Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd developer miHoYo issued an official statement on April 22, apologizing and cancelling the bunny girl anniversary events in the Global version of Honkai, but what actually happened?
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Honkai Impact 3rd – third anniversary event explained
On March 28, 2021, miHoYo, during a livestream, published a special video featuring several characters of Honkai Impact 3rd dancing in bunny girl outfits. It was similar to a typical Miku Miku Dance video, but in much higher quality. Two official artworks were even made for the occasion:
The video celebrated the 3rd anniversary of the Global version of Honkai Impact 3rd. A special anniversary song, Brilliant Bright, was even made for the occasion through a collab with Myth & Roid. A Japanese band known for several anime opening and ending themes. Most notably for a lot of popular isekai shows like Re:zero and Overlord. Overall, you could tell miHoYo put a lot of effort into that anniversary video.
The Brilliant Bright bunny girl video was later uploaded to YouTube, but that’s when trouble started, with backlash coming from a sizable portion of the Honkai Chinese player base. This backlash ultimately ended with the Bunny Girl video being removed from YouTube (the one below is a reupload). And the anniversary events of the Global server were canceled.
Why did the Chinese Honkai fandom get so angry?
As pointed out by Reddit user Amped-Up-Archos: part of the Chinese player base got jealous they were not getting the same events as in Global. You can find a few tweets from the Japanese Honkai players confirming this as well.
The second tweet below explains, in summary: “The biggest reason why Chinese fans are angry right now is the bunny girl event not coming to the Chinese version. Some are also claiming the bunny girl video had the girls acting out of character”.
あーいま見てみたけど中国で荒ってる1番の原因は
バニーガール？のイベントは中国鯖では開催されてないのと、MMDのキャラ設定が崩壊してることだね— めちゃん
WR8無課金真君 (@mechan_genshin) April 2, 2021
These angry fans started review bombing Honkai on Bilibili, and flooded miHoYo with complaints, sometimes even sending threats. Overall, the situation was even more hateful than the Zhongli controversy in Genshin Impact. Which ultimately led to the character getting a huge buff.
Moreover, it’s also important to note the Chinese version of Honkai actually already got exclusive events in the past. These never came around in the Global version, emphasizing the hypocrisy of the complaints.
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Why are the Global Honkai players dissatisfied?
Following this backlash, miHoYo ended up canceling the anniversary events in the Global Version. The bunny girl video was also removed from YouTube. And on April 22, miHoYo apologized to both the Chinese and Global players.
As an apology, both the Global version and the Chinese version of Honkai will be distributing free gacha rolls to their players. However, the Chinese server will be sending the equivalent of 2800 Crystals / 10 rolls to all players. Meanwhile Global server players will only get 500 Crystals.
Not only Global players have unjustly lost their events, they’re not getting as much compensation as well. Pouring more oil on the fire.
Lastly, the situation is even more ridiculous when taking into account what recently happened in China. With the Chinese versions of games like Azur Lane and Girls’ Frontline getting censored by the CCP. It’s very likely the bunny girl event couldn’t have released in the Chinese version of Honkai anyways.
Honkai Impact 3rd Team’s statement and apology
Personally speaking, I also believe it’s important to note the statement can be misleading. It states that “The bunny girl designs and dance were out of character and are inappropriate”.
Some could end up thinking that miHoYo was pressurized into censorship. Except that wouldn’t make sense seeing Honkai already has tons of sexy costumes in the first place. To me, it seems as if the real reason, the backlash from toxic Chinese players, has been hidden.
Moreover, the “out of character” part seems to be an apology to what I’d call “purity otaku”. As some of the Chinese players complained that their waifu was dancing in a skimpy outfit for someone else than themselves.
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Personally speaking, I believe miHoYo isn’t necessarily prioritizing Chinese players when it comes to Genshin Impact. However, it definitely did in this situation with Honkai. Ultimately acquiescing to the unreasonable demands of a vocal and toxic part of the Chinese player base. It’s sad to see all the work put in the bunny girl video and anniversary events go to waste.
The post Genshin Devs miHoYo and Honkai Impact 3rd Bunny Girl Video Controversy – Why Fans Are Angry? by Iyane Agossah appeared first on DualShockers.