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It’s not the first time HoYoverse has had problems with censorship issues. Whether it’s dealing with changing their character designs to less revealing ones or adding strange filters. Whatever the case, there is a considerable discrepancy between the HoYoverse gacha’s rating and the content they create, so sometimes it doesn’t make sense when censorship occurs. Recently, with Zenless Zone Zero 1.4, many lost their minds when they realized that by getting too close to their characters, they had the same censorship as Genshin Impact, making them invisible.
Zenless Zone Zero Censorship Already Has a Solution
The censorship in the Agents that appeared in Zenless Zone Zero 1.4, and for which so many rage posts against HoYoverse appeared, was only a bug. The company has already fixed the issue, and as an apology, they announced that they will send Polychrome x300 to the in-game email. Proxies who get Inter-Knot Lv. 4 before December 19 will be eligible for this compensation. As this is a “more mature” game, ZZZ fans have nothing to worry about. As always, the gamers will still enjoy the beautiful designs of their waifus and husbandos.
However, even if this was only a mistake in ZZZ, some of us can’t forget the censorship to which the rest of their games are subjected. Let’s remember the well-known case of Genshin Impact, where they changed the skins of Mona, Amber, Jean, and Rosaria. Fortunately, this was due to problems with the country where HoYoverse is located. Still, the characters of Genshin Impact become transparent at certain angles, or if they are swimming, they will get a bubble to blur certain parts of them. Another example of the ridiculousness in their censorship is with characters who had their belly buttons or shoulder blade lines erased.
Too Young for a Belly Button, But Not to Give Money
This is not about whether censorship as such is right or wrong; everyone has their own way of interpreting it: this is about how selective it can be. Genshin Impact, for example, is rated +12, apparently enough to erase Shenhe’s navel despite having a semi-dark mesh covering that part. However, they don’t hide the Shogun’s cleavage; other characters wear crop tops, and Fischl has a very short outfit. In addition, several models in the games have jiggle physics, and some of their trailers are more suggestive, as was the case with Honkai Star Rail‘s Jade demo.
This is without considering that although these games are for teenagers to play, they have gacha mechanics, and the banners are the biggest revenue source for HoYoverse. A younger demographic doesn’t have as much access to money, and it is easier for an adult to afford it. So, it seems an important step for the company to establish exactly which audience their games appeal to. By trying to stay out of these controversies, HoYoverse seems to attract more discussions, like the recent case where users wanted to censor Burnice due to her “brain rot” demo.
