Over a dozen Genshin Impact voice actors lay into developer HoYoverse for more inexplicably "pale" characters after Natlan reveal: "You still got time to fix it"

gamesradar.com:

The recent reveal of Genshin Impact's next major region, Natlan, and nine of its (seemingly playable) characters has rekindled criticism of developer HoYoverse's penchant for researching and borrowing from real countries, from Sumeru's take on the Middle East to Natlan's riff on what strongly seem to be African and Latin American elements, but filling its renditions almost exclusively with white or white-passing people. Well over a dozen of Genshin Impact's English voice actors have now joined countless fans calling for Natlan to feature skin tones that match the people of the countries the region is based on. 

As Eurogamer reported, Valeria Rodríguez, the English voice of Sucrose, was among the first Genshin voice actors to criticize Natlan's handling of real people and their culture. 

"If you’re going to use real-world deities, respect them," she said in a tweet. "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 and show some cultural appreciation."

Addressing replies from folks saying they would avoid Genshin's English voiceover in protest of such comments, Rodríguez later affirmed "I’m not deleting my tweets either. Seeing the huge response, both hateful and positive, means that I struck a chord. I’m done being silent. It’s 2024. We can all do better."

Rodríguez pointed to the Yoruba deity Ọlọrun, who was seemingly the inspiration for Natlan's wolf boy Ororon, and how the god was accurately represented with dark skin in mythological MOBA Smite, whereas Ororon is another pale male. "This is unforgivable," she said. "Look at what a sick job Smite did with their own interpretation!!! It's not hard!!!" At the time of writing, this post alone has upwards of 2.7 million impressions according to Twitter's analytics. 

Ọlọrun Is the supreme Yoruba deity. You could find that with a quick Google search, even. This is unforgivable. Look at