In the wake of Honkai: Star Rail’s success, Genshin Impact has taken a backseat to let Hoyoverse’s newest game thrive. You’ll have noticed if you played both games that Genshin really hasn’t had much content going on regarding story or major character banners, but that all changed rather quickly in these last few weeks. What started out as a few characters slipping through the cracks turned into an avalanche of characters, concept art, Fontaine references, and a huge chunk of the lineup going into 4.0.
Images for said leaks will not be provided given Hoyoverse’s last PR Statement regarding taking leaked content more seriously.
Fontaine Characters and a Mummy Girl from Sumeru Starting Leaks
During Genshin Impact’s drought, we started to see the first trickles of rain by way of the Fontaine Characters said to release. What we originally thought was going to be Varka from Mondstadt turned out to actually be Wriothesley, an officer said to work within Fontaine. There isn’t much to be known about the lore of Fontaine, but we do know there will be a police commission of sorts and that’s where this character as well as another female will be.
Oh my gosh, but have you seen her though? Her model is super adorable and I love her hair, she gives off such punk vibes so I’m super excited to see how she’s voiced and portrayed! It’s been a while since I’ve been hyped about a four-star female from Genshin Impact, but I am very ecstatic about this one. Given her uniform and design, she’s said to also be working in the same police commission as the former male model. It’ll be interesting to see what mystery we’ll be working to uncover when in the country of Fontaine alongside these two. Or perhaps we’ll be arrested.. Again.
Our last character is a mummy girl character who is probably going to be from Sumeru more so than Fontaine. Given all of the Egypt vibes Sumeru has been vibing with, it was only a matter of time before we got a mummy character. I do adore many facets of her design… but my problem with all of the Sumeru characters are going to be WHERE IS THE MELANIN?! I haven’t made this all that public, but I have and will continue to be FURIOUS with Hoyoverse’s lack of care when designing these characters. An article for another time, but there is so much potential to be had. Why is she this light?? And if she’s a mummy, then why not go the extra mile and just make her gray? Make her dead. Unalive her, Hoyoverse, you’ve done it before. This skin tone isn’t indicative of a dark tone then lightened to indicate her death, it’s just the oddest choice of a color to use. Just make her gray. Make her gray, she’s a zombie—. They have to remove the blood in order to mummify, Mihoyo!
Do you ever refer to Hoyoverse as Mihoyo? It feels like using a child’s full name to let them know they are in trouble.
Insane Leaks from Hoyoverse’s Concept Art for Genshin Impact
The next sprout of leaks that slipped past Hoyoverse headquarters were actually files and collections of concept art for multiple Fontaine characters as well as their models to be placed inside the game and inspiration for the world-building in Fontaine. These came as quite a bit of a surprise. They were released so suddenly and viciously took the internet by storm. Not because there were jokes about more fired employees, but frustration at some of the great designs for characters that were vetoed in favor of other designs.
It’s much easier to include details when art is in 2D, but when it comes to making the model, those details can get quite complicated. Ask any Genshin artist having to recreate their favorite characters back into 2D form, they certainly don’t make it easy. Genshin Impact characters are notorious for their details and generally have beautiful physics and sounds. The way their hair and clothes can move when they run, not to mention the way their charms and chains can jingle in time with their movement. Heck, Nahida has bell chimes if you listen to her closely enough.
But this wasn’t the only issue people had. Seeing how character concepts changed from when they were first prompted to how they were then changed has people once again raising their eyebrows at Hoyoverse.
When your Police commissioner turns out to have an eyepatch and darker skin then you opt out for lighter tones, it’s going to anger a few people. Especially when Wriorthesley’s first few drafts looked so much better. Kaeya’s skin certainly had some flare to it, but it would have been absolutely miserable to pull off in the game. What came from the concept arts wasn’t astonishment or excitement for Fontaine but rather a big collective sigh at what we could have had instead.
Related: New Mystery Character Revealed in Honkai: Star Rail’s Latest YouTube Trailer
Fontaine Leaks for 4.0-4.5 Upcoming Character Banners in Genshin Impact
The last of these leaks have come as an even bigger surprise. Not too long after Fontaine was revealed in Hoyoverse’s latest Streaming Preview for 3.8, the Genshin community has been sharing what looks to be the entirety of 4.0-4.5’s character banner roster. Ending with a rather terrifying theory that we could see as many as Three Limited-Time Character Event banners during one-half of a single patch.
Now, some of these characters we could have foreseen based on leaks we’ve already seen in the past, but others have only alluded to potentially becoming characters such as Madam Ping and Arlecchino. Honestly, where did they even come up with some of these characters… Especially given story spoilers made about Arlecchino…
This latest bit of news is said to be incredibly unreliable since it is still so new and just involves so many characters that we cannot be too sure about. I wouldn’t get too excited about the people you see on this list, but perhaps we can play a game of bingo to see just how many of these actually come true!
Related: Massive Fountaine Leaks for Genshin Impact Following the Leaker Hunt Decree
It is insane to see so many leaks continue to thwart Hoyoverse to this day after two years of the company trying to reign them in only to no avail. However, not with their own attempts… Hoyoverse has been known to have its own little Leaker Hunt Decree and has gone after popular content creators in the past. Creators like Ubatcha have had to go radio silent before swearing off leaks altogether after not only being served legal documents but being hunted through Discord by the Cognosphere company. We likely won’t hear the last of this after all these leaks, especially from Hoyoverse so stay tuned for the next bit of news since the company has recently come out with their own public announcement…
