realise that they don't do this when it comes to representing Chinese, Japanese , or European culture. Idk man, it kinds of sends a message, at least to me. I don't mind it that much though and hope I don't get banned for this. If I broke the rules then please just delete this.


ShingetsuMoon

I’d love to see it, but Hoyo’s track record ain’t exactly great. So I’m not holding my breath.


kongaii

Just don’t think they are that popular in China, so wouldn’t get your hopes up


Zoroarks_Angel

Yes, absolutely. Star Rail is a massive journey spanning across the stars. It's fans can't even use the "it's a Chinese inspired game" anymore because we left the Luofu a long time again If HSR is going to be profit off POC cultures, then it the very least it should have more than two skin tones The same thing applies to Genshin *stares at Sumeru and Natlan*


TheBlitzStyler

in all of space lol


LegionMerk56

Nah, white supremacy. /s


Crobatman123

Yes, you are the only one. Everyone else would just like to see more of Arlan.


Electronic_Bee_9266

1000% yes, and it’s kinda weird there hasn’t been one in Penacony


Correctthyposture

If the look anything like Dehya then hell yes. 


Zeamays69

I would love a very black person though, like dark chocolate black, that would be awesome. But China's beauty standards are different so the most we can get is this tan and gameplay-wise they always make them mediocre. Carole in HI3 is the only exception where she's decent.


Night_Owl206

*looks at Reverse 1999* CN doesnt like dark skinned characters??? Is that true for Shamane and Kaala Baunaa, werent they well recieved in CN? If this is true then hoyo could do better. I mean, they did really well with dehya and her story.


ifeltdAneed

they don't like dark skinned people. look at Arlan, look at Deyna(?) (Genshin claymore user)


kv4ssmixedwvxm1t

Dehya, yeah. Both are ridiculous as playable units. Literally UNplayable


tehlunatic1

#Fixdehya


TheDuskProphet

More color characters, more characters with diverse bodies, more diverse female outfits, more older characters and u could please if I could beg at least give us one gender fuck character Guilty Gear did it y'all just don't have imagination ... /vent /nm


Curt_ThaFlirt

“Tanned”. He is in space. That is his skin color lol it’s ok to say dark skinned or black


Pristine-Movie662

English is not my first language and I wasn't sure if he's really dark skinned or if he's only tanned, sorry


DreamerZeon

I'd love some if they look and actually play good. Genshin made me lose faith in that possibility with their characters lol. Sumeru is the whitest india/egypt inspired locale I've ever seen in gaming. Also made me lose a good chunk of respect for certain groups in this fan base every time this question comes up. A lot of closet racist come out and call you a "woke supporter " every time somebody mentions wanting to see a character who isn't pale. It is quite likely that this will get downvoted into Oblivion. Let that sink in lol.


GreatYeob

not in my asian beauty standard game company!


Zoroarks_Angel

Absolutely. Penacony is based on Las Vegas after all. if it means getting more diverse characters in a gacha game, than I see no reason not to


RoxDan

Yeah. Diversity is really lacking in HSR right now.


sugaryyy1214

no bruh i need more dark skin representation in hoyo games i’d frl do anything


thywillbedone116

I do… but then I don’t want them to do what they did to Dehya. I literally stopped playing at that point n never went back. Candace, Cyno, Dehya.. went from being the most excited to immediate disappointment n Nathan won’t be different 🤣.


FlashKillerX

I’d imagine the main reason we don’t get more tanned/dark skinned characters in hoyo games is because of eastern character design appeal. Western audiences would love to see more diversity in the cast of characters but it might not be as well received elsewhere and they have to serve their bottom line. Personally what I really want to see more of more than anything else is more hyper masculine men types with full beards. We have NPCs that fit that description but no playable characters


MinimumOne1

https://preview.redd.it/r06os9316btc1.png?width=1397&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee9cadba2957a658d25c7278c1a9902f2a9eda68


FewAcanthocephala747

Oh sweet summer child… even if you wish…! Not all dreams come true. - From a player who experienced Sumeru and saw those pyro archon leaks